Music Photography

Through the freedom of choosing a subject area of my choice to concentrate on for my A2 Photography coursework, I have discovered my love for capturing live music events. I try to go beyond the cliché rock images, and capture moments of intensity and excitement. I have researched music photographers such as Adam Elmakias, Paul Underhill and Kyle Gustafson, and have gained inspiration and ideas of how I can capture the atmosphere and elation at live music events.

I have also created a blog solely for my music photography (http://bethhdquittentonphotography.blogspot.co.uk/).

Documenting Maui Waui Festival

I photographed a festival called Maui Waui, based in Suffolk. My aim was to document the activities and performances that took place throughout the day, I also wanted to capture the different people and atmospheres present during the majority of the day.

I documented things such as people eating and drinking, people resting, bands and solo musicians performing, and the camping facilities. I did this because I felt that these were the most important aspects of attending any festival. I also feel that by capturing the majority of the things listed above, you can feel and reflect on the atmosphere and moods felt throughout the day and into the night. I took two lenses with me to photograph Maui Waui; I took my 50mm 1.8 lens because it is capable of taking images in low-key lighting; I also took my 18-105mm 3.5 lens to use during the day time.

Drowning By Numbers (1988) Response

I took these images in response to the film Drowning By Numbers , directed by Peter Greenaway (1988). The film was shot along the Suffolk coast line, close to where I live. Although I did not engage with the film narrative, I appreciated the use of cinematography and mise-en-scene. Low-key lighting is used a lot throughout the film to connote when a bad activity is being carried out by a particular character, for example; low-key lighting is used on Sissy (about 8 minutes in), she is also wearing black clothing, the audience soon recognise her plan to drown her husband. Mid-shots are the most common shot distance used throughout the film; this is because the narrative can be quite confusing for the audience to follow, therefore simple cinematography is used in order for the audience to decipher the plot.

I deliberately shot these images in HDR to reflect the extreme landscape imagery in the film.

Strangely Familiar Brief

I took these images in response to the brief Strangely Familiar. After brain-storming ideas for this brief I came up with the idea of photographing everyday house-hold objects, but in an obscure way. I came across the photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, and was inspired to photograph house-hold objects close up; I also tried photographing the objects out of focus. When it came to editing my images I felt that they looked strongest in black and white, compared to colour because the shadows and tones are evident in black and white, compared to in their original colour.

AS Photography Exam Images

These four images were part of 9 images that I presented for my final AS Photography exam. The theme of the exam was Air, Earth, Water and Fire; I decided to concentrate on the two elements water and earth. I created an ideas board in preparation for my first shoot; this included photographing a candle melting over the course of 8 hours, I would take an image of the candle every 20 minutes, then edit the images digitally via Photoshop to show the slow deformation of the candle, this represented earth as it shows a slow change over a long period of time; another idea included photographing close up shots of the human body, which would represent the element water because the human body is made up of 75% water.

After photographing the human body, I would evaluate each shoot and decide the best way in which to capture the human body. I also decided to add textured images over the top of the original image to create the illusion that the skin is cracked and broken. I did this because it represents the element earth, the outer layer of the earth is not smooth, it is cracked and broken in many places.