Work Record 5: Diminished Sight

Plans for shoot  

In this shoot, I will be continuing to capture images relating to experiences where the sensory input has been affected in some way. This shoot will focus on the sensory experience involving sight and will include being blind or visually impaired, being short sighted or long sighted. 

I have planned this shoot by gathering appropriate props that will convey to viewers that the subject in the image has a sight impairment. These props include a tactile card with braille writing on it, a long white stick that is used by visually impaired people to determine if there are obstacles or steps or kerbs in front of them, a fluorescent dog bib used to convey that they are an assistance dog. I will also use my own glasses, for short-sightedness, and my mum’s reading glasses and a book as a prop.

My intension is to first capture images showing a person with the impaired sense as they go about their normal life experiencing the world. Then if possible capture images or adapt them in Photoshop to show how the sensory experience differs from what could be thought of as a normal experience. 

I plan on using my light box to capture detailed images of the braille card so that the raised dots are clearly visible and the tactile nature of them can be seen.

Research influence

For this shoot, the photographer who has influenced me in some of my images is Lee Friedlander. He is a well-known American photographer who capturers images of urban life. His images reveal the normal chaos of life, including images of cars, streets, adverts, shop fronts and televisions but he adds a creative element by taking shots through shop windows or through car mirrors. Using his fascination with transparency and reflection he has documented the places he has been and the emotions he felt overt the last 50 years.

In this image taken by Friedlander of Haverstraw, New York in 1966 illustrates his effective use of framing in an image. The photo is taken through the car's windscreen so that this provides a frame for the driver positioned behind the wheel. Then as you look further at the image your eye is drawn deeper into the image to more framing, that of the view of a small town framed by the cars back window and it is this that holds the viewer’s attention.  

Friedlander’s success with using framing to focus the viewer’s attention and create interest has influenced and inspired me to also use this technique in my own project. By using frames I can focus the viewer attention on to the part of the image where I want it to be. I plan on using the view through spectacles to illustrate the sensory experience of being long or short-sighted. It was seeing the power and effectiveness of Friedlander’s use of framing that partly inspired me to compose images in this way. This technique will draw the viewer’s eye to where I want it to be, the differences between the quality of the vision inside and outside of the spectacles frame.

  
Contact sheet

Image bank

I used my light box to capture tactile images of the braille writing on the card, with someone using touch to read the text. I varied the position of the card to make the dots look as 3 dimensional as possible.

I combined three images taken with different depths of field to create a composite image which reflects how a person who is short-sighted visually experiences the world.

  I used the magnifying ability of reading glasses to capture how they enable a long-sighted person to remove the blur from small text and so experience reading the book.

My Cocker Spaniel dog Dante is 12 years old and has developed cataracts in his eyes. This means that parts of his vision are obscured. The vet said that dogs adapt well to restrictions in their sight as the senses they use are mainly smell and hearing. This close up image of Dante's left eye illustrates how the cataract is obscuring his vision.

I then took a number of different images with my model walking using a white stick as though visually impaired.

My Best images

Images that require improvement

I had an idea that I would like an image to illustrate how a visually impaired person who relies on a white stick experiences objects immediately in front of them. I took the image looking down at my models feet as though from the eyes of the person. I wanted to capture the idea that their restricted vision limits how far they can experience the world in front of them. My idea was that once I had obtained a reasonable image I could then introduce objects into the image such as others people legs, kerbs, dogs etc. But I was not that happy with the initial image I obtained. I tried varying the angle slightly to see if I could improve it, but it just looks odd. My intension now is to change the perspective of the shot and take it more from the side so that it will be more like the view of another person walking alongside them. In this way I can incorporate more of the subject not just part of their foot into the image, as well as highlight the obstacles in their path which they have to feel for with the white stick to know they are there. 

