23-04-11

19-04-11

Digital shoot

I'm having a lot of money issues lately, basically I'm skint! Also, I'm shooting a lot of my project over the easter holiday which means I will not have access to the darkroom facilities at uni. I won't be able to process the film myself and there isn't enough time to wait until we get back. Therefore, I will be shooting this project on digital. I am not overly happy about this, but it does make things a lot easier. Also, I don't use digital very often so it would be good to have some digital images in my portfolio at the end of the year.

Phytophthora Tree Disease

I've decided to concentrate on the Phytophthora tree disease in South Wales, in particular the Afan area.  On my first shoot a worker from the Forestry Commission showed me around the area where it a lot of the felling has happened, and it still happening. His job is directly involved with the Phytophthora disease so he has a lot of knowledge on it all.
I chose to shoot on black and white and colour 35mm for my first shoot so I could decide what looks better for this project. I was worried black and white would not work well in such a colourful environment. Here are some of the comparisons. I prefer the black and white images, however I do think the colour ones work well too.
I don't think it is clear from the images what the project is about, so in the final presentation I will be sure to add in a lot of textual facts explaining the disease and the actions the workers have had to take.

Forestry Commission Contacts

I received this email from someone who works at the Forestry Commission in South Wales-

"Your enquiry  regarding environmental photography  has been passed on to me by my Director,
I think we have quite a good opportunity for you in S Wales as we are currently dealing with a outbreak of a tree disease that is killing larch trees that is partly linked to climate change, we also will be having a very large wind farm built on FCW managed land and we supply wood fuel to a biomass power station in Port Talbot that supplies the national grid there are photo opportunities from large machinery working to close up's of trees suffering from the tree disease and our staff and contractors who deal with this" 

I also have permission to photograph in the Forest of Dean, which is a lot closer however they do not have as much manual things to photograph. I received this email from them-
 

"I have been passed your email.  I'm quite happy for you to come over, but actually what to photograph might be quite difficult.  A lot of the work is adapting techniques in management of trees which are difficult to express visually.  There is a team based at both Alice Holt in Farnham and in Bristol.  You're quite welcome to come to the Dean and take photos but will need to discuss what you want to focus on.

 

Have a look at the following link to our website and let me know how we might help.

 

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-7m8f59"

 

I need to look into what it is I want to photograph at the Forest of Dean, and whether they can be of any help to me.

 

 

There's also this link that i have been sent which is about using the wood to fuel renewable energy in South Wales-

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6HYJAE

New direction....just concentrate on forests

Ok, so after my tutorial with Anthony I have decided it would be best just to concentrate on one particular area. It was far too broad before.

I want to concentrate on stories that are realted to forests/woodlands.

I have arranged shoots with different eco-villages-

Tipi Valley in Wales

Coed Hills in Wales

Round House in Wales

I have also got permission to photograph with various forestry commission bases in Wales and England, with issues related to climate change and tree diseases.

I also still plan on going to Westonbirt Arboretum

I want to photograph the relationship people have with trees, whether they live with them or work with them. I want to see ways in which people use trees. The overall issue I will be looking at is Climate Change. The land has been radically impacted by humans, we essentially live in a concrete world now. So it would be interesting to see the people who still have a relationship with the remaining forests and woodland, and to look into the need to sustain them.

What direction to go in?! lots of questions i need to find the answers to

So far, I  have arranged to photograph a wind farm being put up in South Wales, the staff at Westonbirt Arboretum, and the landfill site/recycling center in Gloucester.

The wind farm will take a few weeks from beginning to end.-ENERGY

The work at Westonbirt is an ongoing process for years to come,and they do a lot of different work there. -TREES

 

The visit to the landfill site and recycling centre will last an hour each. I am also able to photograph the bin men on their rounds. I would rather have longer at the landfill site and recycling centre, but this is all the access I could get.-WASTE / RECYCLE

I don't know where to go from here.

Should I focus purely on one area? 

Or should I branch out and look at other areas as well? 

So far I have only focused on the good that people are doing, should I look at the bad as well so i can compare?

Will looking at other subject areas make it too vague?

Should I focus on one particular theme?

Other areas I would like to look into are- 
consumption - pollution - light pollution - population - individual waste

Westonbirt visit...

I went to meet a nice guy called Ben Oliver at Westonbirt Arboretum on the Saturday just gone. 

He was incredibly helpful, as he talked me through all the things that staff have to do to maintain the arboretum, and he also showed me around a few of the areas they have recently been doing work to. 

In short, they do a hell of a lot of work. There are so many different aspects that I didn't even know about. The beginning stages where they plant the seeds in greenhouses the Propagation which can take years and has less than 40% success rate.

