HND Photography Student

A weblog following my progression towards HND Photography in 2005 & 2006

Monday, May 29, 2006

Final Flier Design

...et voila...

Front:

Diversity Flier Front

Reverse:

Diversity Flier Reverse

These are CMYK because they're for printing, so the colours aren't really for RGB display, but you get the idea.

Now to find a printer...

Unit 25 location shoot #3: return to Heysham

On the final leg of my Final Major Project now. I reckon I need one more shoot at each of the different locations to squeeze what I can out of this project. I then have just under a month to select and organise the printing before the exhibition.

So yesterday, I went back to Heysham and spent a few hours there. I had put this off for the preceding couple of weeks due to wet weather, but today is ideal - blue skies with some cloud, and a dry day promised.

I headed straight for the nature reserve. This time, I planned to walk between it and the nature park using a path, and to see what else I could find. I also have my Lomo LCA and a Polaroid camera as well as the digital SLR, just to see how a different approach may work.

A lot of this shoot is re-treading ground from last time - trying to broaden ideas touched upon before, as well as looking at things I knew I had missed. But I also spent quite a lot of time exploring different parts of the area - so the seafront, and the front of the power station, which is basically a huge expanse of concrete. It seems to have anticipated the rise in sea levels which will take place over the coming decades - it's very much a 'sea wall', and has the air of a fortress about it, and is a good height from the waves below. There are also lots of people fishing - presumably, not catching fish to eat, or maybe they haven't read about the levels of radioactivity in seafood caught around this part of the coast (or in the Irish Sea as a whole for that matter)?

In the end, I have had enough by the time I get back to the reserve. With hindsight, I would have perhaps taken a week off work and stayed in the area, able to spend time between sites, and then working on images later at night. It may have been more productive that way. Plus, I could have spent more time around Old Heysham, and taken in the disused Holiday Camp which has the power station as a backdrop, as will the planned Retirement Home complex which is currently being built on top of it ('Radiant Vistas' as one wag on the web has called it).

And more memory is needed! I never used to have problems running out of film - I'm sure I shot less photos when it was my primary medium. But I ran out of memory again today, and without being able to download the images, I can't do anymore. This also happened at the original shoot a few weeks ago.

I will post photos to Flickr as soon as they are processed.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Unit 19 Deadline A

Tonight was the hastily organised shoot for one of the short deadline briefs for Unit 19. I had to take photos of someone appearing at a window and then leaving a building. This was actually my fellow student Eve, although we did draw some stares and funny looks from people around college.

We actually repeated the exercise after the first lot, as there had been one or two teething problems. The resulting (edited) shots are below:

window

leaving

I found this quite difficult to complete satisfactorily. Getting the camera settings right is important - shooting with a large aperture to get reasonable shutter speeds, using the motor drive to fire off as many shots as possible - there's no time to change things. Also, being 'ready' and alert - I got caught out the first time because I was absent-mindedly checking exposure readings when Eve appeared at the window. On the second shot, I actually placed the lens against the glass and fired away.

It's really at the other extreme of the way I have approached photography up until now.

Flier Designer

...that's me. I've been tasked with producing the final design for our exhibition flier, and latterly, responsibility for organising printing etc.

I will display the final design here in due course.

Monday, May 22, 2006

The real reason for Nuclear Power

Amongst all the hullabaloo about Nuclear Power, who is asking the questions that should be asked? Such as, 'why is it necessary to spend countless billions on power stations that will last for 60 years (maximum) using a fuel that is similarly limited (possibly even shorter the more other nations go for Nuclear, especially China)?'.

Then there's the issue of the waste produced. And that's the key. Because it's a principal component in Nuclear Weapons. It's far from concidental that in November last year, a month after Blair's Greenpeace-gatecrashed nuclear annoucement, the press carried smaller stories about the Government's quiet intentions to replace Trident, without even a vote on the issue in Parliament.

But there are some honest journalists out there. An article in the New Statesman last week 'joined the dots' on this issue, pointing out that the US and the UK have a history of swapping nuclear waste for use in their respective Nuclear Weapons programmes, possibly in breach of International non-proliferation treaties.

Suddenly, it all becomes clearer. So why aren't Greenpeace et al shouting these facts from the rooftops?

...the market responds

Here's the real story - the price of Uranium shoots up. Clearly, Blair's comments have an effect, signalling that the Nuclear industry is a growth market.

And the other side of that is that the price has risen because it's scarce - a finite resource. So Mr Blair, if Nuclear Power is economically and environmentally necessary, please explain why countless billions will be thrown at extracting a resource which will only be available for around 60 years?

