Plans for shoot
In this shoot I plan on continuing the previous shoots focus on capturing images of extraordinary sensory experiences, however, I will now focus on those involving sight and hearing.
The animals I intend to capture images of are geckos, dogs, rabbits, donkeys, sheep, snakes and a hamster. I have arranged to take images of the donkeys and sheep at a local rescue centre where I volunteer. The dogs, rabbits and hamsters I have at home as pets and I have arranged to capture images of the snakes at a friend’s home who owns them. The equipment I plan on using is a normal and a macro lens and a small light box. I will also use a camera filter for infrared light to allow me to capture landscape images in infrared. For this, I will need to set my camera on my tripod as I need to use a long time exposure of 30 seconds to 1min. I have taken a couple of preliminary images with my new infrared filter to check that it works but will need to spend time adjusting the length of exposure as well as the learning how to adjust it properly in Photoshop.
The techniques I will use will be macro close up using the light box for the gecko’s eyes and the snake's pit organs and wide angle close up for the dog’s ears. I will use a normal lens for images of the donkeys and sheep eyes and the rabbits and landscape images.
Research influence
I took inspiration from the photographer Elke Vogelsang work in the previous shoot and will again use a similar conceptual approach to hers in this shoot to capture images for extreme hearing. I really like the captivating, amusing quality she has in her images and how they focus attention onto a particular feature of her dogs. So this makes them ideal for highlighting a dog’s extraordinary ability to hear. By capturing images of my dogs with their ears dominating the image this will highlight and illustrate the importance of a dog’s sense of hearing in experiencing the world.
This image of Vogelsang’s dog Loli highlights how she has composed the image using a wide angle lens taken close up, and how this perspective emphasises the dog’s ears and nose. In the image the dog’s large nose grabs the viewer’s attention and then the leading line of the dogs face takes you further into the image where the large radar-like ears are. As they are set against a plain background this highlights them and makes them appear even bigger. This image conveys how important hearing is to a dog for it to experiencing its environment.
Dogs ears are fascinating organs, they have 18 muscles in them which allows the dog to voluntary move them towards the direction the sound is coming from, as Loli is doing here with her ears upright and facing forward. They can also tilt them, rotate them, lay them flat or make them erect and as they are positioned on the top of their head and facing forward rather than at the side of the head like ours, this contributes to the acute hearing they have. Dogs’ hearing is four times better than ours, and they can also hear higher pitched sounds. Additionally, they can also hear independently from each ear and have the ability to filter different sounds. The image therefore by focusing on the dog’s large alert radar-like ears emphasises its acutely sensitive hearing ability, and as one of my dogs has similar ears to Loli I should be able to capture images that emphasise his hearing ability for this shoot.
Another photographer who has influenced my thinking for this shoot is the Ross McGibbon. He is an Australian wildlife photographer whose work involves capturing images of reptiles in their natural habitat. In this close up image he has captured one of snakes extra unique senses which enable them to ‘see’ at night, by detecting the infrared radiation that comes from body heat. This allows the snake to hunt in the dark as they can ‘see’ warm prey. The way they do this is through their pit organs which are situated at the front of their face just above their mouth. They can be clearly seen in this image of a Green Python snake, they are the distinctive row of grooves/pits just above its mouth. McGibbon’s close up image of the snakes face captures the detail of this feature and so highlights how different the way they experience their world is from us. Though their eyesight is poor, they can see heat (infrared radiation) in the dark and when I look at this image I am conscious that I am irradiating heat and that this will really direct the snake’s attention onto me.
I have also researched the photographer Piper MacKay whose work focuses on wildlife in Africa and she has used infrared to capture some of her images. I have illustrated her work in the Research Log where an image of elephants can be seen wandering in the Savana grasses. For these images, it can also be seen how distinct the elephants appear against the white grass and the dark sky and how this makes them more easy to be seen.
I have been inspired by Marsden’s and MacKay's images to take some infrared landscape images on my camera using an infrared filter and in this way use this technique to illustrate the visual sensory experience geckos have. Gecko’s eyesight is remarkable it’s up to 350 times more sensitive than humans. They can even see colour in dim moon-light while we can only see black and white in the same conditions. By revealing the other worldly landscape seen in infrared I can illustrate to viewers how a gecko’s world looks to them.
