Social Commmentary Folio

After two set backs and racking my brain as to who I was going to try and team up with next, the one person I didn't really think of was the one who's by my side every step of the way, everyday, in some way. So I teamed up with Zach and the 2nd love of his life (I think haha!) and documented the process of him building his car stereo boot installation leading up to Canberra's MEA ACT Sound Quality and SPL Finals. I think my thoughtful planning and idea of what I wanted to capture worked out fairly well. I spent a couple of long nights at BDL Car Stereo (Zachs workplace) documenting the time consuming construction and efforts he goes to, to make the presentation of his car "perfection".

Unfortunately I wasn't able to have spent as much time as I would have liked to documenting this process as I had work and study commitments of my own.

The day of the finals quickly crept up on us and I had a fair amount of ideas stacked up in my little mind. I shot from 830am - 7pm on that Sunday trying to cover the whole process Zach's car went through to be judged, Zach's emotion and goings on and then the presentation of the finals winners and the years overall awards.

Basically the car is entered into several categories

Show Class - where he is judged on the way the car is presented, the overall display of the car and the workmanship that Zach has proudly put into the car.

SPL - the sound pressure level reading of the cars overall loudness.

SQ - The sound quality of the car's stereo (clarity, speaker positioning, staging, bass levels etc.)

Fiber glassing and sanding his custom hand made sub box.

Dynamatting (sound proofing) done! Now time to tape off for more fiber glassing.

Airbag compressors in foreground, shot from where rear seats fold down.

Few minor tweaks and its in ready to be trimmed!

Show Class Judging

Final tune before being judged for SPL and SQ

SPL Meter

And there it is, one of the loudest decibel readings for the day

Zach with little sister in arms, showing off his pride and joy to fellow competitors and Canberra's car industry well known professionals.

Waiting anxiously, he kept touching his face...

And there it is ...Grand Champion 2009

(Yes thinking back on it I should have taken a wider shot, with everyone supporting Zach and his efforts - very hard to move around in the side of a small pub for an ideal shot location)

FINISHED (small) PRODUCT(s)

I feel these images all speak for themselves. I wanted my images to have a fun, cheeky, yet non offensive, professional and eye catching impact on my viewers. After all, SEX sells doesn't it?

I approached this assignment with an open mind, drawing ideas from within each individual box as it stood before me. I had gathered a large range of materials to compliment what each of the products range was offering. I kept the connection of shallow depth of field running through all images to really make the subject pop from the background, drawing the eye straight to the product but still having that bit of reference material present. I definitely battled through some days (but always pushed through), other days everything just fell into place. Overall I feel I achieved probably my highest quality folio to date, in the end having also gathered a large amount of individual experience along the way.

Background - Bubble wrap

Tingly Christmas craft cellophane'ish strips used to reference "Tingle".

Lit evenly with two soft boxes from either side of subject

Background - Bubble wrap, spotlighted with flash to try & match the "tingle" text glow. Tingly Christmas craft cellophane'ish strips underneath netted material used to reference "Tingle". Main flash front lit and slightly to the side of subject with reflector on the opposite side to achieve slight graduation and more of a 3D approach.

Background - Checkered material to accompany the car / race theme (referencing a checkered race flag). Subject accompanied by a car speedometer (referenced from packaging & "extended pleasure"). Both subjects placed on a mirror to achieve desired reflection.

Background - Blacked our studio and disco ball hung from retort stand. Long exposure to achieve light painting with a glow stick (referencing "glow in the dark"). Subject again placed on mirror to achieve reflection.

Background - Studded package padding referencing "studs" and the texture pictured on the box.

I used a differently shaped padding in the foreground still similar to what was used for the background, but I felt the shape of this one closer referenced "ribs" as it wasn't quite as pronounced as the shape of the padding I used in the background but more of a wave / ribbed texture.

