MSOC Easter Concert ~ Part 3

 ...As soon as the lights went down and the choir came on the photos I took from then on were completely transformed by the lighting and how I worked with the lights and angles my camera towards  them with the singers harmonising in between. Quite a few of my light angling pictures came out as silhouettes or pitch black ( i.e. too much light!) but when I got it just right there were some really good ones rich in colour. Below are a few of my favourites that helps sum the concert and my final post covering the MSOC Easter concert

 - Enjoy!

- The Concert -

 In this photo I was just quick enough to catch a little 'audience participation'!

Being in a choir looks pretty fun :)

-x-

MSOC Easter Concert ~ Part 2

Behind the scenes

After the market this was one of the earliest picture I took of the concert, it seemed weird being in such a large space when it was empty. I would have taken more picture but I soon got told to go back to work and get some behind the scenes shots of the choir and musicians before they went on.

Big Joe :)

................not so empty now!

-x-

MSOC Easter Concert ~ Part 1

Over Easter I got my chance to be more involved with photography professionally at Manchester Sing Out Choir's annual Easter concert :D

I took well over 300 photo's that night and it's taken me some time to cut it down to a bloggable number since I've been back at uni - but here it is! There were quite a few things that were different from last years concert - starting with 'The Market'...

The Market had been set up to showcase different talents and businesses from the surrounding area from fashion students and jewellers to artists and florists. It was the first thing the audience saw when they got to the concert and all these bright colours, smells and bubbly sellers were completely different to the miserable weather outside.

-x-

'Where Art Meets Science' ~ Exhibition Event

I can't believe how quickly today has gone!

Today I attended my first exhibition event for the 'Where Art Meets Science' competition I entered last month. I went along with my dad we were both given finalist & guest badges and directed to a room upstairs for photographs of finalists with their work. After that we went into a conference room which was a sea of which round tables, coffee cups and ornamental glass center piece. Just being there made me excited for the event ahead. Me and my dad got a coffee before we sat at a table with the only other finalist from my uni - she was lovely and just genuinely happy to be there and share her work with other like minded people, which is why I was all the more happier to see her go onto be one of the top 3 winners!

I didn't win anything myself but I was just so pleased to have made it to the finals I was just as happy as the winners themselves when we were walking around viewing all the entries, chatting and eating canapés - I could get used to this! haha ;)

I really enjoyed the whole event and everyone came away with a specially designed certificate which had and image of your work as well as a congratulatory message about being a finalist, which will definitely be going on my CV!! And being the only first year finalist amongst all the 3rd years made me all the more determined to keep challenging myself with these competitions!

-x-

Location and Character Shoot

Not too far from my halls there is a peculiar stone archway tucked down one of the side streets. I say peculiar because it just seems to have been plucked from a medieval castle and placed in the midst of a busy university campus! But it's still very nice all the same, and I think it makes a nice contrast to all the modern lecture buildings nearby.

Our second part of the project was to return to our chosen location and add character's to our scene's.

After the two shoots had been taken we had to create an A4 glossy final print with a selection of 3-4 final images,, then give a presentation on the project to the class. The final layouts took me aaaaaaaages to do but I narrowed it down to the following 3 which I'll have to narrow down and edit again once I get formative feedback on this project. As form my presentation my photography tutor said that I had a real knack for creative a narrative between my photo's, which is a comment I couldn't be happier with! Telling stories with images alone is a concept I love to challenge myself with.

 

Gonna head off to bed now, I'll need to be up early for my morning lectures and the exhibition event tomorroooooooooooooooow! (excited much!!)

-x-

Update

So it's been a while since I last posted (sorry!) and with only two days to go before attending my first competition exhibition - I'm beyond excited! In between now and my last post I've been working on getting my work up to date but that didn't go quite to plan with the week I spent back home being far from productive! :s

But what I did manage to get going AND complete before I left was my 'Out Of The Ordinary' photography project :) The project was broken down into three sections:

- Influential photographers

- Location

- Character

My initial and influential photographer was Sarah Hobb's.

Sarah Hobb's work explores and makes visual, many forms of human behaviours, habits and compulsions. In her work you can really see the amount of thought and planning emerge from the well though out detail and deliberation within her images.

Untitled (overcompensation) 2006

She stages each of her photograph scenes so that they embody phobias, neuroses and common obsessions people have.

untitled (perfectionism) 2002

untitled (indecisiveness) 1999

untitled (escapism) 2009

Many critics find her work both profound and witty, reflecting Hobbs’s understanding of the way the human mind works. In her object based photographs she strongly indicates these characteristics, without the aid of people. As a photographer I think she is a great example to look at for my location shoot, because her work really stresses the importance of a good concept.

untitled (insomnia) 2000

I was really intrigued by this last piece by Hobbs and found a great description of the piece's concepts and ideas online, which describes how: 'Hobbs depicts those undesirable and unwanted thoughts using Post-it notes, placed menacingly above the pillows, closing in on the absent sleeper, inverting the comfort of the bed. This leaves a lingering thought of how the vacant sleeper may have been driven from their bed by these thoughts.  The sheets tossed wearily aside ‘there is no room for sleep here’

Her work inspired me to further explore the theme of insomnia in my own way, with my own location and unlike Hobbs my own characters! I'll get the location and character shoots up in the following post :)

- x -

quote referenced from : http://www.utata.org/salon/24091.php