Contact sheet
Image bank
I captured images of my pet gecko’s eyes using a macro and a normal lens in order to illustrate the beautiful detail in its spherical eye and the unusual vertical pupils. I will further go on to highlight the unusual way they see the world in infrared light.
I captured a view of the eyes of several grazing animals to highlight that their eyes are on opposite sides of their heads and this gives them wide peripheral vision with a blind spot at the front.
This image also highlights the sensory whiskers on his face.
I took close up images using a macro lens to highlight snakes pit organs that enable them to see thermal radiation.
To focus attention on how a dog has highly sensitive hearing I took a wide screen close up image but focused on the dogs left ear so that it dominates the image and makes it look huge like a large radar disc.
This is a landscape image that I used to illustrate the visual experience a gecko has as it can see in infrared. I used an infrared filter on my camera to capture this image.
My Best images
Images that require improvement
My intension with the images of the sheep and donkey eyes was to illustrate how their eyes are arranged with one on each side of their head so that their peripheral vision is extensive. This is common in animals that are herbivores and are preyed upon by carnivores as it aids them in watching out for danger. It does however leave them with a small blind spot in front of their nose or with a narrow blind strip directly behind them. I wanted to start with close up images of each of the animal’s eyes. However this was as close as I could get to the donkeys eye and is much farther away than I would have liked. They did not like me approaching too close with my camera near their eyes and the sheep were ever more spooked by this. I will therefore have to find another grazing animals to use as my model.
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
My intention in this shoot is to capture images relating to animals with extraordinary sensory abilities and this shoot will focus on sight and hearing. The images I will capture will illustrate the unusual features of the sense such as a snakes pit organs and I will also capture images to illustrate how their sensory experience would feel to them such as visualising near infrared or thermal radiation.
I will focus on several specific sensory experiences which I have selected by researching the extreme and often strange sensory abilities animals can have that relate to their sight and hearing. Following my research I selected a number of animals and their abilities to focus on in this shoot. These were selected based on how interesting I thought the experience would be to viewers, the accessibility and availability of a particular animal to me in a photo shoot, and whether the sensory ability would be able to be effectively visualised on an image.
The specific examples I have chosen are:
1) Dogs sensitive hearing ability. This I will capture using the conceptual approach I found during my research of Elke Vogelsang’s images. She has used a wide angle lens to focus attention on her dogs ear’s and nose and capture images of them where they are enlarged and out of proportion to the rest of their body. I will take images of my dog with the camera positioned close to his ears. This will make them look like large alert radar discs positioned on the top of his head and this should visually connect them with their function of capturing sounds from the environment. The huge size of the ears will make an amusing image but it will also indicate the fantastic ability of the dog’s ears to hear the quietest of sounds.
2) Snakes pit organs allow them to have thermal vision. I will capture close up images using my macro lens that will focus on the snakes face and prominently show its pit organs. These are very distinctive in the Ball python which is one of the snake species I will be using. They occur in a row of small pits like a grill just above the snake’s mouth. By highlighting this feature on the snakes face I will emphasizes how different the way they experience their world is from us. Though their eyesight is poor, they can see differences in heat which is the infrared radiation that warm objects emit. This allows them to ‘see’ other creatures even when there is complete darkness. Also by having the snake looking directly at the camera I will make the viewer more conscious of the heat they are radiating and this will make them more aware of how the snake views them.
3) Gecko’s highly sensitive eyesight. Their eyesight is 350 times better than ours and they can see well in dim moonlight conditions so allowing them to hunt for prey. You can almost tell that a gecko relies so much on this sense when you look at the intricacy and beauty in their eyes.
I could use this shutter speed as he was very agile when I was taking the image, and I chose this aperture setting in order to have a shallow depth of field that focuses around the plane his eyes are in so that I could highlight this particular feature in detail. It can be seen that the gecko has beautiful spherical eyes which have swirls of brown coloured wavy lines through them. This helps them blend into their environment. But the part of the eye that draws my attention is the slit like vertical pupil that travels down the middle of its eye. This type of pupil is common in ambush predators that hunt at night and is effective in shutting out light during the day. It also appears that the gecko has a border of eye lashes above his eye but these are actually crests and it cannot physically close its eyes.
