Lens Based Photography
Life From a Distance
Photograph September 2020 Life From a Distance was taken to give off a relaxed feeling in nature, but still seeing many's reality from afar. The pastel sky and vibrant colors stand out by changing contrast, saturation, and filter from my phone. I was inspired by Alexey Titarenko's photograph Sails, and Marc Adamus' photograph Spring Paradise. Titarenko captured the distant architectural focus and Adamus captured nature with strong hues. Life From a Distance represents a haven that can spectate the harsh reality. |
Photography Inspirations-Alexey Titarenko and Marc Adamus
While searching for a photographer that captured my interest, I had found two that were opposites, but caught my eyes. Alexey Titarenko's collection of work caught my eye from the street photography he has, specifically from his New York collection work. The majority of his work shows long exposure and intentional unfocused movement such as the people walking and vehicles moving. Titarenko has taken pictures in several locations like New York, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Venice. His work captures life in the certain places and one example is his City of Shadows Collection that showed the falling of the Soviet Union. He presented it by grouping pictures and through the pictures it showed movement or as he mentioned "people shadows". In this picture, there is a balance in the water and city shown, and yet has some highlight to the left on the tip of the buildings as if to be yellow. With SAIL and other works from his collections, he captures his interpretation of the city and how history was part of what it made it that way.
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Another inspiration was Marc Adamus and his vibrant photography. Unlike Titarenko, Adamus didn't tone down the colors into a monochromatic gray palette, but instead made the colors highlight in a way a regular camera can't capture. By photoshopping, Adamus emphasized the color and focus on certain things, such as in Spring Paradise. Marc Adamus highlighted the colors in the image and made them bright in a way as if to see in with one's own eyes. He has mentioned before that a camera doesn't capture contrast nor the three dimensional depth, which is why he exposes certain areas, and leave the background of it dark. It would balance out light vs dark, that only helped making it look unified and flowing. In this image he brightened the near lupines but also brightened the sky above even if it was at a farther range. He has gotten awards for his photography such as "Landscape Image of the Year", has been a judge for "Landscape Photographer of the Year", and other publications in magazines. His photography is aimed to capturing such beautiful natural scenery around the world, outshining the atmosphere and lighting to create a smooth, bright image.
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Planning
The plan for the photography, was to go downtown and take pictures of the lake, and of the buildings there too. Seeing as there were several tall buildings there, trying to capture them in different angles was something I had in mind since Alexey Titarenko took street photography to a point of showing movement. I hadn't thought about taking pictures where people could be seen there so I decided to have the photoshoot, people free. At the time I had gone, not many people were there thankfully, so it was easier to get several pictures. Something I was set to do was take pictures in different angles. It's normal to take a picture just standing and pointing the camera somewhere, but I wanted to try to have camera angles different, such as getting different sides of a building, having the angle point upwards, and also pointing straight ahead. There is also a couple bridges to walk on, so I had been hoping to get some pictures from an angle looking down. Also taking pictures from below the bridges.
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From seeing Marc Adamus' other photographs, I also wanted some close ups of plants to test out the focus on them, so I took some pictures of them but somewhere, for example my front yard. I decided to change it up so, more nature related possibly would be in the gray monochromatic palette, and structural/street photography would be more of a vibrant/bold palette scheme. Other locations by the lake were the area with sand and rocks, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. In the middle beach area with the sand and rocks, I planned to take angles very close to the ground, almost like placing the the phone on the floor at an angle to capture the three main things (rocks/water/sand). Since the Milwaukee Art Museum itself is a very interesting architectural structure itself, I planned to take pictures of it form different sides. Also with the time of day, I could use the sunlight to highlight the vibrancy. |
Seeing as there was a body of water, something else I wanted to do was take a picture and get the reflected mirror image of the trees/buildings in the water and edit them later to make them lighter. Also similar to Titarenko's SAIL with the balance of water and city, I thought of doing something to that in some way. I know for sure I wanted some pictures that showed downtown but from a distance to have them looking small. After taking some pictures that contained both nature and man made creations, I would then attempt to show some vibrancy such as Marc Adamus does in his images. |
Experimentation & Process
I didn't have really any option as to what to use to take the photos so I used my phone. I had decided not to do intentional camera movement, specifically because I did want to take photos of people. I wanted to focus on the environment around me in the location such as the lake, the city's large buildings, trees, and plants.
The first image is the unedited version of the image first seen on this page. Using what my phone had to offer, I had used mainly the editing of contrast, exposure, especially saturation. In the images of my pages I had written in, I took note of some of the images I edited, and one of them was Life From a Distance. I realized saturation was going to be the biggest help into getting brighter colors so several of the images mainly just got saturation increased. In Life From a Distance, I changed the contrast into -30, increased saturation to 60, and added filter "maple" into getting the more soft looking colors.
The first couple of images on the slideshow aren't edited in any way, because I wanted to show some that I took without any changes and having the natural light captured. I took some pictures by the bridge that was above the street, and some by another bridge that was near the yachts. I tried getting near the water and rocks below the bridge which can be shown in some the images, getting the hue of blue going lighter towards the top of the photos.
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After the pictures taken under the bridge, the next couple of photos are by the beach area with sand and rocks and some of my favorite from this area are the first with the rocks in the middle, sand in the bottom, and water in between towards the right. The rocks show a type of gradation, going from light to dark, in left to right. The same goes for the sky and but vice versa. The second one that I like was the last of the beach area pictures because of the angle from where I took it because it leaves unfocused the closest object but it shows a range of distance from ground level. Not only that but the sun also hits the water and brightens it at the bay by the sand. Also the city in the background behind the trees showing layers with dark tones.