Background - Floral material with a range of different blues

(blue referencing the brand and "world's no1 condom brand" sticker). The use of feathers is obviously referenced in the range promoted. Again similar to one of the "tingle" ranges, I spotlighted the background from behind the material and lit the front with a main flash & reflector. This image has had the two feathers in the background photoshopped in from other shots I had taken so that I could achieve the desired look I was going for as it was difficult to get the feathers to fall in their "perfect" positions.

I kept this one really simple with just the background referencing "flavours". When I went for a more complicated approach the image started to look a little too busy. The subject is simply just placed upon a piece of glass to achieve a slight reflection but also have the background make a subtle appearance through the transparent material to accompany the true background.

Presentation Methods - Intention & Rationale

From the start my inspiration for this final folio piece was my boyfriends little sister Eloise (featured in the images)

With her always dressing up & using her imagination, talking to imaginary friends and always keen to go an adventure she lead me to create a children's story that I feel I will be expanding on for a few years to come!

So with all of that in mind we set off to Floriade, Eloise dressed as a "FAIRY PRINCESS" NOT "just a fairy" in her words HAHA!

When we got there the thought came to mind that I could base the story along the lines of a "fairy princess" searching for her lost magical fairy dust. I felt that Floriade was the perfect setting to do so, being quite appropriate for what I was aiming for.

So basically the finnish product is Eloise searching for her lost magical fairy dust which the naughty gnomes had been hiding from her. In the end having found the magical fairy dust, it had given her back her magical fairy powers (transformed in the face paint image) so she was able to again do her magic and of help to all the creatures in her magical kingdom.

As I said I feel the story is incomplete in the sense of it being a children's "story book" so to speak and can defiantly be expanded on but at the same time I feel the images tend to tell a story on their own. Many different little stories can be created from the series on their own, depending on how the viewer reads the images themselves.

Folio Portraits

I was quite pleased with my results in regards to my plans for these portraits, as always there is room for improvement and expanding of ideas.

Shot at f7.1 @ 14sec ISO 100

Multiple Exposure

Here I aimed to work mainly with lighting the silk textures, Mel's features. Wanting to try and achieve a contemporary dance theme, I found this quite a challenge as whenever I attempted my multiple exposures the studio was never fully vacant resulting in not being able to achieve complete darkness and having to work with limited space. This meant a fair bit of post production burning in and adjustments were needed to be made. As far as the multiple positioning goes I also found this a challenge trying to work with both of my models in regards to avoiding overlapping of body parts and having them stay in frame with the limited space they had to work in to produce their moves. There is defiantly room for improvement here and now Ive experienced how to achieve these sorts of exposures, I aim to continue to expand on what I have to learn in this area.

Shot at f.4 @ 125 ISO 100

Head-waist, out of focus background

I went for a simple approach with this portrait. Touching on technique used in the previous semester with tungsten of course in this case I replaced the tungsten with flash as the purpose was to practice with studio flashes. I revisited the Rembrandt lighting technique and felt it suited the effect I was going for. I tried to avoid the flash being so harsh on the face with a large softbox on the flash and having it fire at a setting of 5.0. A reflector was used to soften the harsh shadows but still keeping the "Rembrandt triangle" on the cheek. For the background I used a setting of 6.0 and snooted the flash for a spotlight effect. My plans from the start were to have this as a black and white image as the background I chose (1970s style blanket from home) would contrast nicely and I feel Zach's fair complexion comes up nicely in a black and white image.

C@W parental feedback

After having seen the image of her son Jayme on exhibition at the Hyperdome, Rebecca (Jayme's Mother) had gone to the efforts of getting in touch with me in regards to purchasing a copy of the print for herself. Rebecca and myself have arranged for further viewing of other existing images taken whilst I was working with Jayme & the other children in my C@W area and I am awaiting her reply in regards to further purchases.

Im also in the process of contacting my C@W area manager to arrange for other parents to view and purchase photos of their children also.

A great positive in regards to getting my name out there and possibly gaining more work in the future!