Final: 'LIGHT-SKATING'

Proposal
For my assignment I want to make light painting photography using skateboards, by attaching lights to the board and capturing the light as the skateboard moves through space. I feel this is a very original way of showing movement using light painting. 
Statement
For the ‘LIGHT’ assignment, I decided to take the brief literally and took photographs which related directly to light itself. Light painting is when you basically have the camera on a long shutter and capture the light (which you literally paint in the air) in the frame. I attached several, different colored lights to the edge of my skateboard, took photo’s of me skating around Wellington, and the light shows the path the skateboard took in the duration of a flip or grid etc. I wanted to show a skate-photography style picture, with the addition of light painting, showing the exact path the skateboard took. The images were taken with a shutter speed (depending on the complexity of the shot) between 10 and 30 seconds, therefore a tripod was needed to get the image clean and in focus. 
I think that my final six images express my idea perfectly and all came out very clean and well done. I feel that my idea is clearly shown in these images and in saying that I feel I have succeeded in making my proposal a reality.  

Practice Shoot: Light Painting

Here are my best practise shots for my 'Light' assignment, where I put lights on my skateboard and used  it to light paint:

Artist President: Ryan Warnberg & Michelle McSwain (MRI)

Ryan Warnberg and Michelle McSwain are my Artist Presidents for my light painting assignment. These photographers have created weird and wonderfully coloured light paintings over people. I really admire the use of colour lighting in this series of light paintings and has inspired the aesthetics of my own project by using colour lights other than just one colour i.e white or blue lights. The curvy and wild movements of the lights look amazing, a look I really want to achieve in my own project. 

Below are a few images they have created:

Artist President: Michael Bosanko

Artist Michael Bosanko creates crazy light paintings in everyday places you go. He's turned objects into 'alien' type people, created a crazy octopus in front of the sunset and more. His light painting is rather simple and easy to do, but he has done these images very well and created objects and people using light. This president has inspired my own light painting for this assignment. My light painting idea is different to his view on light painting, but he still has inspired my light painting to a great degree as his photography is very successful and creative. 

Below are a few images from Michael Bosanko: 

Weekly Task: HDR Photography

HDR stands for "high dynamic range" which is basically when you get two or more photos and mix all the 'good' exposures, creating a wonderfully exposed photo instead of having to chose certain elements to be well exposed. Below are a few experiments of HDR photography. 

 

This is the HDR image that came from the photo's above. As you can see both the desk and the hallway are perfectly exposed. 

This is my next HDR image created form the two images above. As you can see from the image, both the objects on the desk and the detail of what's outside of the window are well exposed and has created an high dynamic range image. 

Artist President: Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke

Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke are a german duo who create stunning light paintings. They create these abstract 'light sculptures' in amazing landscapes, which acts as an amazing backdrop for these images. The light painting doesn't show anything in particular, the light images are just there to enhance the natural beauty of the environment. The light gives a ghostly quality to the image, which I find interesting and beautiful. This president has helped me to understand how the most simplistic light drawings can create such an effect on the overall composition. 

Below are a few images Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke have created:

Artist President: LIGHTFAKTOR

The German group LIGHTFACTOR has produced some of the best-known light graffiti, transforming everyday objects like trash cans, phone booths and street signs into live creatures that wave their arms around and seem to spring forth from the street. 

This type of 'light graffiti' is extraordinary and definitely has inspired my own light paintings, helping me to understand the full potential of light. Although in saying that, my own project (as stated previously in my blog) Is using the light to show movement, and in this president, they don't aim to do that, instead they're using light to manipulate whatever's in the frame and creating a more abstract world, which is amazing but different to my intentions. 

Below are a couple of images LIGHTFAKOR have composed:

Weekly Task: Light Painting

For this image, I went into a dark room, set the camera on a tri-pod, put the shutter on the longest possible setting (30secs) and while the shutter was open, with a light, I drew this human figure. This was a good test and I was ready for more experimentation...

 ...Now I decided to stand in the frame, get someone to shine a light on me and draw and image onto myself, as you can see in this image I drew myself another head and hands. This came out great, but I feel I could do more....

