Portrait Finals

Contemporary portrait - The Gamer






















Multiple Exposure Portrait - The Slapshot

Social Commentary Finals

The final 6 images for my social commentary

Small Product Finals

OK here are the final 6 product shots

Ryobi Band Saw






















Ryobi Belt Sander






















Ryobi Circular Saw






















Ryobi Corner Sander






















Ryobi Drill Press






















Ryobi Planer

Portraits Self Assessment

Ok first up my contemporary portrait. For this portrait I sought to explore a certain hobby of mine, computer gaming. Most people think of hardcore gamers as social outcasts who spend all day couped up in a dark room playing pointless games. The online gaming community has a very distinct culture, which is not necessarily all that apparent when you look at or talk to a hardcore gamer.
My intention with this portrait was to show that while some stereotypes may often be right, they aren't always. I will leave it at that as I don't want to impose any ideas of stereotypical elements that I may posess ipso facto a more open interpretation for the viewer will be possible.

My multiple exposure concept was also based on another hobby with which i have a strong passion, Ice hockey. My intention was to show the flowing movement of a player performing a "slapshot" where the stick is brought down in a hard slapping motion against the puck - this is the most powerful type of shot made in the game (Some professional NHL players can hit pucks in excess of 160km/h)
While intially i wanted only 3 flashes, (to prevent overlapping) through discussion and experimentation i decided that overlapping actually made the photo stronger and had a better flow to the overall image.

Location Self Assessment

My original intent for my documentary series was to attend a training weekend with my Army Reserve unit and take photos throughout the weekend while being detached from the activity itself so i would have freedom to move around as i pleased. My intention was to show something the alot of people don't get to see, the kind of work, the kind of situations and the kind of people that make up our defence force.

As it turned out, while i had permission from higher up to take the photos, the OC (officer in charge) of my unit insisted that i participate in the activity and not be detached as i originally requested. At first i was concerned that i would not get the chance to take all the photos i wanted for the documentary, however as it turned out, what i got was far more interesting than i originally believed.

My series evolved into a single soldiers perspective of the weekend, everything from being low to the ground waiting, to patrolling, and attacking, camera in one hand, rifle in the other.

Product Self Assessment

After an initial struggle determining what I wanted to shoot, I finally settled on power tools as i believed they would present an interesting lighting challenge given the different shapes of all the different tools I knew I would use

After looking through some catalogues and pictures on the internet, I discovered not many photos had interesting backgrounds, however they did provide a useful source of lighting inspiration.

For my backgrounds, I decided the best approach would be to have the background seem as if it was a typical workshop that most people would have in their garage.

When shooting, my primary concerns were, in order, the lighting on the product (making sure the product seemed 3D and showed off their shape), the focus point for my lens being on the Ryobi logo on each product, and finally level of background light/detail.

Post production, I had very little to do besides some spot removal and colour management - to ensure all the products, which are of the same brand, had matching colour despite the various textures used in each product.

Presentation Methods Final Rationale

I chose to submit (after some tweaking) my interpretation of Dallas Bland's poem "Nemisis" from the Creative Writing class

I decided to present my picture in a way that would give it the appearance of a portrait you might see hanging in the hallway or study of a castle in a time long ago.

The nature of the portrait was one of evil. The king we see in the picture was not a very nice person, willing to start wars and even sacrifice his own family for his own greed. To this end I decided a dark, charcoal colour wood frame would suit the mood of evil, the materials available at the time (as in medieval times), and frame a black and white photo without detracting from it too much.

I chose to print the picture large for two main reasons. The first being I wanted people to come up a bit closer and be able to see the details in the picture, especially the figure present in the right hand side window. The second reason is that I would imagine this king had forced a poor artist into creating this picture for him, and with an ego the size of his castle would have demanded it be of a large size.