Tag Archives: photography

[4D] Process & Final: Task 2 – My World

I set out to shoot people and things candidly. I didn’t want to interact with the people there, but rather to capture the motion and activity that was going on incognito, like a fly on the wall.

I knew I wanted to shoot photos organically and without setting props up. I had a clear concept in mind, compared to a plan on what to set up in order to finalize on a narrative (like I did in Task 1). I wanted to take authentic, true-to-life photographs, to show the viewer how vibrant Little India could be through my eyes.

I realized later on that I probably should have had some sort of game plan before going in to shoot for the whole afternoon, because I ended up with around 500 photos. Below are some of the photos I narrowed down in on and edited before picking the final five.

Close ups:

Long shots

Mid range shots

Not involving people

Including people

Criteria for final selection

  • Not to look too messy and overwhelming – I want to create a sense of vibrancy, not chaos like the vibes some of these photos are giving me
  • A central focus? So that again, the viewer doesn’t feel overwhelmed
  • Variety of angles and framing techniques – wanted to mirror the diversity of objects and things you can find in Little India
  • Variety of activities and objects that can be found – food, jewelry, flowers

Final photos decided upon

Description

Although I’m Singaporean, my extended family lives in India. I visit India every year for 1 to 2 weeks. I love these two weeks because I’m constantly surrounded by flowers, fruits, and color – street carts are plentiful in India.

Every time I visit Little India, I’m reminded of those two weeks in June when I usually visit, with all the hustle and bustle that goes on. The colors, the sights, the sounds – all of them are extremely vibrant. The streets hum with energy – of people shopping for vegetables and fruits, of people buying flowers. I hope to express this vibrancy through my photographs.

I post processed the images with Color Balance in Photoshop, adding more reds and yellows. I also used Curves to increase the contrasts of the images to make the colors pop a bit more such as to reflect the vibrancy of Little India.

[4D] Ideation: Task 2 – My World

Again, I made a little table to compare some initial ideas I had about my choice of space.

Location Pros Considerations
Home Convenient Just got renovated fully so not really the home I’m familiar with
Little India Variety of things to shoot
Raffles Institution ? Not really the same without my friends – they were a huge part of why the school is so special to me

I chose Little India in the end. I felt that my home and Raffles Institution could not be captured without my old furniture and friends, respectively. Also, I hadn’t visited Little India for almost a month, so I was pretty eager to go back to shoot and refamiliarize myself with the area.

[4D] Process: Task 1 – Object & Representation of Self

Shoot 1.2: “Whimsy, Magical” narrative

I went to Punggol Park near my house for the lush green backdrop. I love that it has a wide variety of backdrops for me to shoot against – lakes, bridges, small clearings, a lalang field – I spent a full day shooting there, and it was super fun.

Close up shots

 

Close up shots of myself with object

Artist Reference
(Stylistic) AR5: Alex Benetel

His use of pastel colors contrasted with dark greens, blues and purples gives off a whimsical vibe that I enjoy a lot. I shot against the lampposts around 8pm to capture similar lighting.

 

 

However, I felt that this photograph was edging on more dramatic than whimsical due to the low angle and strong contrast in the lighting.

 

 

Full figure shots

Artist Reference
(Stylistic) AR6: Alex Currie

The greens here are cooler-toned, which gives off a mysterious, alone-in-the-woods feeling, much like the one I experience when reading Enid Blyton books. The vast fields also convey a sense of magic, and I tried a wide angle shot with my book inspired by this.

(Stylistic) AR7: Kyle Thompson

The red balloons give off a sense of whimsy and really pop against the green and yellow background. I got some red balloons, tied them to the lalang stalks for a makeshift Kyle Thompson background and shot against it.

 

(Stylistic) AR7: Mikael Aldo

 

A large proportion of the photographs is dark, lending them a mysterious quality. I shot the photographs below at night, with flash to see how a predominantly dark background could affect the mood of the narrative.

 

Other full figure shots that explored angle and framing:

Mid range shots

Artist Reference
(Stylistic) AR6: Olivia Bee

The stronger blues clearly signal that it’s evening time – I enjoy the moody atmosphere created. Hence, I shot some mid range shots around 7pm, when the sky was a darker blue. Coincidentally, there was some mosquito fogging going on, which gave a mystical vibe.

Other mid range shots

I tried to explore some more extreme angles, as well as more poses.

 

Other things I tried but didn’t really work out

(Photos from left to right are labeled 1 to 4)

  1. Tried tying all the balloons to one lalang stalk but it drew too much attention. Hence, I decided with spacing the balloons out, like the photos from earlier.
  2. Tried shooting here but the lampposts in the background interfered with the forest-ey atmosphere 🙁
  3. Tried focusing on the lalang stalks instead of myself and the book, but felt that again, too little attention was on the main subject.
  4. Tried posing with the lamppost, but I realized only natural things, like trees, and grass, go with the narrative.