The Time Online

Taken from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2884585.ece
The signs outside churches advertising God are as close as most get to hearing a sermon. They can be embarrassing, inspiring, intimidating and hilarious all at once and no where more so than in America.
We've got a gallery of images from The Great American Book of Church Signs by Donald Seitz for you to browse.
Send us pictures of signs you've seen and we'll display them here.
Email your funny church signs to faithcentral@timesonline.co.uk stating your name and where you saw the sign, send the biggest jpeg file your computer can manage.

Feedback From My Proposal (version 1)

In short an excellent idea, thoughts:
Social/ cultural/ religeous issues investigated, also contemporary popular culture and religion.

Is this purely a Chritian phenonemen?
Is your product just text based or will you contextualise the work in terms of location, congregation arriving/ leaving?

Are ou lmiting images to 'the site' or will you document the production? Are there meetings where groups have 'brain storming sessions?'

Last thing about the 'production/ what you make in the end' are you interviewing anyone? Will text (apart from that in the image) be used in the product?

Lens Based Practitioners

http://www.stephengill.co.uk/bonb/4s.jpg
Taken form Stephen Gills Billboards series and Billboards of Billboards

Final Major Project

FD PHOTOGRAPHY Year 2

Project Proposal
Name: Adam Denson

Project Title – The Ten Commandments, Media For The Day Modern Day Disciple. Final title will be decided before final major project hand in date.

Subject / Concept
What is the project about? What is your ‘viewpoint’ on the subject? Include any relevant background information.
For my final major project I have decided to stick to documentary photography and document the posters that are found outside places of worship. The idea came about when traveling in my car I noticed how religious posters are used to communicate to an audience. One poster I saw stated how ‘Jesus Loves The Weakest Link’. Using a religious undertone and associating it with modern culture I found this statement quite humorous. By using photography as my chosen media my project will focus primarily on written communication and therefore I will record various statements made by the church. Why do religious institutes go down this route of advertising themselves? Should we question why the church chooses to advertise this way? Are their methods a form of preaching? One valid reason could be because churches are experiencing a decline in attendance levels, communicating to wider audience could be a way of enticing the public through their doors. What is the true meaning of these posters? Who is responsible for making these statements?

Aims
What do you want to achieve with your project? What are you trying to communicate through your project? What is your motivation?
As a non-religious person I am not intending to preach religion, nor am I being disdainful. Documenting, collecting and sharing my findings and presenting them in a book are my key interests and motivation.

Audience / Context
Who would be interested in the project? What is a suitable professional outlet for the work (eg. Gallery, editorial, book).
The project is specifically aimed at anyone who shares a similar interest as me in documentary photography. The images should not be taken too seriously, however at the same time I would like my work to provoke some thought and therefore help answer some of my questions. My work will hopefully attract people with a religious belief but also those who have a sense of humor. If I intended to publish my work then I may look at contacting the likes of Daylight Magazine and source.

Outcome of project.
What is your proposed format, medium and presentation for the work?
The images will be presented in the form of a digital book (supplier bobbooks.com) and in addition several A2 prints from the series will be exhibited.

Time Management
What issues are there with completing the project to the set deadline?
What is your schedule for completing the project? Provide a rough schedule of your workload.
Should I have to travel further to my location then I may need to negotiate time off from college. My main aim is to finish the final project two weeks prior to the official hand in date. To help accomplish this a rough schedule is drafted below. I would like to continue the project after submitting my work. Regarding time scales I have no real concerns other than ensuring that enough time (ten working days) is set aside for preparing and submitting my digital book (bob books).

Photography 7th April – 9th May 2008
Editing images 12th May – 16th May 2008
Prepare digital book and final large images 19th May – 23rd May 2008
Print final large images, ready for mounting 26th May 2008
Digital book submitted, time allocated for the final book to arrive 26th May – 6th June 2008

Research Methods – Reference points
How and where will you research your project? What and who are your initial reference points?
The research required for this project is limited, nonetheless I will look at whether other photographers have explored this subject and if so, look at how I can improve my idea. Finding places of worship will also be easy to locate. Whether it’s searching online, road maps or using a Tom Tom to find my locations, I have no real concerns.

Lighting Evaluation

Evaluation
Whether it’s knowing how to use lighting equipment, how to use it creatively or knowing how or when to introduce different lighting techniques, lighting can still be a daunting experience. By the time I finished the brief I wanted to ensure I came away with a clearer understanding of certain lighting techniques and feel confidant with my abilities, knowing I can take out the lighting equipment at anytime and photograph.

After grouping up with Phil Auty and Chris Harvey we began straight and booked the studio space. On the day of the shoot Chris brought in a fragrance bottle to photograph, however as a group we had no vision in how we were going light it. As a group we were not put off by this as it allowed us to problem solve, experiment and discuss with one another creative ways of lighting. Reunited with the studio and the lighting equipment we managed to achieve some great images of the bottle, however for me I was beginning to feel that lighting products was becoming a cliché. As a photographer who enjoys lighting, I understand the importance of having these skills; however working in a studio is an area of photography I’m not drawn to. I find working in a studio restricts my creativity and therefore I was looking further a field. After much soul searching I reached the decision of going out on location and document the interior of my grandparents house in Manchester. Both myself Chris and Phil had our own little projects we wanted to pursue and therefore we found each other working separately and getting on with producing images.