The macro lens captures details that would not be visible with the naked eye so this makes the image more interesting to viewers. By focusing the image on the gecko’s eye and by using a narrow depth of field to blur other parts of the field I further draw the viewer’s attention to how amazing its eyes look. The gecko’s large eyes and slit like pupils should suggest to viewers that it is nocturnal and also a hunter and as such will have excellent night vision, which it does. I will illustrate in other images how its ability to see in near infrared light allows it to see clearly in very low light conditions.
While I really like this image as it has a lot of detail that is not visible to the naked eye and this makes it captivating to look at. I would however have liked to have taken it closer up and filled the frame more with the eye, and so intensify the perception of the gecko looking at you. I should also have taken more care in positioning the eye within the frame making it either central or according to the Rule of Thirds.
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
The camera I used is my Nikon D5300 DSLR, and I have set it up on my tripod to take the shots in as many images as was possible. For the camera settings I set the ISO as low as possible in order to prevent noise and in order to capture details in sharp focus I chose a smaller aperture setting.
In this shoot I used a number of different animals including a dog, gecko, four different snakes, donkey, sheep and a rabbit as models in my shoots. I have selected these animals based on their extraordinary sensory experience ability, which I have outlined above in AO3.
The techniques I have used are:
1) Macro lens close up- to achieve detail that is not that obvious to the naked eye such as the gecko’s eye and the snakes pit organs.
2) Narrow Depth of field – to focus attention on a particular part of the field and remove distraction by blurring other parts
3) Wide angle close up – to distort the perspective and enlarge part of the subjects features (dogs ears)
4) Use of a light box – used to improve the available light and achieve better realistic quality in the images as well as control the light/shadow transition by making use of reflective surfaces to light up shadowed areas. This is illustrated in the diagram below.
5) Use of infrared photography – to illustrate the vision that geckos have.
The props I have used are the gecko vivarium and snakes hide.
I use several locations firstly the snake owner’s home, my home and the vivarium which is set up to resemble a tropical woodland scene. The images of the donkey and sheep were taken at an animals rescue centre Mutts in Distress in Little Hallingbury. I also used my back garden to take the images of one of my rabbits.
In these images I have captured close up detailed image that focus on the snakes pit organs. These sensory organs allow the snake to sense the heat radiating from warm animals. This is particularly useful to them at night when they are hunting and there is little visible light present. I have used a macro lens to take the image and a light box to provide good quality lighting. I have set a narrow depth of field to focus attention onto the snakes pit organs and blur the rest of the snakes face. In this way I can specifically direct the viewer’s eye to the exact position I want them to focus on. By focusing in detail on an organ that many viewers will not have seen in detail I hope to capture their interest and get them thinking about how the organs works. The pit organs in the snakes face form a row of small chambers that extends along a line above the snakes mouth. When you look at these you can imagine heart rays disappearing into these like small solar panels cups. By visually seeing the organ it makes it easier to imagine how it functions. Just like when you see an ear you can imagine sound being channelled into the ear canal.
These images are of a male and female Ball Python. I have selected this particular snake species to photograph as their pit organs are clearly visible on their face. In the first image my model is holding the male snake and positioning him face on to the camera. This allows the row of pits above his mouth to be seen clearly by the viewers. I have used a narrow depth of field to blur the hand holding him and remove it as it could be a distraction. This allows the snake’s face to be seen with the row of pits clearly visible at the front. Similarly with the female Ball Python in the second image I have also used a narrow depth of field focused around her nose to blur the rest of her body and so focus attention onto where I want the viewers to be looking.
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
There were a number of researchers whose work inspired me in this particular shoot in my project. The first photographer was Ross McGibbon who is an Australian wildlife photographer who captures images of reptiles in their natural habitat. My research into his work and particularly his close up macro images of snakes faces where their pit organs were very distinctive encouraged me to take similar compositional images of my own for my project. These sensory organs are less well known of by people and by taking close up images that capture them in detail positioned prominently at the front of snakes’ face they should capture viewer’s attention more. They should be curious to look at the detail in the structures as they may not have seen it in detail before and it should stimulate their interest in understanding how they work. By visually seeing the grooves like a line of embedded solar panels in pits above the snake’s mouth they can better imagine how the snake gathers the emitted rays and this creates this sensation experience of ‘seeing’ heat.
