The seventh lesson of Artefact Unit

Today I was aiming to finish my final shots and make them in the dark room (printing room). Before the break I decided to add some more things to my 'Shooting Plan'. I added things such as where I am going to shoot my final work and why. I found this part easy because I looked at the test shots and I used them as my guide for the final work. When I took the test shots I found that 'lonely people' would fit in the theme very well, so I used these kinds of pictures. I think that lonely people represent the other side of Christmas.

After the break I went to take pictures with the tape camera. I was pleased that our teacher reminded me how to use it, because the last time I used it was about 4 weeks ago. First place I went to was the park, and I was aiming to find 'lonely people' sitting in the benches, but unfortunately there were no people which I could take pictures of. I decided not to waste time and go to take some pictures of broken things and overflowing bins. I found this easy because there were a lot of bins in the area, because the area is quite full of houses. I returned to the park to find some 'lonely people' because I still had some more time. Fortunately I found a couple of people and I took pictures of them. I was very relieved because I had a lot of pictures which meant I could choose which ones to use. I found this part a bit weird because I had to take pictures of 'strangers', but in the end I did it.

Before the lunch I started to prepare the tape, using the same method as before. Unfortunately I forgot some parts of the process because I've only done this once. I asked my teacher for help sometimes and he really helped me with the preparation of the tape. I didn't have time to completely finish the preparation so I left the tape in the container over lunch, with water inside so it doesn’t dry out. After lunch I came back and finished the process and the tape came out as I planned it to come out. I found this process I bit hard and also not so interesting because I had to wait for the tape to react with chemicals and also later on to dry out. I had to use the hair dryer to dry the tape because that was the fastest way of doing it. It took me about 15 minutes to do it.

The last part I had to do was to print the pictures on the white paper. I had a lot of pictures taken on the tape which meant this would take me a lot of time. I found it easier than the least time because there were less people around which meant less people were using the chemicals. Also, it was easier to find my pictures when I had to take them out of the chemicals, because there were less pictures there. I found this process hard at start because my pictures came out too dark, to solve this problem I didn’t keep the white paper under the light for 4 seconds, but 3. This really helped because my pictures came out lighter and looked better. I also had dry bubbles on my pictures, and I asked the teacher what they were. They were from chemicals which meant I had to put the picture under the chemicals more, otherwise I get them on all of the pictures. After that I found the process easy because I knew how to do it, but it still took time because I had to wait for the pictures to react with the chemicals. I nearly finished printing all of the pictures, but unfortunately I've got about 3 more to go. Next Artefact Unit day, I will try to print some more pictures and for the rest of the day I will assemble my project as planned. I think I have done everything I've planned to do and I am on track with the project.

The sixth day of Artefact Unit

I knew what I had to do today because I wrote up a plan of things to do. Fortunately I finished all of the things that I planned to finish which means I am on track. The first thing I did was to annotate the test shots which I took when I was at home. I found it a bit long, because it took a while to print each picture out and annotate it. I think that the test shots really helped me because they helped me to pick the right idea. I decided to use the new idea 3 which I changed a bit because it has a wider range of picture ideas to take and I really like the idea overall. To extend the idea 3 I went to take some more photographs and because I took more photographs I changed my idea again.


My Final Idea:
I will have a Christmas tree and it will be decorated like an average Christmas tree with shiny decoration balls and stars. On the Christmas tree I will have pictures of the mirror side of Christmas. The mirror side is the bad side of Christmas such us homeless people who have no families or just rubbish on streets which represent the other side of Christmas. This will be very effective because then you could see the two sides of Christmas.

Here are some of the best test shots which I will use for my final project (more detailed in the workbook):

I will use this kind of picture because it represents loneliness and it relates to the other side of Christmas

This picture has an overflowing bin which fits in well with the idea of the mirror side of Christmas.

I like this picture I will use it because it has a falling fence, this represents that not everything is perfect and if you relate this to people than you know that not everyone is perfect.

After I put these and more test shots in my book I annotated them. During my lunch time I went to a shop and bought a Christmas tree, because I knew that I will need one. Here is a picture of the Christmas tree I bought:

I also made a shooting plan because next week I am going to shoot the final photographs and I am also going to print them on the wet photography paper. This should take the whole day which means after half term I will just need to put the pieces together and the project will be finished. I thing I have done well today because I have finished everything I wanted to finish.

The fifth day of the Artefact Unit

Today I spent a lot of time expanding my three ideas. These are my three ideas:

1. A present box with pictures inside of a person opening the present. Shows facial expressions and the idea represents hope (believe) that his dream present is in the wrap.

2. A box made from CD's with 'future' pictures stuck in the box. The idea represents 'I believe in future'.

3. A Christmas tree with pictures of 'Christmas' on the tree. This would represent 'Believe in Christmas'.

I extended these ideas in my workbook by searching the internet for some inspiration. I found it interesting, but not hard to do because it was easy to find useful information. It took time because I had to think a lot to extend the ideas. I also sketched out each idea so I get a better view of it, I think that this helped a lot because then I knew how it is supposed to look like. Now I need to take some test shots for each idea, so I can get some more inspiration. After school I took some test shots of each idea. I will put them into my workbook during the CRAM lesson and describe them in a further depth. Here is the one which I liked the most:

 I think it's effective because the white background makes the decorations stand out and the decorations look like mirrors which make the picture 'shiny'. This image relates to the idea of Christmas and would be kind of image I would use. I found it difficult to take some pictures in my house because there were not as many things to take a picture of. Fortunately in the end I got about 30 images which I took and about 10 of them are pretty useful. 

Here is a plan for next week (lesson):

• I will put the test shots in the work book
• I will take some more pictures near the school, because there are more interesting things around there
• Decide upon which idea I will use
• Prepare a plan for the final idea, such as items to get (buy) and things to take pictures of