A-Level RAoA
One of the types of work that I don’t normally include in my portfolio is my design work, being Graphics and Photography. These two creative subjects allow me to constantly think of different types of material and content to create, whether it be a photo, video, static graphics, etc. There are many possibilities. I normally don’t include them because I focus more on my Lighting work.
However that being said I wanted to include in my portfolio some of my photography. One of my pieces of photography that I produced for A-level was accepted to be featured in the A-Level summer exhibition hosted by the Royal Academy Of Arts. Let me be the first to say that I didn’t think I would get into the exhibition. I saw some of the work that my colleagues had made and some of their work was amazing. When I had a look on the website and I saw my name I was genuinely amazed that I had managed to get it. So what was the photo that I submitted?
You can check out the Royal Academy Of Art A-level Summer Exhibition by clicking the link below. My photo is located in the ‘There’ category.
Well, here is the photo. Its called ‘Waiting At The Stops’. This photo was heavily inspired by the work of Felix Hernandez Rodriguez. Felix gave me some really amazing tips that helped me a lot when I came to shot and edit the photo. I highly suggest checking out Felix’s work at www.
So what makes this photo special? Well this type of photo is known as a bigature photo. Bigature is where you make something tiny look huge. For example, this was used a lot during the Harry Potter movies. Hogwarts was actually a model, which was made to look like a gigantic school during fly over shots. The same idea was used in this photo. The train and the stop light is actually a Hornby model.
Using miniature models allows for a wide range of experimentation. Since I was building my own scene, I constructed a setup which would allow me to experiment with different types of looks. The stage consisted of a Hornby train and a track signal light. The signal light was controlled via a transformer that I had, just behind the camera. I found that the red light emitted from the signal light was the most affective in creating a moody atmosphere. Above the train I had created a small linear lighting rig which was controlled off of my PC using Electronic Theatre Control’s software EOS. EOS allowed me to individually control each light I had above my train. I took several photos with lights on in different settings and ones where only one light was on at a time, this would allow me to alter how the train looked in post by fading in or out the lights. In post production I added a background, and made sure the background interacted with the main stage image. I added a red tint onto the leaves of the trees to make them look like they were being lit by the signal light.
Its an amazing achievement to be able to have my work featured on Royal Academy of Arts website. Its not something I had actually thought I would one day be able to say let alone be considered for. Below are a few more photos from my A-Level exam submission.
