#structurephotography

Atlanta, Georgia

(Source Instagram: jawiddaflicks)

it was cold this day, but a warm glow always seemed to follow.

📸 Pentax PC35AF x 🎞 Kodak Portra 400

I rather enjoyed the Structure project. Our goal was to photograph 5 different shots and perspectives of a building of our choice that shows unique and interesting views of the subject. We were to photograph more or less anything we want, as long as it fell into the brief, in order to show the building as a whole, any unique patterns around or on it, and whatever makes the building stand out to us. We were to make it as interesting as we could, so it was a nice challenge to really get me thinking about how to make my building of choice look good, and I felt it was pretty challenging for me.

My choice of location was Cranhill Community Beacon, otherwise known in my area as “the Beacon”, it’s an old building that has been in the community for over 20 years, it was there when I moved into the building I call home and I grew up with it always being there and going through multiple refurbishments to improve it and get more people keen on going to it. Over the years it’s changed, when I was a child, it was for both children and teenagers, they had two huge halls inside, one for the teenagers and one for the children along with an arts and crafts room and a soft play area. I have a lot of memories of the Beacon, my fondest memory is being in the play area and they had aglow in the dark walk in tunnel play area that was dark inside and had giant ghosts painted onto the walls. They used to freak me out but I loved the fun in it. 

On the grounds, there is a play area, as you can see, there was one at the back too for the older children but I think it was taken away thanks to teenagers hanging out there and drinking on the grounds. There used to be a pirate ship too that I was rather gutted about not being able to photograph, it’s been gone for years now but it would have been amazing for my project!

As you can see, the Beacon isn’t a very pleasant looking building, it’s made up of reds, oranges and blues and has always been a bit of an eye sore, it’s been these colours for as long as I can remember. So I  felt it would be challenging to try and make a building like this look good, I had to return multiple times and I had to go through the process of speaking to staff to get permission, mostly for my own benefit so the guards weren’t wondering what I was doing and would just leave me be.

Problem 1:

The first problem I encountered was the weather. Most days, it was warm with the sun soaring the skies up until I would grab my gear and get moving to the Beacon to photograph it. Often, by the time I got there, a mere 10 minute walk, the sun  would decide to disappear and hide behind the clouds or it would begin to rain instead. On my practice round, it was sunny to begin with and quickly began raining, but it helped me to get an idea on which parts of the building I liked most for photographing.

Problem 2:

The second problem I encountered was too much light in my photos, but any time I lowered the aperture or ISO, it would ruin the photos by adding noise and grain and there wasn’t an option for me to get the best photos the way it was. Even with the sun being out, there was too much light and my camera wasn’t very good at being able to find a middle ground where everything looked good but not overly exposed.

Problem 3:

The third problem was children. Since it’s a community centre FOR children, you find them often in the play park, so any time I was aiming to shoot, a child would run into my line of sight and I had to stop and wait until they left so I could photograph as I didn’t have permission from the parents to photograph them and at one point I had asked nicely if one parent would mind moving for a quick minute so I could photograph the building and was abruptly told “no”, not very pleasantly either!

Solution 1:

In order to combat the coming and going sunshine, I was constantly looking at my weather app and the news weather forecasts to try and determine when the best time would be to go photographing the building, when to expect the most sunshine, when to expect rain, I was checking so much that I’m now in the habit of checking the apps even though I have no plans to photograph the building again time soon.

Unfortunately, the weather was constantly changing and while the reports were giving me one report, the weather itself would do the opposite, at one point, I was expecting horrible weather on a Sunday and decided to charge my camera and the batteries for the following day, but while my equipment was charging.......the sun was out. I quickly grabbed my equipment and headed out, only for the skies to darken and it continued to rain all afternoon. It was decided that the best time for me to shoot the building was early in the morning, so I went at half past 8 in the morning and I stayed there all the way through to half past 10 when it began raining, by that point though, I had already planned out every shot I wanted and when to take it, but when the rain began, I only had one shot left and it frustrated me. I had to leave it for the time being and I headed out with my mum and dog for a walk and came back around 2ish, I saw no children were around and I captured the building while the sun was out and shining.