The Blair Nuke Project

So it's been confirmed - what was suspected all along - that Blair is for Nuclear. So much so that he has pre-empted his own committee's report and nailed his colours firmly to the mast.

So battle is now joined. Polarisations will follow in the hail of spin that has been prepared and will now begin to issue forth. Let's face it, the decision has already been made. But it's not the end, only the beginning...

Sunday, May 14, 2006

More exhibition publicity

More examples of leaflet designs for the exhibition:



Friday, May 12, 2006

Exhibition Publicity

I've uploaded some ideas for Fliers/Posters/Postcards to Flickr here. These are for joint publicity.

First design



Second design



'Diversity' is provisional, because the other students prefer 'Diverse Photos'. But it remains to be seen what happens with the ideas. More to come soon.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

More Distinctions...

I could be getting a swelled head here. Though I've yet to receive marks for the Unit 17 images which I completed what seems like aeons ago, tonight I got my marks back for the Unit 12 (Advertising) Briefs I handed in last month.

And I got distinctions again. I've no need to tell you what my aim is now, but I now have 2 Briefs from Unit 19 left to complete, as well as the Final Major Project itself.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Unit 25 - stuff!

For want of a better word, and partially, a reminder to myself.

I need a title for my exhibition. I started with a working title 'Going Nuclear?', which is a bit naff really. Ideally, I need a phrase, but quotes are a good place to start. This is, ironically, from the American General Omar Bradley (who the US Army named this fighting vehicle after):

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants"

So perhaps 'Nuclear Giants, Ethical Infants'... it's a start

In my googling, I also found this - Radiation Monitoring in Lancashire.

The other Springfield(s)

I've just realised that there is another Springfield - in this, the place where the Simpsons is set. I don't really watch this TV show, but I know enough about it to be aware that Homer Simpson is employed at the local nuclear power plant.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Unit 25: second location shoot

More photography for Unit 25. Today, I spent a number of hours out at various locations in Lancashire.

I started in earnest at Goosnargh outside a Vet's practice. Why? Well, because part of the grounds contains the former 'Regional Government Headquarters' in the event of a nuclear war. The bunker buildings are there - pictures can be seen here. But, in the end, I got cold feet. I didn't fancy walking in and also felt rather insecure about asking permission. Perhaps some other time?

The other thing is that I felt it was moving away from the focus of my project again. Although there's a relationship - I think there was/is a lot of sense in the argument that nuclear power and the resultant waste leads to nuclear proliferation - it may be taking the project off in another direction.

Not too put off, I headed off to Inskip, the site of a disused airbase considered by Nirex for disposal of waste. It stands out from a distance because of the proliferation of radio masts, but when you draw near, there are all kinds of warnings signs about trespass and the fact that it is still MOD land. To be honest, I missed opportunities to take some shots from the car - lots of lovely dilapidated barracks and Nissen huts. Instead, I shot viewpoints from a road junction.



I felt that there was something symbolic in the 'Give Way' signs - an instruction, or an invitation?



I may return and try something else out at a later date.

Then it was westwards to Weeton, the site of an army barracks, and another site considered for the disposal of nuclear waste. There was no stopping here - lots of gateways with 'NO PARKING - MOD' etc. Looking back, I could have briefly stopped and shot them, but these things often occur to me afterwards. Instead, I parked up in a laybay on a bend and shot a broad view of the landscape, taking in the South side of the camp and beyond. Blackpool Tower was clearly in view, although my 24mm lens has minimised it somewhat.



After this, I travelled on to what was the final stop - Springfields, a nuclear fuel fabrication plant. This place already stores waste above ground. It also apparently makes depleted uranium. I knew from the map that there was a windmill right next door, but upon arriving, it was clear that it was now a pub. The sails had been shorn, which was a delicious irony.



I then got back in the car and drove around the western end of the site. This felt like a very compact and enclosed place, almost 'secret'. I headed back and took some shots outside the main entrance:



A stone cross, on the verge near the entrance. Rich in symbolism - how bizarre.



But even more delicious is the 'floral skip' on the other side of the road!

The text that adorns it is fantastic. It's sometimes amazing how these things can exist and deliver such subconscious ironies?

I called it a day without visiting two other sites. But there should be a re-visit to follow up on some other potential ideas.

I've added some of the images to my Unit 25 set on my Flickr page.

(Apologies for the small image size - any larger and it plays havoc with the html).