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'Two Cars, One Night' film response (from week 8) directed by Taika Waititi

Some of the shots and angles I observed when watching this short film:

-moving shots (panorama?)

-wide shot

-mid shot

-close up

-extreme close up

-over the shoulder close up

-lower angle close up

The close-ups were used mainly to film the kids in the car, the wide and mid shots were used to show the car and the setting. It also showed a different lower angle perspective at times on the girl's face. The whole film was in black and white which I think added a cool vibe to this movie and made it seem more like nighttime.

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Botany, East Auckland (research)

The suburb of Botany developed in the early 2000s and is based around the Botany town centre commercial area.

The suburb is named after Botany Road, which was named after Botany Bay in Australia, after being visited by James Cook. Botany became used as a name for the area in 1999, and was popularised after the opening of the Botany town centre.

Botany Road was predominantly farmland in the latter 19th and 20th centuries, and before that was likely a moa track. In 1946, the area to the West of Botany was considered to be a good potential location for an international airport, and this was eventually built in Māngere.

La Roche, Alan. 2011. 'A History of Botany'. Auckland City Council. p. 5-10

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Hourglass editing (class task from week 7)

For this task, Jacob and I paired up and took a series of shots to establish a 'story' by taking photos of me photographing things inside and outside of the WF building. We used an establishing shot, medium shot, close-up, extreme close-ups, medium shot and wide-shots at the end. We took quite a lot of photos and these are just a few of them. (These photos wouldn't go in the order I wanted them to when I stacked them together so I've made the photos bigger).

Establishing shot:

Medium shot:

Close-up:

Extreme close-up: (this was a painting in the building)

Medium shot:

Wide shot:

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Title ideas:

-Logan Carr Birdlife

-Birdlife at the Reserve

-Backyard Birds

-East Auckland Birds

-Flying Feathers

-Birds of Botany

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What to improve on:

-More research, referencing checks, editing, technical stuff

-Organise blog more

-Work on positioning statement, make it more specific and include research

To do:

-'Two Cars, One Night' activity

-Research Botany?

-Research more photographers

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Research on other photographers:

Neal Fitzgerald

Neal Fitzgerald is a New Zealand wildlife photographer who photographs an array of different wildlife but specialises particularly in birds. His images have been used in New Zealand National Geographic and New Zealand Gardener, as well as books websites, calendars and more. I like how his photos show different parts and angles of the birds: he uses close up head shots, wider shots that include some of the landscape and extreme close ups of certain areas such as the bird's eye. I'd like to work towards using these types of lenses in my own work.

Photo references:

Fitzgerald, Neal. Gallery - Birds. Accessed October 3rd, 2024. https://www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz/gallery/

Jonathan Harrod

Jonathan Harrod is an Australian photographer who moved from Sydney to Christchurch in 2008. He is a wildlife photographer who specialises in photographing the many birds found in New Zealand, including but not limited to native birds. I like how Harrod takes a lot of action shots of the birds in flight, eating, swimming and moving. This is something I'm still trying to learn how to capture on camera, while still keeping the photo in focus and high quality.

Photo references:

Harrod, Jonathan. Gallery - Waders and Shorebirds. Accessed October 10th 2024. https://www.jonathanharrodphotography.com/

Julie Skelton

Julie Skelton is an English garden photographer based in Surrey. I love her picturesque photos of gardens and backyards, and these reminded me of my own photos that I shot in my backyard. Even though the focus in my portfolio photos is birds, providing the backdrop and sense of place and setting is just as important. Garden photography provides an interesting combination of man-made elements and cultivated plants in a natural outdoor setting.

Photo references: Skelton, Julie. Garden Photography Portfolio. Accessed October 17th 2024. https://julieskelton.com/plant-and-garden

Jonathan Buckley

Jonathan Buckley is also an English garden photographer who specialises in flowers. I like his close-ups of flowers, leaves and vegetables and his apparent passion for plants. I like the use of light in his photos and how there aren't many shadows or dark areas, which make the gardens look very dream-like and romantic. He has also captured photos of the wildlife that visit these places, such as butterflies and insects which is something I'm also interested in doing.

Photo references:

Buckley, Jonathan. Portfolio. Accessed October 17th, 2024. : https://jonathanbuckley.co.uk/portfolio

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Week 10 favourite photos

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Week 10 photoshoot: pets of Auckland!