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

In this shoot, I am focusing on sensory experiences that have been affected by a reduction in the functioning of their sight. I will focus on three situations, where a person is: 

1) Visually impaired 2) Short sighted 3) Long sighted

I will also highlight the aids we use to attempt to restore or adapt to the loss of sensation and which allow people to experience the many sensory experiences the world has to offer but perhaps in a different way.

Sight is our most important sense, if you consider this to be according to the amount of brain matter dedicated to it. Vision occupies 30% of the cortex, touch 8% and hearing only 3% so on this basis sight is the key sense for us to experience the world around us. For people who are visually impaired several techniques have been developed to help them with various experiences. Braille is a tactile writing system that enables people with serious visual impairments to read and write. It can even be used, with the right technology, on computer screens. It uses characters arranged in blocks called cells that have small raised dots and the arrangement and number of dots is how different characters are told apart. This is done using a tactile method as they glide their finger over these raised dots.

I have made use of a tactile Braille Mother’s Day card to illustrate the sensory experience blind or partially sighted people have when they read using Braille. For them they read with their fingers rather than their eyes. The image captures someone reading the characters of raised dots on the page using their sense of touch and by running their finger over them. The message on this card reads ‘With love on Mother’s Day’. Reading this way is a skill which has to be learned and by focusing in closely on the characters written in Braille I have emphasised the tactile method involved. By filling the entire frame I have removed all background distractions from the image. This gives the activity being shown more focus and makes it more intimate and personal. In the image the tip of the person’s finger is caught as it gently runs along the second line of text. Using close cropping I have focused attention on both the text and this finger, then to further direct attention to the exact part of the finger where the sensory information is being drawn from I have used the technique of a narrow depth of field.
ISO:200
F-stop: f/3.2
Shutter speed: 1/640s


In this way, only the small area around the fingertip is in sharp focus while the rest of the finger, the majority of it is blurred. By making the image so close up this makes the experience more intimate and as little of the person is shown then the viewer can add their own personal perspective on the image by perhaps remembering someone they know who has problems with their vision.

I used my light box to take these image so was able to adjust the position of the page until I got a good angle of perspective to capture the best three dimensional quality of the raised dots on it. Capturing the form of the dots allows the viewers to perceive their tactile feel and place themselves in the position as if they were themselves running their finger over the page and experiencing the sensation of the elevated dots. I think this image is effective in capturing the sensory experience of touch and how it is a way people can use to adapt to be able to read without having good vision. I think I could have improved this image if I had an entire page of Braille writing as the numerous dots on the page would really enhance the perception of the tactile  nature visually impaired people are experiencing.

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 and a wider depth of field setting. Except in the image where I specifically wanted a narrow depth of field.

In some of the images I used a small light box that I had bought to allow me to better control the lighting, and the setup of this is illustrated in the diagram below. The light box was particularly useful for capturing the tactile quality of the Braille writing.

To highlight the sensory experience being affected I have included the use of several props such as a tactile Braille Mother's Day card, a long white stick used by the visually impaired, a yellow fluorescent dog bib as used by service dogs, spectacles for the long and for short-sighted and a book to illustrate their use.

 
I have used a couple of locations to capture images including roads, and grassy areas. These were all local areas around Church Langley where I live or at a centre where I volunteer. I have also enlisted the help of someone to act as my subject to illustrate a visually impaired person walking with the aid of a white stick.

For the images involved in the sensory experience of being short-sighted, this was particularly relevant to me, as I am short-sighted and without my glasses when I look at the world it is out of focus and everything at a distance looks blurred. Only close up objects are sharply in focus. I wanted to capture this personal sensory experience of looking at the world through spectacles and how this enables me to have quality vision and puts my world into sharp focus. Having the ability to focus your vision is something that we often take for granted and for people who do not need to wear glasses then this may be something that they have little thought about. Without glasses my sensory experience of the world, as well as that of many others, would be massively limited.  

