you don’t take a photograph, you make it – Ansel Adams

the two categories i am choosing to explore their styles of photography are both sports and fashion. i choose these two as felt they were the most appealing subjects to me, and also thought they would be a good contrast as the industries they are from are far from similar. i like the fact that the two are completely different from one another yet at the same time they have an obvious link. i personally think fashion is all about the way someone or something comes across, for example how they are looking, or what they are advertising. either way something always tends to sell, whether it’s a pretty face or a killer outfit. i personally think sport is reasonably different as it’s all about the performing factors and doing everything the right way to be beneficial. Sports photography to me is extremely interesting, mainly because it’s all about getting the right shot at the right time, it shows perseverance and intelligence as it isn’t just like photographing a model, you haven’t got all the time you need to get the ‘right’ shot. in sport if you’re not in the right place at the right time, your standard will drop, and it’ll be your image that suffers. When taking photographs of famous people when playing football or whatever, you can’t make them adapt what they are doing, you have to adapt for them. You have to pick what you feel will be good & go with your instincts. Whereas in modelling fashion it’s slightly different in a way because your model mainly adapts to you, and does their own thing to ‘sell there product’. the pressure of taking a picture of  a stand up model isn’t as tense as it is trying to capture someone on the go. although saying that i am aware that it all varies depending on who you’re working with, and how you are going about shooting someone.  for example a stand up shoot is different to shooting a model on the catwalk.

Fashion: the photographer i have chosen to research on is Richard Warren, after searching through several fashion photographers. i briefly looked through his photo’s and had a sudden interest. his portfolio to me was rather intriguing, as each shot is from a range of angles and the lighting is never the same, however every photo seems to be dim in some way. i think the balancing composition may have something to do with it, although i’m not entirely sure. Richard Warrens photo’s seem to have a little story behind them, that’s the main reasons i like them, the story can be interpreted in several ways, for instance i’m really keen on these photo’s; (black & white photo strip). This photo is a classical Hollywood lighting in the styles of the 1930′s. the positions that are posed work well against the shadows, and there is also a lot of evidence of there being a background light. I’m keen on these images as it portrays the image of looking ‘glamorous’ constantly, although the more you look at the photo with great detail the more you can see signs of the model not feeling so ‘glam’. for instance there is one image when the blonde model is holding her stomach whilst posing beautifully, as if to say she cannot look fat & she is trying to hold it in, or to draw notice to her stomach and show that without it, she wouldn’t the job. either way it all really depends on the way in which the person who’s looking at the photograph perceives it.

the second photographer i have chosen to research on & talk about is Adam Rowell, i like his photo’s a little more than Richard warrens as i feel that his are eye catching and stunning. Every photo of his i have seen tends to have a lot going on in the caption, yet nothing is forgotten about. his photo’s to me show real fashion, the type thats on the catwalk and takes a lot of guts to be worn. it’s the fashion that stands out so much just by being so unique, the pictures themself stand out to me because they are so bold and striking. they show true confidence and in this one; http://www.adamrowell.com/fashionphotography/images/f5.jpg to me it looks as if she should be on a couture runway but has been dropped off by someone into the woods on the way there. the girl in the photo in the green has a bag so it looks like she’s going somewhere, but her eyes are in a different direction to the camera so it looks as if she’s looking out for someone to see her. i don’t particularly know what it is about this picture i just love how she’s so dressed up and the background is tree’s, so she looks out of place but in a good way, because she stands out amongst the leaves & trees, even though it’s all a different shade of green. the photo shot is taken a third in from the left, the rule of third is when a picture is a third to the left,right,up, or down. the model portrays her fashion pose as elegant and sophisticated, the back lighting is on her to make the 3dimensional quality. this therefore lets the light shine on her from the back, front and side to give a bold bright contrast.

Another fashion photographer i choose was Jason Christopher. these range of images are my favourite. i am going to talk about them from left to right.

the photograph of the girl stepping out of the car (picture one) and the one of the girl standing up against the care (picture two), i think are portrayed as a confidence statement. it shows she is proud to be unique, for instance her punky looking skirt is bold against all the over colours. my main for liking this photo is probably due to the colour contrasts and the background. i love the way the background goes from light to dull to really light, i think it shows a great setting to capture an image. i also like the fact that the car is bright red, the photo itself looks as if it’s being modelling, and advertised to buy. i like the different contrasts and how they mix together, as it is very eye catching.

the third picture is a typical fashion photo, it looks like it would appear on london fashion week catwalk show, the clothes are dark but bold and are dull. the photo itself looks as if it has been taken at a high angel as it looks on her from a birds eye view. the dark clothing in this photo helps to enhance the face and highlight her facial features.

i chose one more photographer for fashion & his name was Barry Lategan. i choose him a few days after the others because i watching American’s next top model, and saw loads of his portfolio on there, including some of the shots with twiggy. after looking at those photos of her the one below especially, i realized that his photography is my favourite. i think it’s mainly because he’s shot the model at all the right angles with a good lighting, when doing the photography the model was aware of where the angle of the light was, and it showed when the final shots were shown. this gives a balancing contrast because the shading in certain area’s is also shown. this is the picture; www.npg.org.uk/assets/images/assests/collections-derived/photographs-collection/NPGTwiggy_Lategan.jpg. out of all the photographers i have chosen Barry Lategan is definately my favourite, mainly because he doesn’t leave alot of negative space, that being spare space in a photo. ♥ the context i think this will be used in is a magazine like vogue.