 ...I got my friend to sit in this chair and stay very still (to stop movement from showing up) and drew the light around him making this image. This particular light painting came out great and couldn't stop...

...I got my other friend to do the same and I experimented by trying to draw (with the light) a crown, throne and staff to make him look like a king. I feel I have succeeded in this as you can clearly tell he is a king, thanks to the light. I feel the light is like creating a new world on top of the normal we now live in, I find it fascinating and want to do more of this for my future photography.

Thanks to Julian & Elliot for helping me on this task. 

Proposal for "LIGHT"

I got the idea from a video of lightpainting using ski's called Ambühlievable, but for my assignment I want to make light painting photography using skateboards, by attaching lights to the board and capturing the light as the skateboard moves through space. Although light painting would be rather cliche, I feel this is a more original way of showing movement using light. Since I just got the idea for this and it will take a fair bit of time organising a photo shoot, I do not have a first shoot to show just yet but will get onto it ASAP.     

Final Stop Motion: Blu.tack

I created an approximately 2min stop-motion/claymation using only blu-tack, mirroring the life of a human. This stop-motion basically begins at the man’s birth (being created) and ends with his death, basic life story. To make this more interesting I added in a second character for the man to ‘fall in love’ with to make it more like most people around us. Throughout this story you see how the person was made and all the little things that made him, you see him grow up as he progresses through his life (scene on the skateboard), he hits barriers in his life but finds a way around it, he meets another person like him and spends the rest of his life with her and you see him fall from his risks and plunge to his death...or is it? I feel that this successfully represents time in claymation form. In saying this I think that if I were to do this project again, I would re-think the ending of the animation as you see it ends pretty quickly. Now thinking back on it, the final ‘splat‘ of the person could have turned back into the original little balls of blu-tack and returned back to their place, the ending was a bit off but overall I feel I did a great job.  

Song: Strawberry Swing - Coldplay 

Artist Precedent

My artist precedent is a stop-motion called The PEN Story, made entirely of photographs put together to show the story of a boy's life.
I was very impressed with this stop-motion as it's very well done, it shows the same idea in so many different ways and shows a very well thought out storyline. My stop-motion/claymation I'm creating is has a similar storyline to this one, as my story is the life of a person from being created to the end of his life, much like this story. This inspires the story of my stop-motion to be really thought out and to consider the what you do go through in your life. I feel this president has helped me for my stop-motion the most because of this.  

Artist Precedent

This artist precedent comes from a claymation called Chess Clay Stop-Motion.
This is simply a game of chess in the form of a claymation, although the creator of this masterpiece has taken this simple idea and made it into a crazy 'battle to the death' with the pieces forming into crazy different shapes, horses with wings, snakes and sharks. This has encouraged me to make my own stop-motion really original and ultimately crazy and unthinkable, I want to take a simple idea i.e the time between life and death, like a game of chess and turn it completely upside down and make it wild, using only blu-tack.

Artist Precedent

My artist precedent is the music video of Coldplay's Strawberry Swing, which is a stop-motion made from chalk on the pavement.
 This particular stop-motion is very well made and is very smooth and impressive. The whole stop-motion shows the man/superhero's adventure to go save the damsel in distress. The storyline is what makes this stop-motion successful and also all the crazy concepts and ideas that appear throughout the story i.e giant squirrels attacking the hero. This has really inspired my own stop-motion I'm creating, as this inspires me to keep a good storyline going and to create as much 'out there' ideas for my stop-motion to create another amazing world you get sucked into when you watch it. Also I like the fact that you loose yourself in the world of the stop-motion as it's so well done, I hope to achieve this in my own photography.    

Artist Precedent

My artist precedent is a video from youtube called Blu-tack Animation Experiments. This video shows a few examples of things you could do when creating a blu-tack animation (or claymation). This inspired many ideas for my own stop-motion/claymation. This video gave me a good idea on how the blu-tack could move through space and what kind of weird and interesting shapes you can create using blu-tack. This precedence has only influenced aspects of my final stop-motion, not so much the concept of TIME or the overall storyline, just aesthetics.