To illustrate this photographically I decided to create a composite image by merging several images. I took landscape images of a view of my front garden and the street behind it, I did this using a wide and a narrow depth of field so that in the first image everything is sharply in focus and in the second everything is blurred. In another image (image three) I have held up my glasses in front of the camera and have narrowed the depth of field of the camera to focus specifically around this part of the frame. This means that the rest of the image not in this plane of field is blurred. When combining the images to create a composite one (image 4) it can be seen that the landscape viewed through the lens of the glasses is clearly in focus while that out with the lens is blurred. This represents how being short-sighted affects your sensory experience of the world and how it can be adjusted back to normal by wearing glasses. I really like this image but if I were to repeat it I would try to find a more interesting landscape to have my subject looking at. This would make the image more captivating and accentuate the effect of the glasses on the sensory experience.  I do think the fact that I have a car captured within the image highlights the importance of being able to see clearly, as it would be dangerous to not be able to see cars approaching you along the road. That could be something I could develop in later images to illustrate the importance of having good distance sight. It allows you to see danger approaching. 

The composite image below is the one created by merging part of the images shown above. I think by using this technique I have effectively conveyed the sensory experience of being short-sighted and how glasses can drastically improve your visual sensory experience.

  

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

In both the above image of the spectacles and the view through them as well as the view through the reading spectacles below I was inspired to create such images by the photographer Lee Friedlander. His work depicts the normal chaos of life on the streets of America including images of shops, cars, adverts etc. However he adds his own creative element by incorporating his fascination with reflection and framing into his images. He does this by taking the shots through car or shop windows or by using the reflections in mirrors or glass. In doing this he makes his images more intriguing as you wonder how he has created such compositions using reflections. While his framing of his subjects directs your attention to where he wants it to be. I really enjoy studying Friedlander's work and it has inspired me to use the techniques of reflection and framing in my own project to emphasise and direct the viewers to what I want them to focus on in my images.

  

In this image I illustrate the sensory experience of being able to read a book when you are long sighted. Needing to wear reading glasses particularly as your eyesight deteriorates with age is something many people will experience. So this image should connect with older people through their own personal associations with no longer being able to read text without the aid of glasses. In the image I have composed it so that a hand is holding the glasses up in front of the text in the book. The viewer has an image looking through the lenses of the glasses and can see that the text there is larger and so much easier to read than the text in the rest of the page. For this image I focused the camera around the lenses of the glasses so that the text would be really clear here while the rest of the text is slightly more blurred and smaller so harder to read. By presenting the effect in a single image with the different text juxtaposition will effectively convey the transformation that glasses have on the sensory experience of reading. Friedlander’s work with its focus on reflection and  framing  inspired me to consider representing visual perception in this way. The framing acts as a barrier between the two different visual experiences and so separates them as well as highlighting and drawing the viewer’s attention to that smaller part of the frame. The framing therefore enables me to focus attention to where I want it. While the reflection of the text through the glass of the spectacles enlarges it allowing the reader to see it. This effect is clearly visible and obvious to the viewer, and I have placed the spectacles along a line of thirds to help focus their attention here.

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

In this shoot, my intension was to capture images of sensory experiences that have been affected by a reduction in a particular sense function that of sight. I focused on three situations with the subject being:

1) Visually impaired  2) Short sighted 3) Long sighted

I additionally wanted to highlight the aids we use to attempt to restore or adapt to the loss of sensation and which allow people to experience the many sensory experiences the world has to offer but perhaps in a different way, such as spectacles for both the long and short-sighted, braille writing, white sticks and service dogs.

I believe I have achieved this objective as I have shown images capturing the sensory experience of being:

1) Short-sighted: I created a composite image using glasses and a landscape view and illustrate how the glasses lenses sharpen the blurred perspective

2) Long-sighted: Using text from a book and the technique of narrow depth of field I illustrated how the text was so much sharper and easier to read when viewed through the lens.