This week I decided to focus on the domestic animals that live in and around Auckland - this is quite different to my previous photoshoots that are based more on location, but I had a lot of fun with these photos. In this photoshoot, I took photos mainly of cats - this is mainly because I know a lot of cats due to working at a boarding cattery part time, plus being a foster carer for Lonely Miaow Association. I also took advantage of photographing pets at friends' and family members' houses, and kept an eye out for other domestic animals I came across when travelling or passing through somewhere. I liked how this photoshoot had quite a changeable nature and I often couldn't predict how the animals would act, or when they'd look a certain way. In this way, it was good practice for my bird photography project - photographing animals (and often nature in general) requires patience and adaptability. I enjoyed showing the variety of pets we have in Auckland, and the suburbs and houses they share with us.

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Study break week 2 favourites

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Study break week 2 photoshoot: South Australia

We spent the second week of our holiday in Adelaide, which I think is such an underrated city. I found some really interesting things to photograph here, such as the historic buildings that look straight out of the nineteenth century, and the old library that still has all its original books from last century (still available to the public to use as well!) We also went to Glenelg beach which is famous for its bright vivid sunsets, so I couldn't miss that photo opportunity. There was also some interesting street art, and a botanic park where bats hung from the trees. I've also included some photos of giraffes at a safari park we visited on our last day. When taking these photos, I tried to incorporate some different angles as well as different times of day.

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Favourites from study break photo shoot, week 1

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Study break photoshoot, week 1 cover sheet

During the study break I was lucky enough to be on holiday in Australia, first in for a week in Melbourne and Victoria and then a week in Adelaide. I took so many photos it was so hard to narrow it down to my favourites, but I think these are some of the best. The first week we spent time in some suburbs and cities just outside of Melbourne such as Ballarat, Daylesford and Bacchus Marsh where my mum was house sitting for a friend. I spent a lot of time outdoors that week so I captured a lot of nature photos, both of animals and landscapes. It was unusually cold for spring, and it even snowed briefly at one point! I managed to get a couple of photos of this, but the snow was fine and hard to see with my camera. Since we had limited time that week, I didn't spend a lot of time focusing on camera techniques, angles or lighting and I simply focused on capturing the moment as I could see it. Some of my favourite photos are the ones I took of the lake, kangaroos and rapeseed flower fields.

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Formative assessment: Birds of Auckland

My aim for my photography project is to create photos that show the many birds that live in Auckland – both in suburbia and in wild places. These photos focus on both native and non-native species and are not restricted to any one area or landscape. Although most of these photos have been taken in East Auckland, where I’m based, these photos will show birds that live in suburbs, parks and beaches. My photos will show each bird as the central focus of the photo – encouraging the viewers to be curious about each bird and take note of what it looks like, what it’s doing and the environment it’s in. My aim is to encourage people to view the birds with curiosity and to show part of each bird’s story, behaviours and environment with these photos. Often birds are in the background: they're everywhere and we often don't notice them. In these photos I wanted to show some insight into their world. To create these images, I’ve shot these photos in colour, with a mid-range shutter speed, since birds can be either moving or still. Most of these photos have been taken in the morning or early afternoon when the light was naturally bright, so I kept the aperture and ISO settings relatively low. I’ve also included parts of the background in each photo to show where the birds are, which adds another layer to the story of these birds, where they go and what they get up to. I have lightly edited most of these photos in Lightroom by adjusting the contrast and exposure slightly, and cropping the photos when I felt it was needed.

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Workshop #4: Focus

In groups of 3 for this workshop, we learnt about how aperture and distance control depth of field, as well as the focal length of a lens.

For the photos of the Tank cup, we began with taking photos with a high aperture and with each photo made the aperture size smaller and smaller. It was interesting to see how it made the photo darker but also how it made the background more in focus, as opposed to when the background was blurred with the high aperture setting.

For the photos of the drink bottle and the camera, we started by photographing the sushi cafe in the distance with the smallest aperture possible. And then keeping the same aperture setting we focused the camera on the drink bottle and other camera. These photos turned out quite similar, but the angles are different and you can see less of the sushi place in the second photo with the focus being more on the objects in the foreground.

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Week 4: favourite photos

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Week 4 photoshoot

This week, I focused more on man-made things like houses, letterboxes and the local playground. I walked around my street and other streets close by, photographing things I thought looked interesting. To be honest, in the end I wasn't that happy with these photos or the things I had decided to photograph - I feel like suburbia is quite a boring thing to photograph. The things I did enjoy photographing here were mainly the birds, trees and some of the gardens. I think it's cool how nature is wherever we go, even in the middle of suburbia or cities. The sky was overcast again, so the light was a little bit dull. I edited these photos slightly in Lightroom to make some of them brighter. I realised that all of my photos have been shot in jpeg format, so next time I'll try raw format.

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Project direction

My photo project direction:

Birds in and around Auckland - suburbia, parks and beaches. The variety of different birds, where they hang out and how they live their lives.