Printing Decision

After evaluating the two printing options: in house (at the college) at £3.50 each, total cost £70.00, and via online printing services (at D S Colout Labs) at £1.05 each, total cost £21.00, I have decided to opt for the online printing services, which I feel would be the option selected by many businesses, based on the cost factor.

Although I do intend to print some in house, at the college, partly for comparison between the two options to compare the print quality and the likeless to the original image, the latter being the only draw back to having them printed via a third party, because the photographer has limited control over the final printing.

This decision was not easy to make, but I have to look at the final output of the process in an objective way. This is therefore my justification of my decision for the output method. One important factor, to me, is the cost but at the same time the quality and accuracy of the colour reproduction, but under the circumstances the cost factor must over rule the latter, and given the high standard from D S Colour Labs that I and friends have received, I feel confident that they will provide an equally high standard when producing these images.

Management Structures

Internal management structures are different for each company and organisation and vary on the size and type of business. Understanding the different types of business can be useful to understand how decisions are made, for example a smaller company might only have one decision maker for the choice of images and often a quicker decision and payment, where as a larger company may have a board of people who will debate before making a decision on the selection of the images.

 

Companies can be:

Sole Traders

These are where there is only one person working for the company who basically do everything, except for any work they choose to outsource to other companies, for example printing.

Partnerships

With these companies there are two or more partners who run the business, but a very important thing to note here is that ALL partners are legally liable for each others actions ! Partnerships can employ a number of people. Here the decision process may involve all the partners, which can slow down the approval process.

Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP)

These are basically partnerships, but with limited liability, basically preventing the partners from personal bankruptcy in the event the business failed. Again here the decision process may involve all the partners, which can slow down the approval process.

Limited Company

These are companies who have limited liability, which prevents the proprietor, owner, Managing Director from personal bankruptcy in the event of the company failing. All limited companies have to file their audited accounts at Companies House. Here specific departments may deal with you.

 

Public Limited Companies (PLC)

These are companies where shares are sold to people, who become shareholders in the company. With these companies there are a large number of people working for them and decisions are often made by a board of directors.

 

The Client

With the management structure in the case of a project, it is very important to identify the key responsibilities and who is responsible for each of them, and sometimes who is responsible in their absence for the client. In larger companies you could find yourself dealing with the marketing department, senior directors and their finance department. You might also end up dealing with their credit control department. It is important to always maintain an up to date list of contacts, and maintain contact at all times, ideally in writing (email, fax or letter) as any disputes at a later date can sometimes be resolved by producing an email or letter which contained any instructions which are being disputed.

For this project the key responsibilities are:

 

The Initial Contact

 

Sometimes you will have one contact at a client's company, who made the initial contact, and this is the person who you will report to during the whole project. They will handle the final decision and often liaise with their finance department to ensure that payment is made. Other times though, they will pass you on to other people for the decision process and payment of the invoice(s).

 

Key decision maker

 

If different from the initial contact, this is the person, or people who responsible for deciding on which of the images they are happy with. If there is more than one, the decision can take longer.

 

Financial department (accounts payable, purchase ledger, etc)

 

These are who are responsible for paying invoices. It is important here to be careful over payment terms as some will pay on terms of 90 days from the date of the invoice. It is therefore very important to get the terms of payment sorted out prior to starting any work. Many companies have failed due to payments for work being held back due to excessive payment terms, causing cash flow problems.

 

For the photographer

Like with the client, the decision process can vary depending on the size of the company.

 

For this project, I will look at a self employed photographer, a sole trader.

 

Here the photographer is responsible for everything involved with their side of the project, including selection, and hire, of equipment (including props, etc), where necessary, time management, choosing and travelling to location(s), booking of a studio (if necessary), booking of accommodation, taking the photographs, post production, printing and delivery of the final prints (or images on DVD) to the client and invoicing (and often chasing for payment) for the job.