3) Blind/partial vision impairment: I used a prop, a white stick, to indicate the sensory impairment to viewers. Using a white stick is something people instantly recognise and it tells them that the user is visually impaired in some way.

This image visually conveys the sensory experience a visually impaired person must contend with. The model has the long white stick in front of them and will use it to feel for objects that are physically in their way and they could trip or fall over, such as the small white logs on either side of the road. They also use the stick to determine differences in surfaces such as between the grass and the tarmac. By positioning the camera behind the model I have tried to allow the viewer to see the objects and difficulties in the way that the person must make their way through. I have also used a road with a T junction, this was to visually show that if the model continues to walk in a straight line they will come to the end of the road at the wooden fence. We can see that it extends in two directions left and right but they cannot, so will have to use their white stick to determine how the road  continues. By showing the difficulties of a scene, even a simple one like this, it allows the viewer to walk in the shoes of a partially sighted /blind person to feel how differently they experience the world without sight.

Progression

I intend in a later shoot to take additional images of a person walking with a white stick but use the technique of a narrow depth of field or possibly photoshop to refine the above images so that areas of it are blurred. This will visually convey how their vision could be affected and by blurring the area in from of them this will convey the landscape that visually impaired people must navigate through. I will also try to compose images of a blind person using a service dog to guide them. This will highlight how dogs can be trained to be used as an aid to act as the person's eyes and see for them in some ways.

In my next shoot, I will move onto the next part of sensory experiences that I want to explore. That of extreme sensory experiences. These are found when an animal has adapted a particular sense beyond what is normal compared to other animals. In doing this is gives it an advantage to survive and reproduce passing on its extreme sensory ability to its offspring.

Through my own interest in biology and the senses of animals and reptiles, I have obtained some knowledge of the biology of certain animals super-sensory abilities. I have then further researched some of these particular abilities to highlight and illustrate how fascinating the are using photography. The sensory experiences I will capture images of in the next shoot will be that of smell and taste and of touch.

Work Record 4: Diminished hearing and smell/taste

Plans for shoot

In this shoot I plan to capture images that convey the sensory experiences of people who have a diminished sensory ability associated with their hearing or with their sense of taste/smell.

For the experience of having a diminished sense of taste smell I have chosen to illustrate this with highlighting the congestion of someone who is unwell suffering from a cold  with a blocked nose that affects their sense of smell/taste.

I have collected various props to convey to viewers that the subject in the image has a cold/flu and will arrange these appropriately around the subject lying in bed. The props include a box of tissues, cold and flu medicine, water for taking any pills, throat lozenges.  I will choreograph the scene so that the subjects poses emphasises that they have a fever, a sore throat and a running or blocked nose. The image should convey that the subject is so congested with the cold that they have lost the sensations of taste/smell. 

To convey a sense of diminished hearing I will use a prop that I have bought, a hearing aid. It was cheap only about £5 but  is large enough to be seen. Some of the newer more expensive ones are so small they are difficult to see so would not be ideal to use. I then plan to choreograph scenes using two musical instruments, a flute and an electric guitar with its amplifier. I used these props in the previous shoot and though they were very effective in conveying the perception of sound in an image. So I have decided to use them again in this shoot to highlight that sensory experiences can be diminished and that this can be restored by using technology such as a hearing aid. The subjects use of the hearing aid will illustrate to viewers that they have a diminished ability to hear the notes being played and that the aid has restored their sensory experience to a point where they can hear themselves play a musical instrument.

Research influence

In this shoot I have used a number of compositional techniques to focus attention on particular parts of the frame. This was particularly important as I wanted to focus not only on the sensory experiences involving hearing and smell/taste but also in some images the ability of devices such as a hearing aid to restore the diminished sensations.