I have been interested in reptiles for many years and have a gecko as a pet and have gathered knowledge about them over time. One of their more interesting sensory abilities is their ability to see in infrared, which humans cannot do as it is not visible to us. I therefore researched into taking images in infrared using my camera to illustrate how they view the world. I searched for photographers who have used this medium in their work, and was particularly interested in those using black and white images, rather than the bright colours that some add to create more dramatic images. Through my research I discovered the photographer Sir Simon Marsden, who has used infrared film to take many of his images over his long career. His images capture an other worldly quality in them and are often beautiful and fascinating. His work using this technique inspired me to use it in my project to illustrate the visual experience of animals that can see in near infrared. This will be a unique and interesting experience for viewers to see as the human eye cannot see infrared light so it would allow them to see how this normally invisible part of the world looks. Landscapes seen in infrared are stunning as they have stark distinctions that we have never seen before. Clear skies can often appear unusually black and any clouds present can have a dramatic intense impact. While vegetation, as it reflects infrared differently from visible light, makes the foliage and grasses appear white and this sharply contrasts with the dark appearance of animals. This is why being able to see in near-infrared can be an advantage to animals like geckos, particularly as they hunt at night in low visible light conditions, and why I have been inspired by Marsden’s images to take infrared landscape images on my camera using an infrared filter and so illustrate the visual sensory experience geckos have.
In the image below was taken using my camera fitted with an infrared filter and then adjusted in Photoshop. Our eyes cannot detect infrared as it is beyond the visible spectrum. The camera however can and so can turn an invisible image visible to us. Infrared light reflects off surfaces in unique and interesting ways and this is why the leaves and grass in the images appears white, and the sky is dark. Infrared adds a higher degree of contrast in the image and this enables the gecko to see clearly in dim moonlight.
As I was using a filter attached to my camera which required me to use a long exposure of 30 seconds this made it impossible for me to include animals in the shot as they would not stay still for this period of time. If I converted my camera I could have achieved this but it is the only camera I have so I did not want to do this. I have however included in my research section an image of Marsden’s where he has captured geese in to illustrate the contrast between them and the vegetation. I have also included an image by Piper MacKay of African elephants in the wild taken in infrared. Infrared photography tends to focus on landscapes so there was not many other images I could find to illustrate this.
This image was taken with an infrared filter on my camera while it was set on a tripod and I used a long exposure of 30 seconds. I have removed the red tint to the image using photoshop to show the image in black and white. It is a landscape view from my garden showing the tops of the trees and the sky behind them. The unique and unusual way the foliage and sky appear using this technique is amazing, so different from the way it appears in visible light. The foliage on the trees is white and this contrasts sharply with the dark colour of the wooden branches making the image more intense and dramatic. This difference is due to the different way material reflects infrared light. The sky too also looks much darker than would be seen with visible light and this adds mood and atmosphere to the image. This image reveals a landscape that is normally invisible to us and shows us how animals like the gecko that can see near infrared light view their world.
Another photographer who I took inspiration from was Elke Vogelsang. I was motivated by a conceptual idea which she used to focus attention on her dog ears in her images. I have used this to highlight the sensory experience provided to a dog by its acute hearing and discuss this below in AO4.
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
My intension in this shoot was to capture images focusing on the extraordinary sensory sight and hearing experiences certain animals can feel. After researching such abilities I selected a number of them to capture photographically. I ensured that the sensory experiences I chose would be suitable to effectively visually convey to viewers. My intension was to also include experiences that I felt would be of interest to viewers and captivates their attention. I chose:
1) The ability of snakes to see thermal radiation by detecting it with their sensory pit organs in their face. This I have done firstly using close up macro lens photography and good quality lighting to capture detailed images of several snakes snouts. I have specifically chosen and used species of snake (Ball Python) with distinctive pit organs that occur in a row to ensure they can be easily visually identified by viewers. I have also used a narrow depth of field to focus attention on the unusual structure of the pit organs and remove any distractions in the rest of the image. By highlighting features that many people may not know much about, my intension was to motivate their curiosity into visualising how these organs would work. The pits themselves visually look like a row of tiny windows set into and curving around the top of the snake’s mouth, and this aids the viewer in conceptually understanding how they could work. You can imagine rays of thermal radiation coming from warm animals in front of the snake and traveling into these tiny windows, and being detected by tiny solar panels at the back of the pits. In this way viewers could better connect with the sensory experience the snake could be having seeing warm bloodied animals. In some of the images I positioned the snake pointing its face directly at the viewer as though they were the prey. This will make viewers more aware of the heat they are giving off and which the snake is detecting and so be more able to appreciate how a snake experiences their world, in such a different way to us.