Sometimes a photographer may outsource some work, like employing an agent to choose a suitable location, having images printed by an external company, etc, but these costs must be included in the final invoice and therefore can push up the bill with, in some cases, little more for the photographer. It is important to note that as the photographer is liable for their side of the work they are responsible for all the work carried out by them and anyone they appoint.

Roger Fenton

 

Roger, like many photographers, did not originally set out to become a photographer, in fact in 1838, aged 19, Roger went to University College London where he graduated in 1840 with a "first class" Bachelor of Arts degree, having studied English, Mathematics, Greek and Latin. In 1841, he began to study law at University College, evidently sporadically as he did not qualify as a solicitor until 1847, in part because he had become interested in studying to be a painter.

In 1843 Roger went to Paris, where he briefly studied painting in the studio of Paul Delaroche. When he registered as a copyist in the Louvre in 1844 he named his teacher as the history and portrait painter Michel Martin Drolling, who taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but Fenton's name does not appear in the records of that school. By 1847 Fenton had returned to London where he continued to study painting under the tutelage of the history painter Charles Lucy, who became his friend and with whom, starting in 1850, he served on the board of the North London School of Drawing and Modelling. In 1849, 1850, and 1851 he exhibited paintings in the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy.

Fenton visited the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in London in 1851 and was impressed by the photography on display there. He then visited Paris to learn the waxed paper calotype process, most likely from Gustave Le Gray, its inventor. By 1852 he had photographs exhibited in England, and travelled to Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg making calotypes there, and photographed views and architecture around Britain.

Like many British artists, Fenton decided to take up photography after seeing examples of the new art form at the Great Exhibition in 1851. He trained in Paris with a leading photographer, and was making his first successful photographs by February 1852.

Fenton was a passionate advocate for photography throughout his short career. He founded what became the Royal Photographic Society, organised public exhibitions and pushed for copyright protection for photographs. He proved that photography was a worthy rival to the traditional arts of drawing and painting.

His published call for the setting up of a photographic society was answered with its establishment in 1853; the Photographic Society, with Fenton as founder and first Secretary, later became the Royal Photographic Society under the patronage of Prince Albert.

Fenton was England’s most impressive photographer of architecture. Almost every year from 1852 to 1860, Fenton set out on a photographic campaign in late summer or early autumn, in an effort to photograph all of Britain’s major cathedrals and abbeys, castles and stately homes.

Fenton managed to combine perfect technique with an unerring ability to choose the best vantage point and lighting conditions. This enabled him to capture the smallest details of architecture, while at the same time conveying a sense of monumentality.

Usually, Fenton took a series of pictures of each building. He often began with a distant view which included the natural setting and then moved closer to show its overall shape and main features. Finally, he would select individual details for still closer portrayal - a particular chapel, porch, or portal - sometimes including figures to give a sense of scale and to animate the scene.

In 1855 Fenton went to the Crimean War on assignment for the publisher Thomas Agnew to photograph the troops, with a photographic assistant (Marcus Sparling) and a servant and a large van of equipment. Despite high temperatures, breaking several ribs, and suffering from cholera, he managed to make over 350 usable large format negatives. An exhibition of 312 prints was soon on show in London. Sales were not as good as expected, possibly because the war had ended. Fenton was sent to the Crimean War as the first official war photographer at the insistence of Prince Albert. The photographs produced were to be used to offset the general aversion of the British people to an unpopular war, and to counteract the anti-war reporting of The Times. The photographs were to be converted into woodblocks and published in the less critical Illustrated London News, published in book form and displayed in a gallery. Fenton avoided making pictures of dead, injured or mutilated soldiers.

Due to the size and cumbersome nature of his photographic equipment, Fenton was limited in his choice of motifs. And because the photographic material of his time needed long exposures, he was only able to produce pictures of unmoving objects, mostly posed pictures. But he also photographed the landscape, including an area near to where the Light Brigade - made famous in Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" - was ambushed, called The Valley of Death; however, Fenton's photographs were taken in the similarly named The Valley of the Shadow of Death. Modern photographers consider this picture, taken while under fire, to be a seminal piece of war photography. Two pictures were taken of this area, one with several cannonballs on the road, the other with an empty road.