The compositional techniques I have used are leading lines to direct the viewers attention along, narrow depth of field to focus attention on the sharply in focus parts of the field and blur other distracting areas, and also using unusual perspectives to capture the viewers attention. While many photographers have used these techniques such as Lee Friedlander, Fan Ho, and Robert Frank as well as almost all of the food photographers I researched for shoot1.However I have been particularly inspired by the way the photographer Fan Ho makes use of these techniques to capture the viewers attention and lead them around his compositions to where he wants them to be. Researching his work has influenced the way I have composed images in this shoot as I have learned how impactful careful composition of images can be. I have been inspired by his use of such techniques to design my compositions to include some of them in my images. I have created a leading line in my flute images, which directs the viewers attention along the length of the instrument up to the flute player blowing into the mouth piece to generate the perception of sound. But also importantly this leading line also directs them to the hearing aid they are wearing behind their ear and so focuses attention on the way this allows them to hear this sensory experience. I have also made use of the technique of narrow depth of field, which Fan Ho has used effectively in many images, so that I can direct the viewer towards the sharply in focus hearing aid and away from other parts of the frame.

Another photographer whose compositions I have studied and taken inspiration from is Josef Koudelka particularly his use of implied triangles. He used these in many of his images to fill the frame, add balance, motion or dynamic tension to the image. This can be clearly seen in his 'Gypsies' book.

   

Contact sheet

Image bank

I staged a scene showing me in bed suffering from a nasty cold. I used various props such as medicines, a scarf, extra blankets and tissues and also choreographed a pose that indicated that I had congestion problems with my nose running  and had a high temperature.



I took a number of close up images from behind me to focus on the fact that I am wearing a hearing aid. I varied the camera perspective to some degree to find the best angle to focus on the hearing aid behind my ear.




To emphasise the sounds coming from the amplifier I have directed attention to it by specific gestures.




I have taken close cropped images of me playing the flute and ensured the hearing aid is visible.






My Best images














Images that require improvement





This image does not illustrate the fact that I am wearing a hearing aid. I have taken it from too far away and at the wrong perspective for the viewer to see this. I should have turned my head to the right or repositioned myself so that the hearing aid was not obscured by my ear. To improve the image I would need to zoom in closer and sit with my back more towards the camera with my ear in much more closer proximity to the camera. to emphasise that I am wearing it and have impaired hearing.

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

My aim in this shoot is to focus attention on the sensory experiences of hearing and to a lesser extent taste/smell. I will visually illustrate how these senses can be diminished in some people such as through illness or through a hearing impairment and will highlight how technology can help restore the ability of some people to experience hearing sounds.

I have chosen the sounds I will convey in my images to be from musical instruments. The reason for this is that in the previous shoot I felt that the images I created using these instruments were effective in creating the perception of sound. It therefore makes good sense to continue to make use of them to highlight how people with impaired hearing can have this experience restored to them through the use of a hearing aid. I have also chosen musical instruments as I love music, I listen to it a lot as most teenagers do and also play several instruments. Therefore music was an obvious choice for me when thinking of ideas for sounds for my images to focus on. I also think that the sounds of musical instruments will be easy for most people to recollect memories of and associate with the particular instrument shown in the images.  I have chosen two very different musical instruments, the flute and an electric guitar. These are very different instruments with the flute producing more high pitched individual notes and the  electric guitar with an amplifier is generally associated with a louder longer vibrational twang as the strings are strummed. Having two instrumentals that have distinctive divergent sounds that people are generally familiar with will help viewers connect with the perception of the sounds being produced. They are also props that I have available as I play both instruments.

Then to convey the experience of someone with a hearing impairment I have used a distinctive prop which almost every viewer will immediately recognise, a hearing aid that fits behind a persons ear. It has a microphone that picks up ambient sound and sends them to an amplifier which enhances the sounds and then transmits them directly into the ear canal via a connecting tube and an ear mould. Hearing aids therefore allow those with hearing impairments to experience sounds that they would otherwise not hear. By placing the hearing aid in a prominent position in the image where the subject is playing an instrument I will emphasise that this sensory experience would not be able to take place without this aid and so the person would be denied the wonderful experience of listening to music they had created.