Sport: the sports photographer i have chosen is Bob Martin, he has been branded as an award winning photographer, he specifies in editorial pictures, aswell as motion pictures. His images to me look rather appealing, and incredibly interesting, mainly because hardly any of them are rarely posed. He takes his shot’s with risks, risks that he might not get the right caption, as action shots aren’t redoable. Bob Martin’s photograpghy consists of a natural lighting as he shots aren’t standstill ones, they’re action shots, therefore he is known to take them in the ‘moment’. my favourite is this; www.bobmartin.com/bob1.html . my main reasons for liking it i guess are because it again is really unique, and unusual and i also think it’s hilarious the way in which the tennis player is positioned to take a shot. although at the same time i think it’s cockiness as he obviously feels he can do whatever he wants and still master the shot. although saying that its photo like the tennis player that make good photography because they have an effect in some way to the people who look at the photo’s. this type of photo is taken with a short  reduced shutter speed because it is capturing the photograph quickly to get the action shot dead on time.

this photo would have been captured by a very fast shutter with alot of balancing composition. Bob Martin uses back lighting which makes the photo extremely bold, to enhance the fact that the person is chucking water on his face, this makes the person stand out. i think this is a very powerful photograph, if there was no use of back lighting the photo would be completely different and rather boring because you wouldn’t be able to see the areas in which show the outline of the person and the droplets of water. the droplets of water being scattered everywhere give off a sense of carelessness from the person, yet extreme concentration from the photographer.

i also found this picture by Bob Martin rather extreme as there are two bold diagonal lines, and a lot of negative space. i like the fact that you cannot see his body or his entire face or helmet, i think it gives off a sense of intrigue-ness as you have to imagine it for yourself. i also particularly like the way the water is hitting itself, ie) the way that the droplets splash onto the calmer water and the light change of the two. another factor i like about this picture is that it is taken at an unusual high angel, the common photographs are taken using the rule of third, yet this one ignores the rules and stands out better for it. without the camera lense being positioned at a birds eye view, it wouldn’t allow the person observing the picture to feel as ‘involved’ in the photograph, as the picture will be more in your face, and won’t allow you to have the oppurtunity to look down upon all it’s unusual characteristics.

this photo shows a balanced compostion as the person is near enough the same colour as the background behind him. this picture is taken with a short shutter speed as with this is was able to catch the image quickly, allowing to capture the man being  sprayed which all the mud onto his face & body. in this picture there is no real lighting or use of flash shown as the image itself is rather dull.

The second sports photographer i have chosen is Gary Allen, my favourite picture by him that i have seen is this one: www.garyallenphoto.com/images/sports.jpg i think it shows a great shot, you can see the tension in the two oppositions hands when they are trying to get the ball. it shows that the two sports people are determined to try and do well for their team. i also like the fact that the audience’s faces are in the background but are blurred out as if they aren’t directly significant yet they have a slight expression which show their current thoughts and feelings on the action. i think the reason the photographer has edited the picture to have there faces blurred is to make sure the attention is all on the players, and what they’re doing. the photo shows grain evidence in a low light, therefore the brightness has to be boosted to make the shot more noticeable. the expressions on the sports person in the blue are fierce, the muscles are recognizable because of how tensed he is. the fact that his hand is blurred shows is reach for the ball is quick and the photo is taken with a short shutter speed. This picture is another photograph taken from him, it to me looks unprofessional and doesn’t compare to the other photographers. Gary Allens photography seems to be as if he’s just started at specializing in sport, as it seems to be pretty poor compared to all the photo’s of weddings and music festivals that he has done. In a way he was a good photographer to choose as he was weaker than the others, this therefore showed the differences between the two standards.

The third photographer i have chosen is Paul Brock, although i have chosen him, he is my least favourite sports photographer out of the three i have chosen. I much prefer the other photographers mainly because they seem to take more professional standard photo’s than Brock. The photos Paul Brock takes would be defined as action shots yet not particularly interesting, i think this is mainly due to the fact that he hasn’t used special effects when or edited his pictures to a great extent, therefore they have no real reason to stand out as they are pretty dull. For example this picture states my point;