So update on the investigation title and some experiments....

After posting the first draft of my investigation, I have altered it slightly to take in my interest in both photography and computer science.

New investigation route:

Does the unlimited access to digital and social media expose the individual to art and experiences that may have otherwise remained a closed door? 


Let the journey be the destination; before the phenomena of the Internet, artists such as Dan Eldon documented his travels across South Africa using journals, and creating very thought provoking photo montages of his experiences and the impact of the environment he was exposed to. 


The concept of documenting has continued today but with digital and social media as the journal and anyone with Internet access the audience. Photographs can be taken, edited and uploaded in an instant, with viewing happening 24/7 across the globe. This new, wider community has opened the door for many to try something new, or realise they are not alone. 


By taking up my camera again I have influenced my 4 year old son, who has become interested in taking photos of what he experiences and he wants to share them with his own audience. This has allowed my son to interact with the world in a different way, seeing new things and deciding on what is a good picture. My son has also influenced me as he views the world from different angles and levels, along with his enthusiasm when out and about, which is contagious. This has provided me with a new perspective when capturing images, taking into account what he can see and how that impacts on his photographs, and allowing this to influence how I set up my shots.

So what do we think?

Anyway onto the experiments. I am currently taking photos when I get the opportunity to, I have a lot of stuff going on at the moment so trying to fit in going out specifically to take photographs is pretty slim. After a trip round the zoo with my family, and using my mobile phone, I got some interesting images that I could combine  And Sunday I was off to flyball training, so I took my camera with me, the idea was to get some images of the dogs and also from the brige looking down on the motorway. I have just sat down to put some images together and see what I could make that would be a little different.

Zoo Experiment:

I like how this one turned out, the bright colour on the T-shirt makes the eye track through the image. It was interesting to see the different positions that people moved into as the walked down the path. 

Motorway Experiments:

Original Image once all the photos were combined together, I had to remove some cars that appeared in between the lorries as it made the image way too busy to really see anything.

With a filter put over, I like the detail on the vehicles coming through, and it really makes them stand out.

This is a combination of two different final images using different levels to alter the colour intensity. I loved the dramatic sky on the first image but not the washed out vehicles, the second image had the vehicles that you can see above but a very pale sky. This looks much more interesting combined together.

Pinhole Cameras

A bit of a change from the usual Raspberry Pi related items, but something that I have become interested in over the last few months. At work the staff were given the opportunity to do the AS Photography course, as I keen photographer (pre-children) I decided it was a great opportunity to get my camera out again.

I have had lots of fun over the year collecting photos of different things and editing them to suit my needs for the AS course. My eldest son (who is 4) and I have had some lovely trips out to different places to take images to use, so much so, he has his own sketch book to keep his photos in.

I have now completed the assessments and work has been moderated so along with keeping my fingers crossed for my students, I am also hoping for a good grade myself. This has given me a bit of time to think about what I might like to do as the next unit to complete the A2 year of the course.

After much Internet searching and thinking about what I would like to try, I have decided to go back to basics and make my own cameras. In my search I cam across this website http://www.pinholephotography.org/

This has some really interesting stuff on it, and I had no idea how easy it would be to make a pinhole camera and set it up. After collecting the required items (the right photo paper being the most difficult to find) and asking my flyball team mates to keep hold of their empties for me to collect I was ready to make the cameras.

So with the video instructions written down and a good idea about how to create the basic camera I began.

Part way through and the lid is made, and all seems to be going well, I am winning the battle against the gaffa tape that wants to stick me to everything else in the house. And the battle with the children who keep running off with different items every time they visit the table to see what is going on. Loading the paper was interesting as I didn't want to expose it to much light, but as it is spending at least 6 month being exposed to the outside world a few seconds to get it in place in the can was not going to cause too much damage.

And here is the finished camera, all ready to roll. I am setting one up at home as my test one with others going up as I make them over the next few weeks. The idea is to catch a long exposure over 6 months with the paper recording the light movement to give some interesting results. It is a fantastic experiment as I have no idea what the images are going to turn out like as the camera is exposed 24/7 for 6 months tracking daylight and night time.

Here are the cameras set up in the test locations, fingers crossed that the one on the bridge does not get removed (I have put a note on it to explain what it is doing). The final challenge of setting up the cameras was to get them attached, I bought some super long cable ties, which were still not long enough unless I doubled them up and used a bit of string to keep it steady!

The idea for the project is to study long exposure photography using my own digital camera and comparing the results from the pinhole camera, using the same locations where possible. Fingers crossed....