In this image I have set the camera perspective to be positioned from behind me and in this way I have made the hearing aid more visible to the viewer. By having the aid in such a prominent position that is the focus of attention in the image it highlights that the person has a hearing impairment that would prevent them from fully hearing sensory experiences involving sound.  There are a few changes I would make to improve this image, firstly I would make the aid more prominent in the images  through closer cropping so that it takes up a larger percentage of the frame. I should also have tied my hair up so that the aid would be more apparent or used a different model with short hair that would not hide part of it. Finally my frame compositions are slightly off as I was using a timer to take the images so did not get into the perfect position each time to make the aid exactly where I wanted. My intension was to take images where the hearing aid was  directly on the line of thirds or in the exact centre of the image.

To highlight the effect of your sense of smell and taste being diminished I have chosen to represent this by taking an image of me being affected by a heavy cold and being ill in bed. This is something that most people will be able to relate to and by highlighting the symptoms of a cold in an image this should bring back viewer’s memories of how horrible it feels. In this image I am lying in bed and have positioned props, a box of tissues, cold and flu tablet and sore throat lozenges, prominently on the bedside table to convey that I have a nasty cold. I have positioned myself wrapped up in my duvet with a scarf around my neck and am blowing my nose in a tissue. I have also positioned my hand near my forehead as if I feel really awful, maybe with a headache or temperature. This image should convey to people the physical sensation of suffering with a heavy cold so that your nose is blocked and you cannot smell anything. Also your throat is so sore you cannot eat anything and it tastes different as you cannot smell properly.

This image perhaps requires more thought by the viewer before they relate the experience to smell and taste as initially they will just think that person has a bad cold. Only then will they think of the symptoms of a cold and being unable to breathe through your nose. I think I could change the image slightly to focus more on the lack of the sense of smell by using red makeup around my nostrils to focus attention there and have the tissue slightly further away so that this could be seen. I could also add additional props on the bedside table such as a decongestant nasal spray or Vicks vapour rub. Or alternatively crop the image closer so that more attention is on me, my red nose and the tissue.

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 shots where I am the model I have used my camera timer or my remote control to allow me to position myself correctly for the shot I want. As these photographs were taken far apart over a period of time the exposure on each one is different, as they were taken at various times of day with different light etc. For all images 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 and a wider depth of field setting.

I have arranged various props to be available for use, which include for the cold/flu image, a box of tissues, cold/flu medicine, sore throat lozenges, a glass of water to take any medications with, a scarf for wearing around my neck to indicate a sore throat, tissues to be used to blow my nose. These props I have set up on a prominent position on the bedside table.

I have also used the location of my bedroom with me lying in bed under the duvet.

Other props I have used are a hearing aid, which I deliberately chose to be a large older type so that it was more easily seen. I used my musical instruments my electric guitar amplifier and flute. I then set the scene up so that I was playing the flute with my fingers correctly positioned and for the guitar I was strumming the strings with a plectrum.

In the images above I have made use of a camera perspective set up to look over my shoulder from behind me. This was to make the hearing aid in an easily seen prominent position.

In the image below I have composed the scene using the Golden Ratio so that the viewer is directed in a spiral around the image. Their eye is first drawn going down and through the amplifier then curving round the hand positioned on the guitar strings and ending up focusing on the hearing aid behind the subjects ear. Then their eye is further led by another leading line created by the subject's gaze towards the amplifier to further emphasise the aspect of sound in the image and direct them round the spiral again. In the image I also made sure the hearing aid is visible in the position behind my left ear, with my hair tucked out the way. I have also directed attention towards the large amplifier by staring at it and so leading the viewers attention to the source of the sound in the image. The amplifier is quite large so this emphasises this well. I have tried to sit in a casual position on the floor and look like I am enjoying an everyday sensory experience  made possible by the technology behind my ear. I have also illustrated  another composition technique which I have created in the image, that of the use of an implied triangle. These form when you connect the main points of the scene with lines which connect form triangles. These bring balance to an image and add an interesting geometric shape but they can also add motion and dynamic tension too. By creating an implied triangle between the main focal points of the image I hope to add balance and maintain a sense of motion around the points of the triangle.