Solution 2:

To solve my second problem, I bought myself an ND filter, something that I absolutely love! The ND filter helps me to control my lighting and adds stronger colouring to my colours that my camera sees, my blues are bluer, my reeds are redder and the whites are clearer but not as bright, which was the aim. Using the ND filter allowed me to use an aperture of f8, which is my most preferred aperture to use as it’s not too over exposed and not too under exposed, I like how f8 looks on things and it looks more natural for me. 

With the ND filter being used, I was able to brighten my location shots all without ruining the images with noise and grain, and even though I’m no longer working on the project as I’ve finished and submitted my presentation of it, I still use the ND filter and I love how images look thanks to it.

Solution 3:

To solve my third problem, I had to determine when the children would be in school or least likely to be in the play park, early morning was the best time for that, and I found out the hard way why I had to plan that better. On one of the Monday bank holidays, I decided that would be the best time to go down to the Beacon and photograph it.......only to find children everywhere! It was 10 in the morning and I admit, I was surprised to see them, I waited around for a little bit but more were showing up and it was just easier to go down another day when they’re at school!

Speaking to the staff and guards and getting permission to photograph the building helped me to adjust to people again, during the many lockdowns, my social anxiety has gone out of control and I’ve been struggling to get out of that rut and socialise and adapt again. This project helped me a lot as it forced me to speak to the staff to gain permission, I could have done it without permission but I was paranoid about anyone thinking I was scoping the building out or being sketchy!

But while it helped my anxiety, I also had a bad encounter with a woman in the Beacon, she wasn’t the nicest of people and she was in the park with her kids and talking loudly on her phone. I needed only the one image at this point and I walked up to her, I was nice about it and I even showed her my student ID to show I’m a photography student and not some random girl in the park with a camera. Her response was to rudely swear at me, to tell me to leave and not come back, it upset me a lot but more for the fact I was anxious enough as it is to speak to her only for her to react rudely towards me despite me asking nicely.

While it upset me, I didn’t dwell on it, I was bound to meet one person who won’t play ball, and while always anxious, I’m prepared for people like that as I need to toughen my skin more so people like that won’t bother me. But despite that, I came back another day and while she wasn’t there, I photographed the entire building and was happy with my photos.

While preparing them to be presented and not just uploaded to MyCity, I used Canva to make a slideshow as it looked a lot better and it meant I could talk about the project as well. I was unsure if we were able to do that or not but I did it anyway as I felt it helped to strengthen the things I photographed, I like the presentation I made, it wasn’t very long or heavily detailed but with this project, I was able to make images I’m rather proud of and enjoyed photographing. The overall Structure project was challenging for me, with the weather and my anxiety, but I achieved a good outcome and even with its horrid colours, I was able to make the Beacon look rather pleasant.

If I could do anything again with the project, honestly I would choose a different location, recently I visited a friend and where she lives, 20 minutes from where I live, I saw multiple buildings and I was looking at them and realised they would have been more ideal for my project. They were a church and chapel, although I also began thinking that the churches and chapels were a bit over used, so I guess it would have just looked like another gothic building. So in that regard, I’m happy that I used the Beacon and I gained plenty of challenges from this building alone. I learned more about using lens filters during this project, I knew of ND filters and the many others you can use, but I hadn’t owned any of my own until now. All I had was a camera and a lens, and over time I’ve been able to get myself a 250mm lens and an ND filter which has helped to drastically improve my photography. I really enjoyed this project a lot, it took some doing and multiple attempts, but with it being so close to home, it was easy to go out and get it done. 

I was unsure of what layout software to use for my presentation of my final 5 Structure images, I tried using photoshop but it just looked messy and wasn’t terribly pleasing. I remembered hearing mentions of being able to use Canva for the presentation side to things and I decided to give it a go, I wasn’t sure how to present it without adding some information about my shots and the location I photographed, but I made a “zine” using Canva to present my images in a way that wouldn’t distort them or shrink them too a point you can’t see them very well. I’m unsure if I am to submit the link to Canva for my zine or the PDF version of it, so I will be uploading both just to ensure at least one of them is right!

Below is the link to my Canva.