Although well known for his Crimean War photography, his photographic career lasted little more than a decade, and in 1862 he abandoned the profession entirely, selling his equipment and becoming almost forgotten by the time of his death seven years later. He was later formally recognised by art historians for his pioneering work and artistic endeavour.

Below are some of Roger’s work:

Final Images - Macro

Below are some of my choices for my final images:

Nature’s Lenses     Shutter Speed 1/158 Aperture f 4 ISO 200 Metering Pattern Camera S7000

Pink Shutter Speed 1/223 Aperture f 4 ISO 200 Metering Pattern Camera S7000

Centre Shutter Speed 1/1024 Aperture f 3 ISO 400 Metering Pattern Camera S7000

Water Chase Shutter Speed 1/23 Aperture f 2.8 ISO 200 Metering Average Camera S7000

Veins and Water Shutter Speed 1/52 Aperture f 2.8 ISO 200 Metering Pattern Camera K10d

Light   Shutter Speed 1/588 Aperture f 2.8 ISO 200 Metering Pattern Camera K10d

Winter Leaves Shutter Speed 1/350 Aperture f 6.3 ISO 200 Metering Spot Camera K10d

Sub Zero Shutter Speed 1/111 Aperture F4.4 ISO 200 Metering Pattern Camera K10d

Frozen Shutter Speed 1/588 Aperture f 4.4 ISO 200 Metering Pattern Camera K10d

Frozen in Time   Shutter Speed 1/158 Aperture f 4.4 ISO 200 Metering Pattern Camera K10d

Joe Cornish evening

A discussion that Mr Steve had with us about a visit to the college by Joe Cornish, widely accepted as a true master of landscape photography, led to a very good and inspirational presentation by Joe Cornish at the Burton College on Wednesday 8th December 2010, in the new lecture theatre.

During the presentation, it became very clear how much Joe cares about his subjects and how he looks beyond the photograph.

Joe presented a selection of his prints, which demonstrated his artistic approach to his work.

In his photographs, Joe demonstrates his talent with his composition, with the sky featuring from 1/3 to 1/2 in the image, Joe did comment how he would concentrate on the image moving horizon line up or down depending on both the foreground and the sky, to get the best out of the scene.

Joe's photographs demonstrate how he uses the existing light, which changes all the time, to get the best lighting for his work, using the light to form shapes, patterns and lines.  Sometimes Joe includes people in his landscapes to emphasize the whole scale of some of the features in his landscapes.  Joe uses leading lines to draw the viewer into the photograph.


During the presentation, Joe explained how he used maps to see the lay of the land, and this combined with weather forecasts, which are vital to anyone who is looking at landscape photography, not only to get the best results but also for their own safety.

Where Joe features the foreground, you can clearly see the texture in the elements of the foreground, with Joe using his position from where he takes his photograph, to choose how he wishes to use the perspective and select a suitable focal point to concentrate the viewer on what Joe wants people to see.

Joe's passion for the outside comes across clearly in both his photograph, and in his words.


Certainly, a very good and informative evening, and the first of many that I would like to attend.

Digital Work Flow

 

With the introduction of digital cameras, the whole workflow of photography has completely changed after the initial capture stage.

Capture

This area of the workflow has remained unchanged, in that the photographer selects their subject, and takes light readings, either using a hand held light meter or via the camera’s metering.  If their is a strong colour cast, a white card is used to set the white balance on the camera by selecting the custom white balance option.

 

A suitable aperture is selected, either to isolate the subject from it’s surroundings or to capture both the subject and the surrounding.  A corresponding shutter speed is selected.  Then the focal length is chosen.