There are a couple of improvements I could make in this image, by cropping the image slightly more from the right and the bottom of the frame I could make the image more intimate and enhance the perception of the sound of the guitar. This would also increase the relative size of the hearing aid as a percentage of the frame and so make it more prominent. It would also make my golden ratio a little more accurate as it was difficult to set the camera frame positioning exactly as I wanted it as I was using a remote control from a few feet away so my positioning was slightly off so I would like to  adjust this if I retake the image. 

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

I was firstly inspired by photographers like Robert Adams who include the perception of sound in their images. I have discussed how they do this in the previous shoot and have similarly used the same thoughts and inspiration in this shoot to focus on the sensory experiences involving hearing. Basically knowledge and understanding gained through my research of how to best capture the perception of sound in my images encouraged me to:

1) Incorporating motion into the images

2) Using experiences that  people will have  a strong association of sound with

3) Using techniques to direct attention onto particular parts of the image to enhance the perception of sound.

In this shoot I have focused on points 2 and 3 and for point 1 the motion I have implied is the strumming of the guitar strings.

I have also been inspired by a number of photographers work where they have used compositional techniques to guide the viewer around their images. Such photographers include Fan Ho, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Lee Friedlander.  In this shoot it was particularly important that the viewers attention was drawn to particular parts of the frame. This was in order to enhance the perception of sound and also to highlight that the person was wearing a hearing aid behind their ear. So indicating that their impaired hearing has been corrected in some way by the aid to allow them to enjoy the sensory experience of listening to the music they had created.

The compositional techniques I used are:

1) Leading lines to direct the viewers attention along
2) Use of Rule of Thirds, Golden Ratio and implied triangles
3) Narrow depth of field to focus attention on the sharply in focus parts of the field and blur other distracting areas
4) Using unusual perspectives to capture the viewers attention

While many photographers have used these techniques in their work I have been particularly inspired by the way the photographer Fan Ho makes use of these techniques to capture the viewers attention and lead them around his compositions to where he wants them to be. Researching his work has influenced the way I have composed images in this shoot as I have learned how impactful careful composition of images can be. I have used leading line in my flute images, which directs the viewers attention along the length of the wind instrument to the mouth piece where the sound is being generated as well as to the players hearing aid behind their ear. I have also made use of the technique of narrow depth of field to direct attention to the sharply in focus hearing aid and away from other parts of the frame. This was another technique which many photographers have used but Fan Ho's use of this technique in his images particularly inspired me to use it in my images.

These images below illustrate my understanding of how to convey both the perception of sound as well as the focus on the hearing impairment. I them I have used the techniques of leading lines, narrow depth of field and close up photography.

In both images I am playing the flute and have used a narrow depth of field to focus attention onto the field area around my head, so that this is in sharp focus. The rest of the image including my hands and the remaining part of the flute is blurred. This informs the viewer about the area I want them to focus on in the image and leads their eye to where I want it to be. This is the region where the musician is blowing air from her mouth into the wind instrument to create the notes and so creates the perception of their sound. Then importantly close to their mouth is the hearing aid and when the viewer sees this they will realise that the musician's hearing is impaired in some way and by wearing the aid they can experience hearing the notes clearly as they play the instrument. 

The composition of images can be made more interesting by including triangles to guide the viewer around it. In this image the arm of the spectacles serves as a leading line to direct the viewer to the hearing aid. The focus of attention is therefore around a triangle based on the mouth piece of the flute, the musicians eyes and their hearing aid.

