Rain

I was actually out in the early hours shooting images for my initial idea for assignment five, when I saw an opportunity to make an image depicting rain. It is in keeping with one of the ideas that I brainstormed, that of lights shining onto a pavement made glossy and reflective by the rain. I have used the darkness and rain featured in the image as a metaphor for a 'rainy day' in a financial sense. In the exercises brief one of the points it makes is 'don't settle for an ordinary middle-distance shot of a street in the rain'. At first glance it appears I have done exactly that, however the rain itself is not depicted, and I have used the available light to reflect off the wet pavement which then conjures the image of rain in the viewer's mind. What I did do was make a deliberate attempt to avoid the much-used 'rain drops on glass' theme that is prevailant when depicting rain.

 

55mm, f/11, 2s, ISO 100

Rain: Brainstorm

The brief calls for a single, strong, attractive photograph that leaves no doubt that the subject is Rain. The image is to be used for the cover of a fictional magazine. My first thought is that I need to be careful that I don't include objects in the frame that could confuse the viewer into thinking that they are in fact the subject, not the rain.

Brainstorming the Effects of Rain

Splashing.
Droplets on glass, cars etc.
Puddles.
Reflections.
Wet weather clothing.
Umbrellas.
Streets turned to rivers.
Water flowing into street drain.
Soaking wet hair.
Black clouds.
Dripping.
Colourful city reflection on wet pavement/road.
Person with umbrella reflected in wet surface of car.
A soaking wet umbrella leaning up a wall.
Dog shaking water off his coat.

I've also had a browse on images tagged with 'rain' on Flickr. The most common technique by far for depicting rain is shooting water droplets on windows. This certainly serves the purpose, but is certainly cliche and not imaginative enough for this exercise. Some ideas that caught my eye though were:

Street scenes in torrential rain (lots of people with umbrellas).
A closeup of a dripping wet piece of street furniture (close enough that it is clear the rain is the subject).
A glistening street scene with the city lights reflected on the wet path.
Closeup of rain droplets hitting puddles.

Evidently then, there are lots of options when it comes to depicting rain in an image. My initial reaction is to pick a scene that I can create at will, in other words one which doesn't need a rainy day. I like the idea of a park bench or similar, which I can drench with a bottle of water, then take a closeup of the droplets that form. This is something I can do without waiting for a rainy day. The other idea I like, which I can also manufacture, is a closeup images of water droplets hitting a puddle.

Juxtaposition

 This was a difficult exercise, and one that required a lot of thought. I decided to try the option 'photograph someone with a possession, or the results of their work or hobby'. I thought I'd photograph myself, with my piano.

The first thing I did was type 'piano playing' into Google image search; as well as provide inspiration, this would also allow me to see the kind of angles, viewpoints etc that are taken on a regular basis, so I could avoid this. The results fall broadly into two types: either full body to the side or behind and to the side images, or closeups of the hands on the keys, either top down, or more frequently to the side.

Inspiration then was almost completely lacking, so I decided to brainstorm some of my own ideas:

Closeup of hands enclosing keys.
Black and white, silhouette type imagery.
'Playing' model minature piano.
Unusual angle.
Piano keys t-shirt.
Holding miniature piano with real piano in background slightly out of focus.
Shot from behind with stack of music books to the side.
Face in reflection with stack of books.
Slow shutter speed for hand movement.
Something else reflected in the piano.
Hand resting on piano holding a stack of sheet music, other hand 'playing' the keys.


I tried out two or three of these ideas, but ultimately settled on the following image, which I then added text to create the effect of a book or magazine cover:

 

24mm, f/13, 1/40s, ISO 6400 -2EV

It is a very low angle image (I rested the camera on my knees, and used the self-timer so I could position my hands), and also much closer than most of the images I found on google image search. I like the way the white keys create a horizontal line, and the hands are 'framing' the sheet music at the top of the image. I believe this to be a different and more thought-provoking image than a standard picture of someone sitting at a piano, or the oft-used side view of the hands. I left an area of dark wood below the keys in the frame in order to add text, which I think works quite well.

This was a difficult exercise, in that you have to try and make the ordinary seem less-ordinary, simply with different viewpoints and some creative thought. In my image, the piano seems larger than life, and as if it's looming over the viewer; perhaps this subconcious thought is what will nudge someone into buying the book to start improving and to conquer the piano!