Once the photographer is happy with the composition, the shutter is released. The camera flips the mirror (used to direct the image to the viewfinder) up exposing the sensor to the light from the subject. The sensor, via it's photosites, reads the image and either writes the data in it's raw form directly to the memory card (if raw is selected) or processes the image as set up in the camera settings, compresses the image and writes it to the memory card (if JPEG is selected).

Transfer

Once the session has been completed, or the memory card is full, or the photographer chooses to the data is then transferred to the computer. This can either be via a card reader (external (USB, firewire, etc) or internal or by connecting the camera directly to the computer and reading the data (or images) from the memory card.

Once the images are downloaded they may be catalogued:

At this stage the photographer can first see how the images look, as the LCD screen on the back of the camera only gives them an idea of how the image looks.

Back Up

Once the images have been downloaded from the digital memory card, it is important that they are backed up, either to an external hard drive (with or without RAID) or to a removable storage medium, for example DVD, in case the internal hard drive fails.

Only after you are satisfied that a back up has been taken should you delete the images from the digital memory card.


Sorting and Grading


The next stage involves sorting though the images, to remove any images that are out of focus, in correctly metered, etc. Having already backed up the images, you can reload any images if you wish later on, for example where you only want an element of a photograph which is otherwise no good.

Converting from RAW


RAW format is the most powerful format for capturing photographs as no data is lost between the initial capture of the image and the editing process on the computer.

If you are using a RAW format, to capture the image, the next stage involves loading in the raw image to a RAW convertor (either the one supplied with the camera, a third party application like RAW Therapy or UFRAW), or your graphic editor (as long as it is capable of this).

 

At this stage the photographer can edit the images using a wide range of tools to achieve the final image that they were looking for.  It is important to note though, that if the image is not very good then the time spend in the editor trying to correct what the photographer got wrong in the first place, is wasted, because sometimes it does not work.

 

There are a number of editors available, see the photo editor page, which all have their advantages and disadvantages, the key here is to choose what you want.

 

 

Output

 

I have been very careful to title this part as some people choose to produce a hard copy of their work, others use their photography for use on the internet.

Using Online Printing Services

 

For printing, the photographer has two choices, either handle the printing in house (using their own printer) or using one of the many online photographic printing services, for example DS Colour Labs (shown below):

 

 

The main advantage with using online printing services like DS Colour Labs, is the low cost of printing, which is £1.05 for an A3 sized print (based on today’s prices), which would not be possible for anyone to match using their own printer.

 

Also the photographer could order prints on different papers, which otherwise, using their own printer, would increase the cost of printing much higher as they would have to buy packs of paper in different finishes, rather than use someone else’s paper stock.

 

I have used DS Colour Labs services and found them very good, with very good turn around times (from receiving the images, via online, to me receiving the prints.

 

One problem with online printing is that the photographer hands this responsibility over to another person (at the online company) who may not produce the results that the photographer was looking for, in a similar way to when someone takes a photographic film to a shop to process the film and make prints off the film. Personally, I know from my own experience that this can cause problems, in fact whilst I had some concert photographs (no flash used and spot metered) developed and printed, I learnt how valuable it was to discuss with the person who developed the film (where the shop has a mini-lab) what you are looking to achieve.

Also, the finished print may look darker than the original image, because the computer monitor is set up differently to the printer. In some cases the online company sometimes make the profiles (ICC) available to download, so that you can set up you system to match the settings on the publishers printer.

Printing at Home

As you can see from the screen grab above, you have a lot of control over the colour temperature of the photograph, especially useful when taking photographs of snow scenes which usually come out looking blueish, just like the photographer ;-)

You can also alter the exposure, effectively adding compensation.

Levels, curves, brightness and contrast can also be adjusted in the RAW file, retaining all the data that was captured when the shutter button was pressed.


Cropping

At this stage you can remove areas of the image that you do not want to include in the final image. This cropping of the image can prevent you from working on an area, which you will want to remove at a later stage.


Sizing

Once the image has been cropped it is important to size the image for the printing stage.


