20.05

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i feel this is one of my more successful shoots but also one of my more dumber shoots as i accidentally walked 25 miles this day along the drakes trail in plymwood. i was outside for 12 hours getting home at 11:30pm, taking over 700 images i ranged them through Adobe Bridge using the star rating system and edited them in Photoshop. i probably didnt need to stay out this long as i lost my light around 8pm making it very hard to shoot without proper equipment like spot lights or flashes, i kinda refuse to use an onboard flash because more often than not it is very unflattering and flat lighting, however staying out this long did sort of serve my desire to go camping and study the light as i realised my lighting issues. morning sunrise is still in my mind though

i also feel these photos link closely to Ram Dass’ use of psychoactive substances and his ideas of unity as often these images dont often present a straight forward angel, sometimes taken from above or below, as well as other reasons

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taking obligatory eye photos, i dont know how well these work as the knots in them are quite small making it harder for us to interpret this idea, i’ve also tried to incorporate more of the background of these photos to give an idea of the place were in

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looking up at the bristles of this tree, i’ve shown to show three different editing stages of my work as they each show different atmospheres, the first is a color inversion layer presenting these strong orange and blue hues that compliment each other nicely, in the past i’ve described these as night times edits because we often connote these orange skies to signify sunsets

but that wouldnt explain why the leafs would turn this blue hue as well?? i realised later in my shoot this would actually happen in IR during a sunset, the pink hues start to fade with the absences of that green chlorophyll for the light to reflect off of, causing blue hues start to show instead, thus making these valid edits for IR even though they dont have the channel mix layer applied to them

i’ve also placed these along side each other as i feel they would make a great set of prints as they’re reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s screen printing techniques of Marilyn Monroe piece

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with more of this multiple edits im able to say i dont need to go camping to see this full light cycle as i try to deal with these limitations of being outside due to the virus, i feel these make a good substitute, i’m also able to reduce the exposure time to 1/1000th of a second to create these dark settings, i really love the lighting im able to convey with these shutter speeds, though maybe this photo could do with a slight levels adjustment/ burn in sections where the highlights are too white

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another image i like is this one of a discarded water container as this conveys this human existence but it has been long forgotten and abandoned, noted by the wear on the container along with the slow growing moss. behind this with have the bokeh effect thanks to the depth of field focusing on the container and blurring out the background in the distance

taking more over head photos with a central prescriptive, i liked the way the light hit this fern plant on this cluttered woodland floor

this is one of my favourites from this shoot as it links to ram dass’ ideas of spirituality through the use of lighting, in the past i’ve used lens flares to get this approach but shooting through these poisonous bells as they allow the light to disburse, to this i’ve used low angels so that we are looking up at this subject matter allowing for this idea of a higher power, to which i’ve noted in the text posted along side this piece, to which i also added the appropriate hashtags. i wish i got more of the plant in focus and in frame but i think it does a really good job of conveying this message i hoped for

“We venture this world looking for a higher power to guide us through this life, to hold our hand, but it is often this hand that feeds us that we bite”

#nature#hallucinations #otherworldly #forest #trippy #religion #plant #foxglove

i like this one too as it builds on previous ideas by trying to look up towards the sky in search for this god like figure however it is shrouded by the canapes above that let through these select light rays, i also feel theres a slight golden ratio within this photo reaching from right of frame spiralling towards the centre of frame through the use of shade in the leafs, i dont know how much i believe myself here though

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these images show the parallels between the IR filter and my editing style above with the hue saturation edits and below the channel mix edits without this hue saturation layer, here i still lean towards the channel mix layers particularly the bottom left as the light catches the blue cobweb on this branch, the depth of field helps amplify this drawing our eye to he cobweb

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i love this idea of going through a tunnel to enter this mystical world of IR as it feeds into my childhood memories of studio Ghibli movies like Spirited away, where a family travels to a new city in Tokyo but get lost and travel to this Japanese spirit world. these movies hold a place in my heart for their animation style and use this narrative within Japanese culture building on folklore. i might try to incorporate this idea within my final publication as we leave our own world to take this journey into the Infrared spectrum

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more mulipul edits to showcase the manmade structures that blackout the sky and dominate our own world, compared to the natural world featuring these wild daisy against this darkened hedge. this is on my way back as the light starts to fade

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here we see a sunset through the trees, though im not to sure i like this photo as this transition from evening to dusk isnt conveyed well, and im not really sure how to show this transition period, maybe a wider landscape could convey this idea better ?

here we see another foxglove plant, but without this intense sun its loses a lot of its luminosity, appearing blue in hue as apposed to the vivid limes and pinks. i’ve captured the full length of the plant to showcase its beauty as we conclude this trip the bells now start to close, juxtaposing the previous image as less intense version