This is an composed similarly to the one above as regards depth of filed, however in this image I have changed the camera perspective to be taken from behind and to the side of the musician. This allows me to create a leading line using the long body of the musical instrument. The line leads the viewer to the musicians face where they are creating the sound by blowing into the wind instrument and also where a hearing aid can clearly be seen behind her ear. I have positioned my hair in such a way that it wraps behind the aid to prevent it obscuring it. I feel this image is more effective at focusing on the hearing impairment than the first one because of the leading line of the flute and also because the main feature in the high-lit area of the subjects face is the ear, as the rest of the features are turned away from the camera. As the eye is always draw to high -lit areas in an image having les distractions in this area will focus attention on the ear. I think this image effectively conveys the sensory experience of hearing musical notes and that it is possible with technology to restore/party restore this sensation to allow people to enjoy this experience. While I am happy with this image I would slightly adjust it so the ear was perfectly in the Rule of Thirds position where the lines overlap. But this could be adjusted by slightly cropping the image.

ISO: 2540
F-stop: f/4
Shutter speed: 1/320

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

My intension with this shoot was to capture images that convey sensory experiences relating to hearing and to taste and smell and show how these experiences can be diminished through illness or a hearing impairment and also to visually illustrate how technology can help restore the ability of some people to experience hearing sounds.

I have chosen to use the musical instrument the flute and electric guitar to create the perception of sound. this was because of success with them in the previous shoot and also that the sound of music is something that most people will be able to relate to. They should also be able to easily connect the visual image of the instruments with their distinctive sounds, the high pitched notes of the flute and the strum of the guitar chords. The electric guitar also provided me with being able to use its amplifier. People will associate the visual image of this with the amplification of sound, which is what I want to achieve,  and by using leading lines I can direct attention their attention to it and so enhance the effectiveness of the image.

I have also carefully planned the compositions of my images to direct the viewers attention to where it need to be to understand the message being sent. I have made use of  compositional techniques such as leading lines using perspective and eye directions, implied triangles, Rule of Thirds, Golden Ratio and a narrow depth of field. I feel that it is essential to direct the viewer's attention so that they really take the time to think about what they are seeing visually and connect this with any associated sounds from their memories.

I have also employed these techniques to direct their eye to the hearing aid that the subject is wearing and so allow them to make the connection that while the person has a hearing impairment it is possible for them to enjoy the sensory experience of listening to the musical notes they have created.

For the images with the diminished sensation of smell/taste I think I was less successful in conveying his as it is something that is less obvious visually, there are no aids to show to represent that the subject has this impairment. I have therefore used props such as medicine and tissues and choreography to indicate the subject has a bad cold with a blocked nose. Using tissues I direct the viewers attention to the subjects nose and the congestion there to indicate that there is a problem with their ability to breathe through their nose and therefore to smell. This message of diminished sensation of smell in the image is more subtle than with the diminished hearing ones. However the fact that everyone has had a cold at some point so knows how this makes you feel all blocked up and that some food doesn't taste right because of this. This visual image should make connections with viewers previous memories of how they felt when they had a cold virus.
 

Progression

There are a number of improvements I can make to the images in this shoot which I believe will enhance the message they convey. These include:

1) Cropping Images to make them more intimate and connect with viewers
2) Arrange the positioning of the Golden ratio more accurately
3) Choreograph and arrange the cold/flu image so that my nose is red and my difficulty breathing through my nose is more apparent
4) Tie my hair back to expose and highlight the hearing aid
5) Retake the guitar image from a different perspective and more close up


In the next shoot I will be continuing with  sensory experiencing which have been diminished in some way. I will be focusing on the sensory experience of sight. I will illustrate how the experience has been affected, the way technology has been used to compensate for the weakness and how this affects the sensory experience. I will also highlight how in some cases, such as blindness, where the sensory experience cannot be improved how other sensory experiences are used in place of sight to allow the person to experience the world about them. To illustrate this I will use props such as Braille writing, a white stick and a guide dog.