Tenerife: Photo Shoot

Tenerife: Photos from February 2015

In February 2015, me and my family travelled to Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands) of r a week. I took out my sister's Nikon D40X and aimed to utilise some of the rules and theories of photography that I had learnt this courses readings and workshops with the photos I was to take.

From these photos, I wanted to find a connection between them in terms of what they represent about Tenerife.

From these photos, I took a long look at the array I had to choose from and realised that they displayed Tenerife as being a land of lost heritage, a place influenced not just from tourist culture, but cultures from all across the globe. It was from this I realised that the culture located in Los Cristianos, Tenerife, had been 'displaced' from it's origins. 

Therefore, I realised I needed to look more at the national heritage of Tenerife, and it's current influence from other cultures and possible photographers from the area.

Reading Notes

[NOTES COMPILED FROM MULTIPLE READINGS]

CR 9: Basics Photography: Lighting by David Präkel

• There are disadvantages to using flash photography. One being that the exposure is only correct for a set distance, which can produce overexposed foregrounds, which I seem to have taken a lot of photos of as well as dark backgrounds
• Shiny surfaces pronounce really bright reflections when using flash 
• Many photographers use bounce flash or diffusers to improve the light quality 
• Guide Number (GN) = distance (m) X aperture (F.no)

CR 9: Analog to digital: the Indexical Function of Photographic Images by Corey Dzenko

Quoted from the reading 
"Digital technology allows for greater ease in editing than analog photography, because it transforms photographs from objects into data. Thus, digital imaging technology theoretically disrupts previous notions of the indexical connection between photographic images and 'reality'."

• Digital photography challengers the historical belief that photography is a representative of reality in comparison to analog.
• With digital technology, it is arguably easier to edit and create images of objects that never existed in reality, thus casting doubt on the reliability of photography's connection to the real. In her article '"The Shadow of the Object': Photography and Realism," Sarah Kember quotes Fred Ritchin's reactions to digital image ­making in the early 1990s. Ritchin called computer­imaging practices "the end of photography as we have known it" and lamented, "Certainly subjects have been told to smile, photographs have been staged, and other such manipulations have occurred, but now the viewer must question the photograph at the basic physical level of fact."
• On a theoretical level, digital photographs present a challenge to the indexicality of photographic media. No longer does light bounce from an object and cause a physical and chemical reaction of the silver on the photographic emulsion; instead, the image is converted into data, which is seemingly not physical.
• While the process of reading photographs is influenced by the context of the image, just because a photograph is created or distributed with digital technology does not negate its indexical function as many theorists have suggested. Focusing only on the theoretical lack of indexicality in digital images ignores the social uses of analog photography that are now performed by digital images. Because photography functions in multiple areas of society, it is helpful to explore a vernacular example apart from an art context.
• Social applications of digital photography still rely on the assumptions about the functions of analog photographs. The benefits of the new technology, such as the ease of editing and transmission, have resulted in the adoption of digital photography in practices previously completed with analog photographs such as in photojournalism, snapshot photography, and scientific imaging. In using digital images, conventions of earlier formats are maintained in order to create a transition between analog and digital, instead of a distinct switch. For example, online newspapers, which involve digital technology in both the capturing and distribution of images through the internet, use conventions of printed newspapers.

Photo Shoot: One Day in Amsterdam

Photo Shoot: One Day in Amsterdam

Me and my sister went on a spontaneous trip to Amsterdam to meet a family friend there since they'd be studying there for the rest of their academic year. We stayed there for 2 nights and I brought along my sister's camera on one of our days out and took a few photos throughout our day around town. Here are the photos I ended up taking in Amsterdam.

Camera Support: Nikon D7000

Camera Support: Nikon D7000

TUTORIAL VIDEO

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/basics/04/04.htm

When it comes to using any equipment, I always like a thorough understanding of all the buttons and operations of them. I've used cameras, especially DSLRs a lot in the last 3 years of my life, using them during my A-level film studies course, numerous film workshops and when I worked as a full-time technician for the film and media department in my gap year at my local secondary school. Also, my sister tends to let me borrow her Nikon D40X which I have used a lot this term to take photos in my reading week in the Canary Islands. 

