Personal project

For this project, I thought of some ideas and then make a photography project from them. The theme was exploration and discovery so I wanted to explore a new type of photography so I came up with my first idea. My First idea was to put small objects onto the lens of the camera and then take a photo of where that photo came from, for example a leaf from a tree. I did this experiment to see what would happen. I started off in my garden where I found a small plant with lots of leaves. So I took a leaf off from the plant and dabbed in into water. I did this so that it would stick to the lens of my camera. I then stuck the leaf to the lens and took a photo of the plant that I had taken the leaf from. I focused the camera on to the plant so that the leaf would be blurred. Here are the photos I took.

 From doing this I found out that it was hard to focus on the plant so I had to focus it manually. This was hard because I had to find the right focus so my pictures showed the plant wasn't in focus and neither was the leaf. Because of this I had to think of how I could focus on the plant and blur the leaf. I then came up with the idea to focus automatically on the plant by not putting the leaf on the lens. I would then stick the leaf onto the lens after I had focused on the plant.  I liked these pictures and so I found another plant in my garden and did the same thing with its leaves.

 This picture was taken with the zoom out as far as it could goo.

This photo was taken with the zoom in the middle.

This photo was taken fully zoomed.

After I had taken these photos, I found out that if I zoomed in then the plant will stay in the same place but most of it would be cut out so only part of it was showing. 

The same plant also had flowers on it and so I took a petal from the flower, dabbed one side in water and stuck it onto the lens of my camera. Here are the photos I took.

When I was taking these photos, I found it hard to point the camera at the flower without the petal getting in the way. I overcame this by taking lots of photos with the flower in different places.To see which place would work best. From doing this I learnt not to stick the small object in the middle of the lens.

I liked this project and I liked exploring what would happen with different things on the lens and different places to shoot. I also liked the fact that this had never been done before and the risk taking of it because I didn't know if this would make a good final outcome. So I had to work without fear of failure and carry on experimenting with this idea.

In this photo and some other photos that I took, the object in front of the lens couldn't be seen because I was zoomed in too much. This meant that the object would be so blurred that it couldn't be seen. I twas also blurred because the berries were too far away and so it had to focus on a far away object meaning close ones would be really blurred.

Before I took this photo, I had found a leaf with a small cut in it which made the shape of a semi circle. I thought that this would be a good leaf to use because I could fit the plants which it had come from inside the semi circle. However, this was harder than I thought because it was hard to position the leaf and the camera to get the best shot.

I like this photo because, using the two leaves, I could put the tree into the centre of the image and the leaves would make the boundary  for the tree.

I like the photo below to the left because it has a nice shape to it.

In this photo, I tried to make the leaf cover the top of the trees so you could see the bottom. What happened was I pointed the camera towards the sun to see what effect the blur would have on the photo. It made the blur look like sun rays coming down onto the trees.

I then extended the project further by coming up with new ideas. Another new idea is to cut out shapes using white cardboard and stick them onto the lens of the camera and see if the shapes are still clearly visible.

The first shape I used was a circle, this is because I wanted to put something in the middle of it so it would be the main point of attention. I also did the circle because I wanted to see how the circle would be effected because it is the same shape as the lens.

I then tried to see if words could be seen on the lens so I cut out the word Hi.

This is a cut out of a person.

This is a cut out of a fire. I did this because I wanted to put the main points of focus in between the wavy lines and I also wanted to see how the colours would effect the image.

To get this image, I fully zoomed in with my camera and so the colours would be blurred. This gave the image an abnormality to it because the image has a wavy pattern on it the picture.

My next idea was to take a photo through mist on a window. 

Lots of mist had gathered on my window and so I took a photo of some plants through the window.

Half an hour later, some of the mist had cleared up a bit and so I took another picture of the same plant.

This is a photo of the same plant when the mist had cleared.

I then took a photo through a different window which I had made misty by breathing on it. This made the picture dark and blurry.

My next idea was to take a photo by looking through a glass. I wanted to see how this would effect the image taken and how the straight lines were distorted.

 The bottom of the glass had bumps at the bottom of it and so the lines get more wavy where the bumps are.

 With the water in, the lines are placed differently because the line should be in the middle of the glass but it is way above it.

The lines get more wavy going into the middle of the glass.

I then added water and found out that if I tipped the glass the lines would follow the water.

All of these ideas didn't come to a final piece and so I thought if I could put all of these elements together I could create a series of photos that would make my final piece.

The idea was to put the small objects into a glass and then take a photo. I was experimenting how this idea would effect the photo.

Finally, I went took my camera and my glass and went for a walk with my dog around the park that is near me. I had the idea to go for a walk and any small objects that I would find, I would put them into the glass and take a photo of something in the park. 

Firstly, I found a bottle lid, a small plastic square thing and lots of small bits of paper. So I put them all into the glass and took a photo of a bench that was near to where I had found all the objects inside the glass.

Next, I tried to make themes so for this picture, I gathered together a small pine cone, a stick and a leaf. I then put all of them into the glass and took a photo of a tree which had been cut and had lots of logs beside it.

 I then found some feathers so I put them into the glass, found a tree with a birds nest in it and took a photo.

My next theme was my dog. He kept playing with these objects which were two different pine cones and some leaves that looked like needles. So I put them altogether into my glass and took a photo of Bongo (my dog) playing around with these objects. 

I had found a battery which was left on the ground underneath a tree and so I picked up the battery and took a picture of that tree. 

 I then found a lump of grass so I took some out of it and put it in my glass. I then found a bottle lid and put it in with the grass. I then took a picture of the graveyard where I had found them .

I really like these picture because they are like nothing I have seen before. This projects was based on exploration and discovery and I have explored a new type of photography and discovered new things. I really enjoyed doing this project because it was my original project and I haven't seen anyone do it before and so it was fun to see what the outcome would be and if I would have a good final piece or if I had one at all. I had taken big risks but never stopped, I also made some imaginative leaps and I can't wait to do another project like this one.