At a certain age trees start to minimize their co2 intake, so it is better for the Arboretum and to act against climate change to chop them down and grow new ones. Although this doesn't look good to the public, they are thinking way ahead for future generations. Trees take hundreds of years to grow, so they have to think very carefully and plan their landscape very thoroughly so they have a constant mix of new and old trees.

Tree surgeons are often called in to maintain the the trees. When they are diseased they may need to be chopped down, or if they have grown too big some branches need to be removed to let more light into the area so it is more enjoyable for the public, and so the surrounding trees get the light they need to breathe.

I've emailed Ben saying the kind of things I would like to photograph. I said 

"I am particularly interested in photographing the work done to the trees. From the beginning in the propagation stage, to planting, to the end of their life when they are chopped down by tree surgeons, plus any work that is needed to be done to prevent against diseases. I am also particularly interested in what work is done to combat climate change, and would like to learn more in that area."

I am waiting to hear back as he needs to check with a man called Mark (who runs the tree team and organizes all the health and safety) to make sure it is possible for me to do it, and what dates I can visit.

Although we are arranging dates, Ben did say that the work they do completely varies and depends on the weather, and the type of things that come up so it will not always be possible to plan ahead. He said they could call me a day or two before and let me know the plans for that week, and that way I can work around them.

I'm really looking forward to learning more about trees, and what is done to sustain them. There is a lot of technical information that is involved, and it would be interesting if I could learn more in this aspect. I think it definitely helps to know the subject you shoot.

I have also contacted forests in South Wales and the Forest of Dean so hopefully I will get a response from them, so I can photograph on a grander scaled and different issues.

Exhibition/South Wales Shoot

I have confirmed a space above the shop called Rendevous in Cheltenham town centre. They are linked to a charity called Foot Steps. The exhibition will be from 22nd-26th March. It will include students from other courses who have also done creative work on environmental issues. 

The Environmental and Sustainability Executive from the Students Union has got in touch with me, and due to some previous mishaps he has a fairly large amount of darkroom vouchers which he could donate as a prize towards to exhibition. I am meeting him on Monday 7th February to talk about the best way to go about it. I want to make sure it's fair, and has a suitable judge. I will have my own work included, plus all the work will be very different so we will need to figure out the best way to go about it.

At the moment I have a few people interested. I have two Illustrators and one Editorial and Advertising Photography student. I hope to expand to other courses. I have asked Kim to send an email round to all third years, however I plan to put up posters around Pittville Campus this weekend so it is more publicly seen. Although I want more people to enter, I am unsure how big the space is. I will be visiting it on Saturday, so I will need to figure out how many people it can realistically fit in. If too many people enter I will have to consider declining some of them. I will do this once I have seen all the work, and see whose is the least relevant. Although this is harsh, it simply won't be feasible to find extra space to accommodate everyone. I do want it to be as fun as possible for everyone though, as I think it's an exciting experience to display your own work to the public, plus having a prize will motivate people to do their best to get the presentation of their work to a professional standard.

I need to get shooting so I have something to put up! At the moment I have nothing. I plan to have my images from the wind farm in South Wales, so fingers crossed they come out okay. I want to visit the wind farm before they get put up, when they're delivered, and afterwards. I have emailed a couple of people from the developers however they haven't got back to me yet. I'm thinking of just going down soon so I at least know what the place and area is like. I'm thinking of questioning the people that live in the surrounding area and see what their views are on the wind farm, and see if it has affected anyone's life in anyway.

Also, in the mean time I will start photographing other issues that surround me in every day life. The things that I see the public doing around me, that relates to the project. Some ideas I've had recently is to expand on my consumption project from Photographing the Real module. I was not happy with the results of this module, so it would be good to explore new ways to photograph this. I will start this on Sunday, as I will be in Westonbirt on Saturday.

some more access....

After my internship, in mid-Feb, I will be photographing the landfill site and recycling centre in Hempsted, Gloucester. I will have full access to roam around the recycling centre which is good, however it looks like I'll be shown round the landfill site in a car with someone that works there and I can take pics outside the window. It's better than nothing I guess!

I also have permission to go and photograph the workers at Westonbirt Arboretum. I'm not entirely sure what kind of work they do, so I'm planning on heading down on Saturday 5th February to meet some of the staff and find out more.

Environmental Exhibition

I am trying to organize an exhibition with other students who are doing their major projects/bodies of work on environmental issues. I think it would be a good way to get the message across, and it will hopefully make an exciting and interesting exhibition to visit as it will hopefully include all sorts of works like photography, illustration, film etc.

I have just emailed the town council and transition town Cheltenham to see if anyone can help with finding a shop/space to hire in Cheltenham town. I'm not really sure the best way to go about it.

