In Vitae Mors

In Vitae Mors - (Latin)"The Life and Death"

For this shoot I am going to take photographs of dead flowers to show the beauty in death. I am going to shoot using a small torch and coloured card, which I will reflect the light off to give my images a coloured hue. I will  use a Nikon D7200 with a 105mm Macro Lens, as this will allow me to capture the minute details in the flowers. I will also be using a tripod and a shutter release as this will help to eliminate camera shake. 

Here is my equipment:

Image Bank:

Artist's Research:

Billy Kidd:

Born in 1980 in Panoma City, this  based photographer focuses primarily on commercial portraits. However, he is first and foremost an artist and like all artists he seizes every opportunity. Due to this he was transfixed by a vase of dead flowers that was in his house. 

I love this photo series by Billy Kidd as he shows 

Contact Sheets:

Images that need improvement:

DS7_4484.JPG:

This is one of the first images that I took, because of this I was still trying to establish the camera settings that would give me the image I wanted. This image is too dark despite the shutter sped being 1/25. However, this could be because the F-stop was F/25 and so this would have caused the camera's shutter to slow down as the sensor tries to focus on a large area. To improve this image I will raise the exposure in Photoshop as this will allow me to see the details in the petals and leaves. I wouldn't consider re-shooting this image as I can correct it in the editing process and there are better images in the photo shoot. 

DS7_4518.JPG:

During this shoot, I wanted to reflect the colours of the subject in the lighting. To do this I was reflecting torch light off of the different coloured card. This made it very difficult to control how much light I was reflecting and consequently how much I was colouring the image as different angles of the torch on the card yielded different effects. This image was also shot with an ISO of 640 and so the finer details are very likely to be pixelated. If this image turns out to be too pixelated to use I will either scrap it or I will reshoot. These are the only two courses of action as the camera settings are an integral image as cannot be changed after the fact.

DS7_4522.JPG: 

In Billy Kidd's images he has nothing in the background and in some he doesn't even have the whole profile of the flower lit; he has done this to create a tunnel vision for the viewer so that they only focus on the petals. At the back of this image, I have lots of debris from the other flowers when I took them out of a vase. This distracts from the other elements of the flower that I wanted to focus on. I could use Photoshop with this image and remove the flower from the foreground and paste it into a plain black background. Fortunately for myself, I reviewed the images as I was shooting and because of this I have other photographs that are framed better than this and so won't need to undergo the strenuous task of removing the flower from the image. 

DS7_4536.JPG:

In Billy Kidd's images, the flowers are the only focus of the image and so draw the viewer into the photo. This image is poorly framed as the flowers were difficult to position and so I couldn't get the shot I wanted from this camera angle. I won't need to reshoot this image as it is only one image that is defective, the camera angle was changed in the other images. 

My Best Images:

DS7_4489.JPG:

This sunflower is dried, wrinkled and dead, a cycle that all of us must go through in our lives. We all must die. I chose this image as one of my best as it looks like it's the end of the season for sunflowers and so they have been left in the fields to decompose back into the ground they emerged from. 

DS7_4558.JPG:

I focused this image on the very fine innards of the flower as these wouldn't normally be visible when the flower is alive as it would be covered by the feathery element of the flower that still remains at the edges of this example. I like the symbolism of this image as it brings a specific clarity that wouldn't be present if the flower was still alive. This may also relate to everyday life as we are chaotic and frantic in life but when we retire we have more time for ourselves to calm down and let the dust settle.

DS7_4573.JPG:

DS7_4588.JPG:

DS7_4594.JPG:

I like this series of three images as it looks like the sunlight is filtering through the undergrowth as twilight approaches.

DS7_4597.JPG:

For this shot, I used a low F-stop to focus the viewer's attention on the innermost petals so that they would be forced to look at the beauty of the flowers desipte it being dried.

DS7_4605.JPG:

AO3: Record ideas,observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My main idea for recording decay was to investigate how different coloured tones would affect the mood of the images along with lighting. I photographed several dead flowers with a low F-stop to focus the viewers attention onto the innermost petals with a shallow depth of field. The flowers came out better than I expected them to as I wasn't positive if the background would be black. I would have like to darken the images a little bit more however I was afraid of losing any of the details. Next time I would like to document the flowers slowly dying as this would show the different steps of how time changes things for better or for worse.

My favourite image from this shoot is DS7_4597.JPG as it has a shallow depth of field using a low F-stop that creates a telescopic zoom into the flowers petals. This makes the viewer look at the different colours and tones that are present as a result of it's decay. I created this image by using a torch that I put in a cup so that the light would be very soft to give me a black background and because of this I had to extend the shutter speed.

My least favourite image is DS7_4531.JPG as the lighting is too dim /cool and the camera is slightly tilted. There is also petals from other flowers in the background which detract from the main subject. The shutter speed is too fast and so not enough light reached the sensor consequently the image wasn't bright enough.

The photographer that influenced me to do this shoot was Bill Kidd. A man who is usually a portrait photographer but made an exception for a vase of dead flowers that managed to entrance him. I have always liked flowers and death has always fascinated me so I wanted to document the development and processes that change life to death. I wanted to keep the atmosphere of my shoot similar to that of Kidd's, I did this by using low lighting which would give me a dark background.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas critically on work and progress.

I used a Nikon D7200 with a 105mm macro lens, a tripod, remote release, a torch and different coloured card. The lighting was me bouncing the light from the torch off of the different coloured pieces of card so that they would reflect colour onto the plants.

My first few images were too bright or too coloured as I was holding the torch too far away from the card and so a large amount of white light was reflecting instead of a small intense coloured light.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

To improve my images I will use photoshop, more specifically I will use the filters to alter the appearance and texture of the images so that the subject looks weary and old to match my theme of decay.

I will also use curves alongside exposure and contrast to change the colours and tones of the images to make them look more deteriorated.

Then I changed the colour balance to make the image looks slightly more yellowed which mimics the flower in life but also makes the petals and leaves look desiccated. 

Lastly I applied a filter to the image as I wanted to create a finite atmosphere where the viewer feels like this is their last chance to see this flower before it rots away. I used a sponge filter as I liked the grainy effect it created which is similar to the grain that was a unavoidable part of retro photography which furthers the implication that the flower is old.

Here are my final images:

For this image I wanted to edit the image so that it looked like an old Polaroid photograph with noticeable pixelation in the background. I felt this would add to the dry and aged theme I was trying to create as the Polaroid camera has been surpassed by much more advanced models and yet it is still universally recognised as symbol of good times gone by.

I wanted to make this image look like it was someone's view through frosted glass. My reasoning behind this was that it made the image mysterious and gave it a depth it didn't have before. Why are you being made to look through frosted glass and what is on the other side. 

For this image I drained the colour out of it to symbolise the way the leaves have lost their life in the human tradition of giving flowers. Is it wrong that we cut these flowers lives short or is it a mercy as they wouldn't have been admired if they were still hidden away in their fields. 

My idea for this image was to try and give the flower back some of the colour it lost. To do this I used a Neon filter from the filter gallery in Photoshop, this gave the rose these strange and bright colours that I liked.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

I feel like I have produced a personal and meaningful response documenting the decay of flowers and how they live and die to aesthetically please humans that shear them from their roots. I have tried to exaggerate or minimise the effect of time passing in relation to these flowers by editing them using photoshop but also through my use of coloured filters. 

For my next shoot involving flowers I would like to document the stages of deterioration and how appearances change at different time increments. This would show me the small changes and details.