BRIEF.
Stories about objects:
Photograph a series of objects in different scenarios and put them into a sequence that tells a story. Consider objects that belong together (for example tea cups and spoons) or objects that would not normally relate to ecah other. You could also look at objects that are the same but have different forms or purposes depending on their context (for example chairs). Which objects will you choose and how will you compose them in such a way as to form a narrative?
Photograph a series of objects in different scenarios and put them into a sequence that tells a story. Consider objects that belong together (for example tea cups and spoons) or objects that would not normally relate to ecah other. You could also look at objects that are the same but have different forms or purposes depending on their context (for example chairs). Which objects will you choose and how will you compose them in such a way as to form a narrative?
A photographer named Wendel White created a project named 'Manifest'. This project showed many photographs of historical objects that told the story of oppression face by the African-Americans. Many objects were photographed including a Ku Klux Klan hood, the Confederate flag and bibles. When looking through these photos you can really see two sides of the story, you see the African American side and the White American side. Some objects were very strange, for example the slave collar because it looks a lot smaller than it should be, same with the flag. The reason it looks so small compared to what it actually looks like is because the photographer Wendel White used an effect called Tilt Shift.
This book is a normal sized A5 bible owned by a former slave; Ishmael Armour. But because of the Tilt Shift effect it makes the bible look very very tiny compared to how a normal bible should look.
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This Confederate flag belongs to the Cape May Museum in New Jersey, because of the Tilt Shift effect, this flag also looks very small compared to how big it should look.
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What I really like about these objects is it tells a story without an actual story behind it. For example the Confederate flag could have been owned by someone in one state miles away from where the slave was who owned the bible. The objects don't link up to a narrow story but it does tell the story about African Americans and the slave trade back in the early 1800's. If I was to do something like this I would really need to do some research on historical objects and where and if I can take photographs of them. If I was to do this type of photography I would either base it on the Battle of Hastings or another well known battle or war near me.
Tilt shift.
Tilt shift is an effect used to make full sized objects, buildings or people look miniature. The reason it is called tilt shift is because you can buy a Lens called a 'Tilt Shift Lens' that changes the point of focus on the camera to create this miniature looking effect. You don't have to buy the lens becuse you can do this effect very easily in post production, using Photoshop, Premier Pro (if its a time-lapse/video) or even After Effects. Best way to do this effect is by taking a photograph in full focus, keep in mind this effect doesn't work very well unless you are above/higher than the point of focus, you need to make it look like they are miniature so you need to look bigger, thats why you need to be higher and at a fair distance to the object. Then in Photoshop you use a simple blur effect called 'Tilt-shift', in other softwares it may be called 'Focus' or you may have to use a 'Gaussian Blur' and mask out the blur effect to create a focus point.
Cystal ball.
Many people have used Crystal balls in their photographs but it was very hard to find a photographer that did it as a project, but one photographer I found was Chris Taylor.
Chris Taylor has created some amazing pieces of work with the Crystal Ball, he has used it perfectly to capture a different point of view using one photo. And thats what the crystal ball does, it captures a different point of view, with a different field of view and flips the image completely.
Thats what I love about the Crystal ball, you can photograph it with either a Macro or a big lens so that the background is blurred and the content within the ball is perfectly clear, this can give a great effect and makes the viewer focus on the ball a lot more.
Chris Taylor has created some amazing pieces of work with the Crystal Ball, he has used it perfectly to capture a different point of view using one photo. And thats what the crystal ball does, it captures a different point of view, with a different field of view and flips the image completely.
Thats what I love about the Crystal ball, you can photograph it with either a Macro or a big lens so that the background is blurred and the content within the ball is perfectly clear, this can give a great effect and makes the viewer focus on the ball a lot more.
Taking photos of the coast is a perfect way to use the Crystal ball because it has the ocean line in the distance. And because everything flips inside the crystal ball it creates this awesome effect where the line is perfectly straight but the content above and below (sky and grass) get flipped except for the ocean line.
This photo is fairly similar to the last one, excpet this one doesn't feel like the stones are inside the crystal ball, this one feels more like a refraction. I do like the background a lot in this photo, because it looks very symetric and the two pieces of wood holding the ball gives the photo a bordered look.
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What I love about this photo is the pebbles inside the cyrstal ball. Instead of it looking like a refraction of the pebbles it actually looks like there are pebbles inside the crystal ball. And with the wood in the background it makes the pebbles stand out a lot more, and the refraction doesn't get camouflage.
This is my favourite photo out of all the photos he has taken, even though it isn't of pebbles or the sea, it still has that sea side feel to it and still has the narrative behind it. Because the rope is very close/touching the crystal ball, it messes with the field of view a bit and gives this chromatic abberation effect around the ball.
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I singled this one out a bit because it doesn't follow the same narrative as the last pictures, this one seemed to have been singled out. But this photo has a really nice effect, the tree gives the image a lot of detail because of how many branches there are. The branches also links with the hand a lot, it looks a lot like the tree is imitating his hand. The Bokeh effect has been used nicely as well, he hasn't used too much to make the background stand out, but he used enough to make the background have enough detail. If it was a normal blur the small branches and twigs would have blended with the sky making the background more blue than brown.