Prior to going out on location I began searching the Internet and looking in various books for examples of interiors and how professionals approached their subject. Research suggests that complicated lighting set ups are unnecessary. If areas of a subject require additional light then either additional lighting can be implemented or reflectors can be used to bounce the light. Before I began speaking to people I always considered the more lights to light up the subject, the better, however this was not to be. On location I was using no more than two flash heads and one tungsten light to add warmth to my subject. After analysing my images I found the tungsten light made no real difference to the aesthetics of my image and a better solution would have been to use an amber filter.

Planning what equipment I was going to need on the day of the shoot and organising the insurance and liaising with my grandparents was well managed and went well. For future photo shoots I will adopt the same approach and this will help me avoid any problems in terms of wasting time and incurring or increasing costs.

On my grandparent’s house the shoot took two days and after day one of the shoot I then realised how much time was required for travelling, time spent photographing and setting up/ putting away the equipment. In my opinion I felt my naivety got the better of me on day one, however by day two I managed to turn it around and gave myself an additional two hours in the working day which enabled me to work at a much smoother pace and I was able to finish my work on time.
I feel the landscape image I took of the armchair in my grandparent’s house with the carpet and side table was probably one of my more creative shoots. I have been told in the past that my competency of being able to use the lighting equipment is sufficient; my creativity however needs stretching, as I tend to play it safe. The way of working I adopted when out on location was to analyse each image I took on my lap top screen and ask myself what could I do differently to improve the image. I found this approach successful and it was at this point when I began to feel like a real photographer. Making images, analysing them and making alterations to my lighting boosted my confidence and were a rewarding feeling.

I believe working in a team has its benefits, however on this occasion I was happy working on my own and getting on with producing images. Communication within the group was kept to a minimum and again this was due to the fact that we were left to putting our ideas into practice. The only breakdown in communication was when we all arranged to get together and plan out the design of our leaflet idea. Over the two days of the shoot, as well as being photographer, I was also responsible for finding the location, research, planning, organising and assisting, props, and styling. Although to some degree I managed to work well on my own there were times in the day when I felt it would be helpful to have some help.

The cost of the photo shoot at my grandparents was minimal. Costs such as travel, time and insurance were accounted for and although my shoot was unpaid I am aware how valuable time is when working as a photographer.

Reflecting on my experiences I believe my recent experience compared to the one back in 2007 has been a more rewarding time for me. Although I already had the knowledge of being able to meter light, set up and use the lighting equipment I feel my confidence and development has improved significantly. I believe working alone has been one of many factors responsible for this as I was left on my own and empowered to analyse and be critical about my images and solve any lighting problems that were going to either help or hinder my shoot. All in all it has been a great learning curve for me. One key point I will take away with me when I go back out and use the lighting equipment is to remember that there is no need for complicated lighting set ups. This has been already demonstrated in past lighting inductions where creative images have been created using only one light and several reflectors.

20th February 2008

Today Commercial Photographer, Simon Manchipp from www.sorted.tv who has worked as a freelance photographer Mixmag, Saturday Telegraph, Superdrug came along to college and gave our group a lighting induction. One of the first activities I took part in was titled drawing with light. Using a combination of a slow exposure, a torch, a model, photographer and a couple of assistants we as a small team were able to create intersting images. The idea of using the slow exposure would create streams of light and then using the flash units we were able to fill in specific areas with light.

Simon demonstarted that you don't need to have complicated lighting set ups to get great results. On the day I was asked to bring an image I liked so that we could attempt to recreate the image in the studio. Once we established where in the image the light source was coming from. Understading that great images can be created from just one light, reflectors were introduced on set to reach areas where the light was not hitting. After the group were happy, we decided to capture the subject and then look at the image to see what we could do to improve it. Working as part of a production team each person in the team was allocated a specific role and responsibility whether it was being the photographer, managing the lights or lookingafter props.

Photo Shoot Request

The company director of 'A Fitting Company' (Kitchen Installation Company) has contacted me and asked me if I would be able to photograph his company van which has recently been decorarted in graphics. The vehicle itself is seen as an advertisement of the company and informnation such as the name of the company, contact number and description of the business will be seen. The idea of photographing the van will be used for the purpose of the website that is currently being designed. I have decieded that the shooot should be taken in the middle of a city wehich hustle and bustle, an industrisl enviroenmtn and coismopolitan. Using a city scape as a backdrop is ideal and I have decided that the shoot will take place at dusk so that a mix of daylight and evening light would create an ambient, atmospheric light. The diagram is a quick illustration to show how I intend to set up the lights . The idea is to capture the image as raw and then take it through Photoshop and manipulate. Above is also an example of a photograpoh I took which demonstrates an exactr composition I intend to create in the image. The only difference is that the image will be in colour.