DPP Assignment 2: Seeing Like Your Camera: Planning

The title for Assignment 2 is Seeing Like Your Camera and requires a collection of high-contrast images shot in jpg and presented without post production.  The intention of the assignment seems to be to have the camera operator create as close to perfect exposures as possible in-camera under high contrast lighting conditions.  

The assignment is in two parts.  Part one requires shooting three images in four situations (twelve images in all).  Part two requires rethinking one set and reshooting it to reduce contrast. Total images in the assignment are thus fifteen.  

While not required, my plan has been to shoot thematically.  For the past few months I have frequently returned to images of poles - such as light posts and street signs - that punctuate the urban landscape like naked trees.  This has been done as part of my SZR project, documenting the few blocks around my residence on Sheikh Zayed Road, the city’s most well-known thoroughfare, the one lined with skyscrapers, including the world’s tallest, the Burj Khalifah.  My project has been the antithesis of the glamour and glitz as typically presented in travel and tourism images.  I see myself working more in the tradition of Atget, capturing everyday life in my little corner of the city in as realistic and unaffected manner as possible.  My intention is not to sell the city or make it attractive, but simply to record what I live and what I see.  

As for poles, I don’t quite know where the idea originated, but a review of my SZR images reveals an early interest in the concept of verticality as expressed in street signs, advertising, and metal rods. These three images from June 2013 show an interest in capturing collections of poles.

Exercise 15: Horizontal and Vertical Lines

Having practiced points, we move on to lines.  The brief is to produce four images each (horizontal and vertical) in which the predominant feature is line, or as Freeman says, in which the content is subordinate to the line.

Freeman asks that we mix it up and not take too many photos of the same kind.  The challenge for me was finding subjects that were not buildings.  Living in a city of high rises, these kinds of lines predominate.

Exercise 11: Vertical and Horizontal Frames, Part 2

I never expected to spend so much time on this exercise.  It seemed straightforward enough.  Find a place to photograph to which you could return.  Shoot the subject in vertical, examine the photos, then return and shoot in horizontal.   The purpose here was to examine shooting habits, to see whether shooting vertical might be equally as rewarding, and to discover how frame orientation may influence shooting choices.

An initial post on the exercise with a bit of background on the subject matter that can be found here.

Exercise 11: Vertical and Horizontal Frames

It's been too long since I last posted any photos.  I've been shooting and images have been accumulating while trying to sort out how to use Lightroom, as well as iPad.  You can read about the latter here.

I returned to the UAE in late August and began a new life in Dubai.  Previously I lived in a rural area about 100km north.  As I'm in new surroundings, one of my photographic projects has been to record images of my surroundings for friends and relatives in far away places.  That fit in nicely with the most recent exercise.