2) Gecko’s highly sensitive eyesight. This I have illustrated by capturing detailed macro images of a gecko’s spherical eye, including the swirls of colour in them that help them stay camouflaged. They also illustrate their slit like vertical pupils which is a common feature in ambush predators that hunt at night and is effective in shutting out light during the day. The macro lens captures details that would not be visible with the naked eye so this makes the image more interesting to viewers. By focusing the image on the gecko’s eye using a narrow depth of field to blur other parts of the field I further draw the viewer’s attention to how amazing its eyes look. The size of the gecko’s eye in comparison to its body and the slit like pupils indicates that it is a nocturnal hunter and need to have excellent vision. Its vision is 350 times better than ours and it also sees in near infrared light which we are unable to do. This links with the next images I produced using the technique of infrared photography.
3) Landscape infrared photography to show the visual experience a gecko has. By seeing in infrared they can experience a higher degree of contrast in their vision and this enables them to detect prey more easily in dim moonlight conditions.
4) Dogs sensitive hearing ability. This I have illustrated by positioning my camera close to my dogs nose to capture an image from an unusual perspective. This focuses attention on the dogs ear making it look out of proportion and like a large radar discs. The large size of the ear will make an amusing image and will also emphasise the fantastic hearing ability of dogs.
Progression
My next shoot will be for the exam and as there is only time for three shoots I will focus on 2 out of the 3 sensory experiences that I have covered (extra ordinary and diminished) and not use the ordinary sensory experiences. This will allow me to keep the images in a closely related series as was my original intention, to capture images of a diverse range of sensory experiences. However This will now focus on both the extreme ends of the sensory experiences. I will re- take images of those that I consider to be my most effective from my seven preparatory shoots. I will base this on the most captivating or interesting images, the ones where I have used an unusual/interesting technique and those where I feel the sensory experience has been conveyed most successfully. I will incorporate any improvements that I have identified in my critical analysis of the images and which I have discussed in the work records, if I have not incorporated these changes already and in this way they will be as refined as possible.
I have summarised the images I have chosen in the two tables below. My intension is to do three shoots and work records with the first two shots focusing on the first table, the extra ordinary sensory experiences and the third shoot to focus on the second table the diminished sensory experiences. I have also indicated in the tables the photographers whose influence inspired me for each image.
The images chosen will allow me to use a wide range of techniques in my images including an animated Gif, a composite image, macro lens close up, and a new technique I have learned that of infrared photography. It will also allow me to use other photographic compositional techniques such as a narrow depth of field, wide angle close up, leading lines, perspective, and framing and close cropping.
Extra ordinary Sensory Experience
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Image
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Techniques Used
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Influence
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Snake pit organ
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Macro close up: narrow depth of field
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Ross McGibbon
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Snake tongue flick
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Freeze frame/macro close up/animated Gif
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Ross McGibbon
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Cat/Rabbit whiskers
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Wide Angle close up
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Dogs nose
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Wide Angle close up
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Elke Voselsang
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Landscape with rabbits in
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Photo shopped
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Infrared landscape
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Infrared photography
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Simon Marsden/ Piper McKay
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Gecko Eye
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Macro close up: narrow depth of field
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Muhammad Roem: Clay Bolt
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Diminished Sensory Experiences
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Image
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Techniques Used
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Influence
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View of landscape taken from behind visually impaired person holding white stick in hand
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Close cropping: narrow depth of field
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Person playing electric guitar wearing a hearing aid
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Perspective :narrow depth of field: leading line
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Leading lines/ perspective/ depth of field: Fan Ho: Cartier Bresson: Robert Frank: Sound: Robert Adams
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Person playing flute wearing a hearing aid
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Perspective :narrow depth of field: leading line
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Leading lines/ perspective/ depth of field: Fan Ho: Cartier Bresson: Robert Frank: Sound: Robert Adams
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Landscape view through short sighted persons glasses. Also long sighted
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Composite image: narrow depth of field
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Framing: Lee Friedlander
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