Next location was the Art Museum, back part of it that is facing the lake. Since the sun was somewhat setting, I tired with saturation, to make the sunlight be more orange. Without the editing of saturation, the pictures looked dull, not much of any bold coloring shown. The goal here is to show warm hues instead of the held back colors that aren't really captured on camera such as how the eye sees it.
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What I had planned to do was have the angles in two main different points such as the normal standing taking picture, but also taking photos by placing the camera like if it were standing on the floor. This would be something so then it captures certain things in different scales such as having the tall buildings seem shorter. Another was the space, such as with the beach area, showing the distance as how far the buildings are compared to sand right in front of the camera.
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After taking the photos, I edited them by using what my phone camera had to offer, and took note of what I did to each photo. The goal was to show some vibrant, bold colors that a camera normally can't capture. The majority of what I used was saturation specifically to brighten the colors. Something else was contrast in order to make some areas bold in order to get some darker shades in certain areas that were already dark. With Life From a Distance, I wanted to capture a scene very peaceful like Marc Adamus, but still like Alexey Titarenko. With contrast on its own, it would've made the picture more soft and muted. With just saturation itself, it would make the colors bold, but not to a point that I wanted to still show some calm sense instead of a very bold place with too much energy. Putting both and the Maple theme, it gave a pastel sky and scenery that captured the sunlight hitting. Unlike Adamus' picture having that feeling that you're actually there, I captured its color but not the full feeling of being present there like Titarenko did, only viewing it as a photo.
Compare and Contrast
Contrast
SAIL, and Life From a Distance are already different by looking at the color palette. It is very dark toned compared to my image, not only that but the city seems more short ranged than on my picture, and can be seen more clearly. Also the amount of buildings centered here are more bunched up, taller, and not as covered by something else. My own picture's city isn't fully shown because of the hill blocking some of it to the right. Another thing is that since the city is much farther away, it isn't focused onto it, and blends in more with the background. |
Similarities
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Contrast
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Reflection
Overall I enjoyed the doing lens based photography and it made me realize what I have in just my phone in order to edit a photo. I looked over how I tend to have a balance of things intentionally even if I usually try to focus on giving more power to one area than the other. From this I used a lot of saturation into turning the natural colors from the photos, into more bold and vibrant colors. I realized I should've done more angles such as looking slightly upward, and also more pictures from a higher angle because I did many of them in standard level and ground level. In places to improve, I would say editing them into only certain places and also toning down some areas in order to make some areas look more emphasized.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Viewing Alexey Titarenko and Marc Adamus' photography, it affected my photography, such as the focus on color, and space. Such as having many light tones and a range of distance. Also noting the balance of near/far, and seeming to have a half top/bottom split. Something I'd improve from the photography, is editing of color, such as targeting certain areas and darkening other in order to have a balance,
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Marc Adamus captured very beautiful landscapes pictures and emphasized the color of areas in order to show something a camera can't capture unlike the eyes. Alexey Titarenko on the other hand, captured moments that occurred in society, such as the human condition in certain areas around the world. Even if it had no color, it still captured movement with intentional camera movement.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I realized how such a beautiful scenery can be so breath taking, that a camera would never be able to capture naturally. It can be thought that seeing a place through a device may have a similar experience as being there in person but it is far from it. Also if to look around to the surroundings even if it's a city, there is a lot of movement, everyone going on with their lives one way or another.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme is peace and reality. Combining both inspirations, I wanted to show peace from a landscape, but reality of society still shown there. It's to show that even without having so far from home, there is still peace given, hidden in plain sight.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I realized an image can only capture a limited amount of a scenery, and hasn't gotten to a point where it looks the same as in person. Specifically in color, how the eye can see it more lively unlike how a camera can't unless it's edited.
Viewing Alexey Titarenko and Marc Adamus' photography, it affected my photography, such as the focus on color, and space. Such as having many light tones and a range of distance. Also noting the balance of near/far, and seeming to have a half top/bottom split. Something I'd improve from the photography, is editing of color, such as targeting certain areas and darkening other in order to have a balance,
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Marc Adamus captured very beautiful landscapes pictures and emphasized the color of areas in order to show something a camera can't capture unlike the eyes. Alexey Titarenko on the other hand, captured moments that occurred in society, such as the human condition in certain areas around the world. Even if it had no color, it still captured movement with intentional camera movement.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I realized how such a beautiful scenery can be so breath taking, that a camera would never be able to capture naturally. It can be thought that seeing a place through a device may have a similar experience as being there in person but it is far from it. Also if to look around to the surroundings even if it's a city, there is a lot of movement, everyone going on with their lives one way or another.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme is peace and reality. Combining both inspirations, I wanted to show peace from a landscape, but reality of society still shown there. It's to show that even without having so far from home, there is still peace given, hidden in plain sight.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I realized an image can only capture a limited amount of a scenery, and hasn't gotten to a point where it looks the same as in person. Specifically in color, how the eye can see it more lively unlike how a camera can't unless it's edited.
Bibliography
Adamus, Marc. “About the Artist.” Marc Adamus Photography, www.marcadamus.com/page/bio/.
Adamus, Marc. “Spring Paradise (2009): Columbia Hills, Washington.” Marc Adamus Photography, www.marcadamus.com/photo/spring-paradise/.
Titarenko, Alexey. Alexey Titarenko, www.alexeytitarenko.com/.
Adamus, Marc. “Spring Paradise (2009): Columbia Hills, Washington.” Marc Adamus Photography, www.marcadamus.com/photo/spring-paradise/.
Titarenko, Alexey. Alexey Titarenko, www.alexeytitarenko.com/.