Post Production

 

Photography Assignment from BurCol - Working to a brief

I have been asked, by the client BurCol, to photograph a selection of buildings for an article on buildings and their character for their website. In the request, the client wanted a selection of buildings including modern, heritage / monuments, classical and religious.  They made a special request for a location shot at Whitby, which they wanted to include in a feature about the Whitby Goth Festival.

 

As with any project where you are working on location, consideration of the weather is an important factor, as in bad weather, eg. Fog, the shoot would have to be re-scheduled and given the time constraints this could lead to a location being completely aborted.

 

The first task was to understand exactly what the client was looking for, to ensure that valuable time was not wasted in finding unsuitable locations.

 

Next, once the brief had been confirmed, was to locate buildings that were suitable for the article, and have a number of back up options should bad weather prevent one or more locations being photographed.

 

Estimate of Resources

 

For this assignment, an important consideration would be access to the buildings, and this would influence the equipment to be used.

 

Camera - Pentax K10D

 

I chose to use the Pentax K10D, as this camera has a number of advantages over my other camera, which is a bridge camera together. The camera is a DSLR, with full control of shutter speeds and apertures. The facility to change lenses would allow me to change to a lens with a longer focal length if necessary.

 

The camera was fitted with a BG2 battery grip, with a second batter fitted, to help with portrait format photographs.

 

Additional batteries were carried in case of battery failure or high power drainage which can result when taking photographs in very cold weather.  Also, when taking photographs on location extra batteries and memory cards should always be carried. 

 

Lens - Tamron 18 – 200mm lens.

This lens was chosen as it would enable me to capture the buildings from different angles from both near and far, due to the large range of focal lengths available, and by using longer focal lengths I could reduce the impact of converging verticals, a common problem when photographing buildings, due to the use of wide angle lenses and tilting the camera upwards, where the focal plane of the camera is not parallel to the side of the building.

 

Transport - Lowepro AW200 camera bag

 

This bag was used because it allowed me to carry the kit I needed, without too much bulk, but still provide all weather protection.

 

 

Sat Nav

 

Due to the location of one of the clients requested building a sat nav was used to ensure that no time, or fuel, was wasted both travelling to and from the location.

Estimate of Time

Because some of the locations were far apart, travelling was an important consideration, especially when combined with weather, as one location could have good weather allowing photographs to be taken, where as another location could have bad weather preventing any photography. Given the tight timescale no time could be wasted, so careful planning and weather forecasts were very important.

 

Therefore the main time issues were locating suitable locations, travelling between locations, and delays resulting through bad weather.

 

The images were captured as raw files as although these required an additional step in the workflow, the images do contain data which would be lost if they were captured as compressed jpeg files, and therefore could be edited further, eg exposure compensation, which could improve the image without having to return to the location for a second shoot.

 

To help plan this assignment ConceptDraw Project was used to create a Gantt chart, a valuable tool in project management, to plan out the tasks required to complete this assignment on time.

Gantt charts are used to identify which tasks can be performed whilst other task are in progress.  They can also be used for resource management and costing purposes.  Using the gantt chart I see that thirteen working days are involved

Estimate of Cost

With all the locations being free to enter, the element of entrance fees would not impact on the costs of the assignment.

 

With the locations being spread out the main cost is fuel. 

Today, we have available via the internet route planners which can calculate routes and mileages, which can be used to calculate the fuel costs and a route.  An example of this is shown below:

Route planners display the routes both as maps, as shown above, and as a series of instructions (shown below), both of which can be printed out and taken when traveling.

One advantage of using an internet based route planner, as opposed to installed software like AutoRoute, is that any road changes are usually updated on the system quicker than waiting for the route planner software to be updated.

Satellite Navigations Systems (satnavs) are very useful, not only for planning routes but for the actual traveling, with the advantage that if there is a closed road or a diversion the satnav can calculate a new route instantly.  Satellite navigation systems are available as both in car systems, like the TomTom:

Although, some mobiles now have satnav software and built in GPS (Global Positioning System) hardware making these mobiles very handy, especially when the photographer is on foot.