At the moment I haven't got anyone to do the exhibition with (except one illustration student) so I need to ask around soon, I just want to do a bit of research into the costs and dates etc so I have more to tell and see who's seriously interested.

The reason I want to do it in March is so that it can tie in with the Working in the Media brief. This puts a bit of pressure on making sure I have good enough images to show by then.

I HAVE ACCESS!!

"Hi Camille,

Thank you for getting in touch.

We, the entire Infinergy team, will in fact be heading up to Ferndale Wind Farm around mid-Feb to see the turbines being hoisted.  The exact date is yet to be confirmed.  Would this be of greater interest?  As well as the hands-on construction team you would also have, project managers, CEO, MD, communication team and even most likely receptionist!

If you’d like to have a chat about this, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.  My contact details should be marked below.

I hope this is of interest. 

Kind regards,

Kari"

Well, this is perfect. I'm really excited about this. I plan to go to the site where it is being built before and after as well so I can get a contrast. Even if I don't use the images I think it'll be good to cover all grounds. 

This Sunday I plan to go to South Wales and see at least one wind farm that has already been built and to photograph that.

Also, the people at Westonbirt have emailed back and are happy to let me photograph, I think the best way to figure out if there's anything useful there is to go and see for myself, however it will have to wait until next weekend unfortunately, unless I can get there Saturday afternoon. Bit of a pain having to squeeze things into such a small space of time in the week. 

Wind Farms in the UK

Well, the renewableuk website emailed me back. they directed me to some useful links -

Wind Farms Currently under construction

Developers to contact for individual wind farms

Find the nearest wind farm to me

From this image you can clearly see that there is no shortage of wind farms for me to shoot

Wind farms in the areas closer to Cheltenham

With this information I emailed the wind farms that are currently under construction that aren't too far away from Cheltenham. There are two in South Wales.
I got a reply from one of them asking me to call them tomorrow, so I really do hope something comes from this phone call. Keep your fingers crossed!

I really want to photograph the people that put the wind turbines up. I can imagine it's quite a hefty procedure. I plan on photographing in a way that shows the people in their most natural way. I do not want to get them to pose, I want them to get on with what they're doing and for me not to get in the way.

Also, SWEA emailed me saying that a wind farm will be being built near Highnam. I'm am uncertain about the dates yet, but let's hope it's before the deadline. I am waiting on a reply to find out.

Posters

Guardian- Green Patriot Posters

I was browsing the Guardian website and found these. They're clever and funny. I might consider making something similar to promote my exhibition at the end of the year.

Stuart Franklin

 GREECE. Stylida. Windfarm about to be set up. Picture taken in 2007.

FRANCE. Champagne Region. Wind turbines. 2007.

GREECE. Corinth. Motor Oil refinery. Picture taken in 2007.

GREECE. Megalopolis. Power station. Picture taken in 2007.

GREECE. Megalopolis. Open caste lignite mine and excavator. Picture taken in 2007.

MALAYSIA. Kepong Forest Reserve. Crown shyness in the 'kapur' tree (Dryobalanops aromatica), one of the dipterocarps that, as they mature in the forest, develop mutual avoidance. 1997.

RUSSIA. Monchegorsk. Kola Peninsular. Polluted landscape affected by nickel smelter. Picture taken in 2006.

USA. California. Julia "BUTTERFLY" in a 200 foot ancient redwood tree named "Luna". She has lived in the sequoia "Luna" for the past year to protect it from deforestation. 1998.

PHILIPPINES. Manilla. Smokey Mountain, a rubbish dump, children scavenge through the waste for anything that could be recycled. 1988.

 BELARUS. 2000. Woodcutter in Beloiveskaya forest.

 I really like Stuart Franklin's work. I can tell he has covered a wide area of environmental issues over a long period of time world wide. He has photographed landscapes and people, which is what I hope to do with my project. Although he has photographed people, I don't think he has photographed them as intimately and thoroughly as I hope to.
Franklin has photographed a lot of issues from energy, pollution, waste, and deforestation. I want to address at least one of these issues. I'm just having trouble finding the people.
Franklin told me he prefers to photograph on film, and he loves photographing trees and people. I can see a lot of his images are on digital and of landscapes. I think it's near impossible to not shoot landscapes when doing an environmental project. 
He also told me he uses digital as it is easier, quicker, and better in low light conditions. I may have to consider this format when shooting my project. I ideally want to shoot on 35mm and hassleblad black and white. 35mm for the people, and hassleblad for the landscapes. But as time is an issue with me as I can't properly start shooting until after my internship I may have to consider digital as it is a lot faster to process.