Illustration by Symbols

This is a 'thought' exercise, where we are asked to think of symbols for a range of non-physical concepts. In other words, we must think of objects of manageable size that is practical to photograph that can represent the listed concepts. There are lots of 'crime' type things that could be photographed for example, but much fewer that could be photographed on demand. A photo of a bank robbery certainly speaks of crime, but it's not something that you could purposely go out and photograph. I have chosen ideas with this in mind.

Growth.

The beginnings of a plant protruding from soil.
A group of people at several stages of development; baby, teenager, adult.
A tower under construction (perhaps hard to find!).
Someone ascending a long set of steps.
A person rock climbing.
A couple of coins, next to a stack of notes.

Excess

A cupboard overflowing with food.
Water being poured into a container which is overflowing.
A busy town centre when the bars are emptying.
A casino.
An overweight person visiting a fast-food restaurant.
A person with poorly and heavily-applied makeup.

Crime

A building with graffiti.
A dark, dilapidated street, with a police car in the foreground or background.
Armed police patroling an airport.
Security checkpoints.
The anti-theft hooks for bags under pub tables in some cities.
A key in a lock.
A closeup of 'blues and twos'
A knife being partially concealed in a pocket or behind a person's back.

Silence

A sleeping baby.
Someone alone, reading.
Somone looking out over a calm lake with no-one around.
Unplugged headphones.
A large expanse of empty space, such as a field.
A normally busy environment such as an office or factory, after hours.
Guitar with broken strings.

Poverty

A queue outside the job centre.
A homeless person on the street (a close up shot of a hand holding a tin for change would be interesting).
An image of a sink estate, specifically council tower blocks etc.
A food bank (the bank itself or signage).
Big issue seller.

Evidence of Action

It would be easy to take this exercise at face value, and simply take a photo of a broken egg or an empty drinks bottle. I think however that the real point of the exercise is to take an opportunity to tell a greater story, with an element of context. In other words, showing where the breakage or emptying happened, and by whom. An example coming to mind (that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to take in reality) is a picture of a half-empty mug of coffee, and in the background you can see a firefighter jumping into a fire engine in a hurry. This single snapshot allows your mind to connect the dots and deduce that the firefighter's coffee break was interrupted due to being called away on an emergency. This opens up the possibility for other questions, such as 'what is the nature of the emergency?'

Another idea (which I have produced below) is that of a filing cabinet or drawer, where the contents are strewn haphazardly on top of the cabinet, and on the floor. It is clear from this snapshot that someone has rifled through the paperwork, obviously in a hurry or panic. Again, although the action is clear, the circumstances are not, which gives rise to interesting speculation; what was the person (or people) looking for? Why were they in such a hurry? Is it the result of a burglary? Is someone frantically looking for their misplaced passport when they should be on the way to the airport?

 

24mm, f/3.5, 1/60s, ISO 800 -2EV

We are then tasked with thinking of five examples of concepts used in advertising that cannot be shown directly. Once I had thought of my five examples, I then used google to find existing images that are representative of my chosen concepts:

Smell - An invisible action, portrayed here by the removal of other senses - the person is blindfolded, and hands and ears are out of the frame. A typically fragrant rose is positioned in front of the model.

Wellbeing - The concept of wellbeing is very abstract. It is often depicted by a smiling face, an image of happy family life, someone doing a starjump, or as in the above image, reaching for the clouds in a natural setting.

Learning - New information being stored by your brain is also an invisible concept, but in the above image a particularly studious-looking person is situated in front of what appears to be a blackboard, surrounded with a pile of books. She is looking above her head at a lit-up lightbulb, signifying a new idea or understanding of a topic.

Delivery - In advertising a delivery service, you have to get across to the consumer not only the fact you deliver parcels, but also the scope of the service. In the above image, a smiling courier holds a parcel, and in the background there are various other symbols showing benefits of using this particular company; a watch shows a focus on a speedy service, the globe and vehicles make it clear that this is a worldwide service.

Silence - Companies such as those offering spas, country retreats and other relaxing endevours often want to show the contrast with your busy, hectic 'normal life'. The above image of a man sitting alone on a bench reading a book in  serene natural surroundings makes this statement clearly. The calm lake waters also speak of peace and tranquility.