 

This cost, charged at £0.50 per mile, making the Whitby photography a fuel cost of £148.00 (return journey) combined with the hourly (or daily) rate of the photographer, and accommodation costs, higher of equipment, models, assistants if necessary, post production fees are all costs which must be recovered by the photographer when they charge the client for the project.

 

Time

 

A rate has to be set by the photographer early in the running of the business, to maintain a standard price from one client to another.  Sometimes they may offer discounts for regular customers or even loss leaders to attract business when starting out, but care has to be taken to ensure that the business does not end up running at a loss.

 

For the actual photography time I have set a rate of £30.00 per day, with a rate of £20.00 per day for admin and planning and post production.  The reason for the higher rate for the actual photography is that the photographer may find themselves working in cold or bad weather or on difficult locations, so a higher rate has been applied for these days, as opposed to working in a studio or  office environment.

Materials

Today, most people still like to see their photographs on paper. The popularity of digital picture frames is growing, but people like to see special photographs mounted and framed.


Paper and Ink

If the photographer is printing the photographs in house, the cost of the paper and ink has to be included in the final cost.

With the paper, it is important to ensure that enough paper is purchased to keep the costs down, via bulk buying (economy of scale) but making sure too much paper is not purchased in case it becomes damaged prior to use. Also, it is important to try to offer only a small range of print finishes in case one type of paper, eg canvass finish is not used very often and this can lead to a higher value of stock being retained when it is not necessary, which might, at a later date, be hard to sell. Where a specialist paper, or one you feel that you would very rarely use is required it might be worth considering outsourcing to a third party company, like D S Colour Labs, for these jobs, but if they become more frequent consideration to purchasing these papers might be an option.

Different papers also require different printer profiles to ensure the highest quality, so it important to ensure that these profiles are obtained, and updated if necessary, for each type of paper. Some companies like Permajet, offer to send the photographer a custom profile for their printer (and ink) if requested.

With inks, there are options like the permaflow system that uses larger ink tanks (outside the printer) to reduce the costs of the ink. But it is important to ensure that the finish produced and the colour matching is of a high enough standard. Cheaper inks and paper are a false economy and will lead to low quality images and would damage the reputation of the photographer. Where possible, stick to the same make of ink, but keep a check on the use by dates (rotation of stock is best to prevent using out of date ink).


Mounting and Framing

Often the photographer will outsource this work to a specialist company, who's costs would have to be passed on to the client via the invoice. It is often not cost effective to mount and frame the finished prints in house.


Delivery

Often the client will collect the finished work, but sometimes the photographer will have to either deliver the work themselves, either as a special journey or enroute to another client or job, or send the work via the post (recorded at least) or via a courier, who's costs should be priced prior to invoicing the client.

 

 

Therefore the total costs for this project were:

 

Element	Pricing *	Total
Costs
Fuel (to and from locations)	£0.50 p/m	£170.00
Hire of Equipment	£	£0.00
Entry Costs	£	£0.00
Time
Planning	£20.00 per day	£100.00
Shooting	£30.00 per day	£150.00
Post Production	£20.00 per day	£40.00
Materials
Printing (ink & paper)	£2.00 per print	£20.00
Delivery (if outsourced)	£4.00 per order	£4.00
Media	£10.00 per DVD	£10.00
Delivery to Client
Hand Delivered	£0.00	£0.00
Courier
Total Costs (* exc VAT)		£  494.00
VAT	17.5%	£    86.45
Total To Pay		£  580.45

 

Running costs, like insurance, rent, equipment depreciation, etc would have to be recovered over a period of time via the companies profits, and documented on the final accounts at the end of the financial year.

 

 

Legal and Ethical Considerations

 

When taking photographs on location, especially of buildings, it is important to obey the law and not to trespass on private property. Also where windows are visible and people, or property, can be seen you must take reasonable steps to avoid invading the privacy of those inside or near to a building.

