Unit 1 – Task 3 – Postcode project (AC1.1, AC2.1, AC2.2, AC3.1, AC3.2)

 

Richmond and Kew give extraordinary variety for photography. There is considerable parkland where I want to explore both landscape and wildlife photography, together with towns where I want to experiment with urban photography.  I have decided to split the postcode into four areas to start this project, Richmond Park , Richmond Town, The River, Kew.

Richmond Park

 

These are pretty standard shots hopefully showing the essence of Richmond Park. I have used a range of focal lengths and shutter speeds.

1. The quintessential Richmond deer. Here I added a x1.4 converter to a 70-200mm lens, thus achieving a 280mm focal length. Due to the converter f5.6 was the widest aperture achievable to blur the background.
2. Feeding the birds. Here I was shooting into the sunlight, hence the fast shutter speed. Using f4.0 was necessary to get a fast shutter speed to capture the birds in flight but still allowed long depth of field due to distance from subject and 70mm focal length.
3. Swan on Pen Ponds. Keeping my distance using 169mm focal length, but also using f4.0 aperture hopefully achieved a subtle blurring of foreground and background.
4. Rural Richmond. You can really feel that you are far away in the countryside in the Park, in spite of being on the edge of a great city. Again using only 28mm focal length allowed broad depth of field in-spite of wide f5.6 aperture, which was needed to achieve shutter speed of 1/80 as the shot was handheld.

 

In these shots I was trying to contrast the proximity of the park to the big city with a blend of the metropolis and the wildlife/activity in the park.

1. Deer quietly grazing whilst the Natwest tower looms in the background. I used f4.0 aperture and 200m focal length to hopefully maximise contrast and blur background.
2. Here I used f14 aperture to get broad depth of field and so both foreground and background in focus. This slowed the shutter speed down to 1/30 , slightly blurring the runner, hopefully getting sense of motion. The 105mm failed to get the level of relationship with the background that I wanted.
3. In this shot I kept the f14 aperture for broader depth of field but used 176mm focal length making the background appear larger in relation to the cyclists.
4. Here I used f4.0 aperture and 189mm focal length so that the cyclist is the point of focus whilst the foreground and background are a little blurred, and the Shard looms larger.
5. Same settings as 4.0 but emphasised with more cyclists.
6. In this shot settings are similar to above but point of focus was further into the distance hence bringing the Shard more into focus and the cyclist slight blurred. We are also looking towards the Shard in the distance ‘with’ the cyclist.

 

Richmond Town

In these shots I tried to use the sunlight as well where I could. The weather was not always obliging but in shot 2 and 3 I tried to get the reflection of the sun glinting on the windows. Elsewhere I explored the the streets and alleys of Richmond. An attempt at some urban photography, which needs a lot more practice, possibly at a different time of day and with more movement.

The River

Kew

1. Here I aimed at blurring the motion of the cars and people in front of the entrance at Kew.  This used a 1/5 sec shutter speed and so required a tripod set on the pavement on the other side of the road, therefore requiring extra caution with both pedestrians and traffic (LO4).

2. Similar to above in trying to capture the motion of the bus more emphatically and the more limited motion of the waiting passenger. This required a tripod again and in spite of f/22 aperture further help was needed from a variable neutral density filter that darkened the shot a little further, and so lengthened the exposure to 1/2 sec, thus motion blurring the bus. Lots of caution required using a tripod by a road, on a pavement (AC4.1).

3. The longest of 1.6 sec, again needing the tripod and a f/22 aperture, and so creating the blurred/milky nature of the waterfall at Kew.

4. Spiral stairs at the ‘Temperate House’. This was a handheld wide angle shot. I had to raise ISO to 200 to get adequate shutter speed. A tripod would have been inappropriate at the top of stairs and on a narrow gangway (AC4.1). I particularly like this shot as although it is a spiral staircase, it also fells as if you are walking out into the forest, almost from a springboard.

5. Here again using a tripod I tried to combine a shot of flowers and minor movement of the people. I needed to ask permission and be wary of other pedestrians (AC4.1)

6. This again required a tripod at 1/6 shutter speed. Using 105mm focal length, f4 widest aperture and getting as close as possible I wanted to achieve narrowest depth of field with just ‘st’ of ‘Australasia’ in focus. Caution was taken not to block pathway of other visitors (AC4.1)

7. The Heron was standing on the edge of one of the ponds. I used maximum focal length and a wide aperture of f4 in order to try to get just the Heron in focus and a blurred background of the pond.

8. This is the gangway to the playground in Kew. Standing underneath with a wide angle lens I was trying to include the sweep of the walkway together with the sun shining through. By using a narrow aperture of f22 I was trying to get maximum depth of field which also helped maximise the sun-rays.

9. Here I tried to have the goose focused AND Syon House recognisable, but out of focus with modish aperture of f7.1.

10. This modern bridge over the lake offers a lovely curving sweep across. Here I used a wide aperture of f4.5 so that as the bridge sweeps away it also fades and blurs.

11. This time I used a narrow aperture and a variable density filter to slow the exposure right down which took the glare off the lake and emphasised the sun-rays.

12. Simply a beautiful sculpture at Kew. Here I used a narrow aperture and wide angle lens up close to exaggerate the presence of the ‘face’ which seems to both blend into the hedge as well as project out of it.

By the level crossing

1. Taken using a tripod on the walkover. This involved quite a lot of experimentation with different apertures to get different shutter speeds. 1/10 seem to get the best combination of blur and ‘substance’ of the train whilst maintaining clear focus elsewhere. Care was taken to keep clear of the pedestrians on the walkway (Ac4.1)
2. This was a fortunate opportunistic handheld shot given slow shutter speed, allowing fairly clear shot of two pedestrians, whilst blurring one walking across the shot and the train. A tripod was inappropriate.
3. Again a tripod was not appropriate here, but stability for the camera and slow shutter speed was found on the wall by the pavement, allowing the fairly normal street scene whilst the blurred moving train crosses.
4. Here I wanted a slowish shutter speed to allow the slight blurring of the train, whilst being fast enough to be handheld.

Special safety care clearly needed to be taken here given combination of trains, cars and pedestrians. Hence a tripod was only used on the walkway. I made every effort to keep clear of pedestrians and cars (although stationary). AC4.2

Postcode 5 (plus one)

I chose the following 5 shots for the postcode project, as they display the broad variety of the area, combining tranquillity and nature with the busy nature of this suburban area so close to a big city. They all also represent different manmade pathways through that nature.