However, I've never used the Nikon D7000 nor do I have the most through understanding of all the modes and settings in terms of how to alternate between them and what they're best suited to use, therefore I've used references from the guides given on Study Direct to make a blog of some of the aspects I need to remember most. Most of this blog is copied from http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d7000/users-guide/controls.htm 

Exposure Modes

P: Professional Automatic Exposure Mode

I use "P," Professional, automatic exposure mode, formerly called "program" back in the 1980s. In this mode the camera chooses the f/stop and shutter speed for you. Done.

The standard combinations are f/4 at 1/60, f/5.6 @ 1/125, f/8 @ 1/250, f/11 @ 1/500, and so forth.

It's easy to get to any aperture or shutter speed you prefer in this mode: simply move the rear dial to shift them! This selects alternate combinations of f/stops and shutter speeds, all of which give exactly the same exposure. Nikon calls this "Program Shift." A *P symbol appears on the top LCD and the rear INFO screen when you've shifted the program.

A shifted combination of settings might use f/4 @ 1/1,000, f/5.6 @ 1/500, or might use f/4 @ 1/2, f/5.6 @ 1 sec, etc. Don't worry, just flick the rear dial until you get the combination you prefer.

Easy ways to return to the standard program combination are to:

1.) Flip to a different mode and back to P, or

2.) Turn the D7000 off and back on, or

3.) Flick the rear dial the same number of clicks back to the original position. The P*symbol goes away when you've returned to the standard combinations.

A, S and M Modes

These modes let you choose a deliberate aperture or shutter speed, or both. I rarely, if ever use these older modes.

In A or S, the camera will automatically pick the other value. I never use these; I shift the program instead.

If you want to set both the hard way, use M, manual, mode.

In A or S mode you can only set one of the two values, because the camera is setting the other one for you.

A Mode: Aperture Priority

In A mode you choose the Aperture, and the D7000 chooses the shutter speed.

S Mode: Shutter Priority

In S mode you set the Shutter, and the D7000 sets the aperture.

If the D7000 runs out of available apertures, you easily can get under or over exposure in S mode: watch that the D7000 can select a correct aperture for your lighting.

M Mode: Manual Exposure

In Manual mode, you have to set everything the hard way.

No one uses this mode except in complex conditions where we need the exposure to stay the same regardless of changes in lignting. Ignore old-timers who tell you you need Manual mode; they say that because that's the only mode cameras had back in the 1950s.

I look at the LCD to check exposure after I shoot a picture. You can use the bar graph in the finder - but why? If you wanted to do that, use another mode and let the D7000 do the setting for you.

The rear dial sets the shutter speed in manual exposure.

The front dial sets the lens aperture in manual exposure.

Firmware Defect: When turned ON, Auto ISO remains active in Manual mode. I always turn off AUTO ISO when I enter Manual Mode, otherwise Auto ISO changes the ISO and ruins whatever you were hoping to accomplish with manual exposure mode.

Exposure Modes for Nikon D40X

A Trip to Stamner House

Photo Shoot: Stamner House

In this Week 3's photography session, our class went along to Stamner House to take some photos using the Nikon D7000. Our task was to take as many photos as we could that all had a relating theme to them. I chose to have a them of using Worms Eye View angle shots, but also making use of shallow focus, however I didn't capture too many since good quality photos it was a wet and dark day and I also didn't to get down on the ground and dirty for my worms eye shots.
Therefore, I decided to take photos that played with focus and depth of field, having the foreground in focus and taking up around half of the frame. This task gave me more confidence with using DSLR cameras and playing with focus. If I could of improved on anything in this weeks task, it would have been to find a more focused theme throughout my photo compilation as not all of them seem to relate. Below is my compilation of photos taken.