Task 1

Different Types of locations

There are many different types of locations, for example there is street photography (Joel Meyerowitz and Robert Frank) this type of specialist location can be very challenging and difficult to plan. This makes it very difficult to do on a set day, generally street photography should be done on a busy day like a weekend during peak times (morning, lunch break and rush hour) the weather can heavily influence street photography. When the weather is nice, there is better lighting and generally more people out, whereas if the weather is miserable it affects the lighting and can effect the amount of people that are out and about.

Comparison with landscape

Shooting street differed hugely from shooting, for example, landscape. They are different because with landscape photography you can really slow down and take your time with the shot and really take your time composing the shot and you can be a lot more flexible with your camera settings, using slower shutter speeds, smaller apertures, lower iso's to generally get a cleaner, sharper image. With street photography you're constantly on your feet, moving around and adjusting camera settings and finding people or objects to photograph.
     With street photography you're limited to what shutter speed you need to be at, you need to be at around 1/125 to really freeze and capture what's going on, the rest of the settings are flexible, but there are limitations. You generally don't want a wide open because that can lead to out of focus shots due to the subjects moving after you've focused.
     The lighting in landscape is whatever you desire really, you can shoot during the day, dawn, dusk, twilight or even night time because you're really flexible with what your camera settings are, on the other side street photography you're limited by your surroundings. If it's dark or even overcast could totally effect your images. In landscape photography one of the biggest things you have to worry about is where you decide to shoot, is it safe? Is it legal? How are you going to get there? These are just a few questions when considering shooting landscapes.
     Shooting street on the other hand also has it's health and safety limitations, you don't know how someone is going to react to having their picture taken, it's completely random. Also you often have issues with security or shooting certain things. You also have to know your rights as a photographer so you don't get in trouble with the police. Photographing people can be difficult again as most people aren't really comfortable with someone just taking pictures of them in the street and I personally have had quite odd looks after taking an image of them. Luckily I haven't had much when it comes to confrontations and personally would like to keep it that way.

Health and Safety, what's public and what's private?

With shooting on public land you have rights to take images of whatever is there. You can stand on public ground and shoot onto private land (with some limitations) whereas you cannot shoot on private land without permission of the land owner.


The Street- 
Joel Meyerowitz and Robert Frank

Joel Meyerowitz is a New York based street photographer, his work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions and has sold over 150,000 prints.

Here is a link to one of his video's on framing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xumo7_JUeMo

I really like his work, as a street photographer you have to capture very "in the moment" images and i think he does this very well especially when it comes to framing. Linked to his video above he talks about how he doesn't shoot objective subjects. He shoots with both his eyes, one eye through the viewfinder and one eye looking outwards onto the street. He likes his subjects to coexist with each other unknowingly and to show that "we are all connected" (again referring to his video)

This image of the girl I think is great, the use of the windows as a form of dual framing to individualise the two in the image is fantastic. It shows that even though the two know each other (the man in black appearing to be some form of driver offering a hand) but the little girl not wanting to go anywhere so she's putting herself away from him and Joel frames her using the window.





Robert Frank

A Swedish born photographer Frank migrated to America and pursued his photography, he did this for some years before abandoning photography to start his film career for a few years before returning to photography.


Here is a brief video of the curator of his Americans exhibition talking about a few of his images. I think this is very insightful of his book and his photography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHtRZBDOgag

 I think this image is fantastic, it's a contrasting image in what the subjects in the image are. The image is a very foggy, misty day with low visibility and it's night time or evening too. The fact he chose to shoot the street with the 'look' written on the floor is the decisive moment, he most likely didn't plan on doing that before he saw the sign on the floor and that's what makes the image what it is.

This image is one of his more iconic images. This is infact probably one of his most well known image, it depicts a young girl (10 or 11) with a cigarette in her hand, she's not even smoking the cigarette nor is it lit, it's just a hugely controversial image and that's why it's well known. I really like this image again for the huge contrasts in subjects. the children in the image resembles pure innocence to everything and the cigarette almost corrupts the whole meaning of the image and that makes is great to me.

 This image is amazing in my opinion, in what looks like New York or another busy city Frank manages to capture a woman in the back of a cab with motion blur in the background and the subject is crisp and in focus and generally well shot. I believe this is a great image and shows that he has a lot of talent along with an eye for great images.

This is another image with large amounts of contrast. The image is of someone who is dressed in a very western American manner with a typical cowboy/rodeo outfit in the middle of a city, you'd expect to see this style of clothing in a small town with a ranch and a saloon but looks out of place in the middle of a city and again shows he has an eye for capturing these odd moments.















Public Transport

Preston Bus Station

Craig Atkinson is a UK based street photographer who has done a lot of work in Preston and at the Preston Bus station. His work consists mainly of interesting looking people and architecture.

 I like this shot because I think it represents the place best, during busy hours it is constantly filled with people of all different ages, ethnicity's and gender. It's a very diverse place with people coming in from all over Lancashire and even England. For this reason I like this picture, the composition of the image is good too as you have all these lines that take you to the back of the image and then you look at each face coming back to the front. This is a very well done shot.

Although it is the same place it's a totally different image. The picture is very quiet and simple but the shadows from outside shining onto the wall looks really nice, again with the lines in the image drawing your attention to certain subjects in the image.










The Seaside

Simon Roberts is another UK based photographer who travelled England and Wales to photograph the Piers of England and Wales for The Times. He visited the likes of Blackpool to Brighton and even Aberystwyth.

 I really like this image, a lot of it is because of how empty the image is and how it's shot while it's foggy/misty. It's good that the image isn't shot while it's sunny as it shows another perspective to the pier and that it's not always sunny at the seaside. The composition in this image is also another strong aspect of the image with the guide lines that you follow to the building in the distance.

  Similarly with the image above this one is shot while it isn't so sunny, I think I prefer the gloomy images of the pier as they almost look abandoned and desolate. Especially this shot, it's of an amusement ground in Blackpool and it looks totally empty. I really like his work as it gives a view into the piers around the UK that not everybody can go visit or even see.