With recent concerns over terrorism, photography of some buildings could be prohibited or result in questioning by a member of the police or other security organisation.

One major area here, where the photographer is concerned is health and safety, for themselves, any assistants, models and the general public.  On site cables can be a major tripping hazard, lighting stands must be secure so they cannot fall over onto people, especially if the flash bulbs are hot from use, which can lead to burns and possible cuts should the bulb smash on hitting the person.  Even the photographer themselves can be a hazard if they move around looking through the viewfinder, and not where they are going, this can lead to anything from an embarrassing meeting to the photographer falling over someone, with both people being injured. 

 

On remote locations, the photographer, any assistants, and any models must ensure that they have suitable clothing and that contact is maintained with someone in case of an emergency.  Photographic equipment would have to be carried and stored to protect it from bad weather, extreme cold and theft. 

One problem, which is partly outside the control of the photographer, is how the images are used after they have been taken and sold to the client, as long as the photograph is accurate and does not imply anything that is not correct or can be defined as offensive to anyone.

 

To protect the photographer, and any models, as far as possible contracts and model (or property) release documents should be drawn up prior to any photography taking place, and each party (the photographer, the model, any property owner, the client, etc) should make sure that they are happy with the terms of the contract, including payment terms, and that they are also happy with the intended use of the photographs taken. 

 

These documents could form part of the evidence in a court of law for any breach of contract in the sense of failure to pay or misuse of the final photographs.  There have been cases where models have consented to photographs being taken, without any form of contract, only to have these photographs misused at a later date.

During the post processing stage care must be taken, in some cases people have taken this too far, leading to photographers loosing their jobs !

 

Heather Angel

Heather is an award-winning photographer who has been at the forefront of nature photography in Britain for three decades.

 

Born Heather Hazel Le Rougetel on 21 July 1941.

 

Her love of the natural world began during her childhood summer holidays spent on her maternal grandparents' Suffolk farm. It was therefore a natural progression for her to study zoology at University; but at that time she had no ambition to be a photographer.

 

Heather graduated from Bristol University, in 1962, and then took part in a 3-month underwater expedition to Norway – she was the only woman amongst eight men. Here, she took her first pictures – all of marine life – with an Exakta camera, which her father gave her as a 21st birthday present.

 

A period of marine biological research followed when Heather began to write articles on marine life in her spare time. In 1965 Heather worked as part-time assistant plankton sorter at the National Institute of Oceanography.

Gradually, photography began to impinge on the marine biology and some years later she turned freelance. So began a peripatetic life travelling repeatedly from the poles to the tropics in her quest for arresting wildlife photographs.

 

In 1966 she became an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, followed in 1971 when she became a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society

 

Her work has been recognised by world-wide honours and awards. In 1986, an Honorary Doctorate of Science was conferred on her by Bath University. When Nottingham University appointed her a Special Professor in 1994, she was the first British wildlife photographer to be so honoured. Four years later, the BioCommunications Association of USA made her their 1998 Louis Schmidt Laureate. From 1984-86 Heather Angel was President of the Royal Photographic Society; only the second lady President within the Society’s 152-year history. In 2000, Practical Photography described her as ‘the doyenne of nature photography’.

To date, she has produced 47 books to date.

 

Some examples of Heather's macro photography are shown below:

 

 

Analysis of Images

 

Heather has used the lens to capture the texture of the plants that she has photographed, with a large aperture to isolate the subject from it’s surroundings, with the exception of the Pond Cameo (row 3, column 1) where she has kept the leaf in sharp focus.

 

The photographs have vibrant colours and the elements in the photograph form interesting shapes.

Final Images - Architecture

Here are my final selection for the architecture photography:

Power Shutter Speed: 1/30 Aperture: f22

Mirror Mirror Shutter Speed: 1/45 Aperture: f16

In Reflection Shutter Speed: 1/500 Aperture: 9.5

Old and New

Arboretum

Hyatt

Chimney

Natural History Museum

Coopers Square

Arch