Friday, 22 April 2016

Evaluation

I enjoyed this module as I felt that it challenged me a little more in terms of photography and the subject I chose to capture. I find wildlife photography really interesting, so when I learned that I could incorporate it into my course I became more engaged with my work and spent more leisure time over the holidays doing work that I might otherwise have not done if I didn't find the subject so interesting. Although, I think that I could have started shooting some imaged sooner, rather than waiting until week 5, as this would have meant that I had more photos in my portfolio, and a possible wider range of images and subjects to choose from.

Although I had most of my images, I waited until I had just a week left to begin posting them, thinking that if I posted 3-4 images a day rather than 1, then my project may stay in circulation via social media platforms for longer. This may be a good idea, but I should have begun posting images earlier to avoid a mad rush with my last few photographs. Also, if I had begun earlier, I would maybe have needed a few more images to begin posting so many and so frequently.

I could have researched more into how best to circulate and distribute my images via social media, such as which outlets/apps to use and how many hashtags is the best amount to use. But I think that the project went quite successfully, with quite a few people viewing and liking my images and posts, as well as reading my blog documenting my ongoing project.

I did begin this project by stating that I was going to focus mainly on marine wildlife conservation, but also included some images of the Exmoor ponies that were recently introduced into the Forest of Dean to prevent the overgrowth of pasture areas. This is because I thought that these images had a good response on social media, and since they were related to my project through wildlife conservation I included them. This also meant that I could compare the response I got to marine wildlife conservation, and just the broad range of wildlife conservation, as well as seeing if the locality and news presence of the story had anything to do with its popularity, especially on Facebook. Also, since I find this subject particularly fascinating, I felt that if I began with a broader range of wildlife conservation then that would give me the option to continue posting after the module had finished, depending on the interest it garners on social media.

Obviously capturing the images was my favourite and most enjoyable part of the module, and by researching other wildlife photographers and their techniques, it helped me when taking my own photos. I honed my camera skills during this project, especially when using a 300mm with manual focus, just stood around waiting for the perfect moment for hours, so it's just as well I have quite a bit of patience. But not only has this project taught me new techniques, but it may have also helped me decide what kind of photographer I would like to be when I eventually graduate from university. When I first came to university for an interview for my course, one of the questions I was asked was "what sort of photography do you like and what sort of photographer would you like to be" and I was stuck on what to answer. Well, I think I may finally know.

Wetlands Reserve, Social Media Evaluation

My photos from the Wetland Reserve in Cardiff Bay did quite well on Instagram, and were shared by some people, as well as being liked.

Another few conservation projects followed me, such as theopenatlas and oceanic.global.

On Twitter, my posts were also retweeted and liked, and this may be due to the subject matter being more local to Cardiff, as my sea lions posts were not. Also I tagged wearecardiff in them, and they are one of the accounts that retweeted some of my posts, sharing my images with a wider audience.




Thursday, 21 April 2016

Jon McCormack

Jon McCormack is one of the photographers who liked some of my images of the Californian sea lions on Instagram, so I decided to look him up.

He is an award winning photographer who is based in California, and who photographs a variety of different subjects, such as wildlife photography, street photography, landscape photography and portrait photography.

These two images I found on his site I chose as they are related to the subject that I focused my project on.

 Image from http://jonmccormack.com/
Image from http://jonmccormack.com/

I like his use of a black and white filter in these images, as it shows a greater contrast between the shadows and the light. the close-up of the seal in the first image is unique due to the facial expression of the animal, yet I really like the composition of the second image as it seems natural and almost chaotic. Both have great focus and detail showing.

Image from http://jonmccormack.com/

The composition in this image is brilliant, as thought has obviously been put into where the best place to take the image would be, and at what angle. The entire scene is in the shot, and although the foreground and background are related, they could easily be two separate photographs.

Image from http://jonmccormack.com/

I like this portrait as it is simple yet captivating. The use of singular primary colours draws the viewers attention to the man straight away, as the image isn't too busy with distractions of other object and colours. The foreground is slightly out of focus, adding perspective and a sense of distance, but not enough to remove the attention from the subject of the photo.

Sea Lions, Social Media Evaluation

My posts of the sea lions were a lot more popular on Instagram, with some professional photographers and some conservation movements and companies following me and liking my images.





I didn't have as much success on Twitter, although I did have a few likes of some of my posts. I retweeted every post a few hours after I had originally posted it, to keep it in circulation, but I seemed to have the most success on Instagram.


I didn't use Facebook to post these images, as I thought that the message would be become lost if I uploaded the images altogether, and that if I posted them individually then people would soon become annoyed with my images constantly on their timelines. Instead I shared my website and account names on both Twitter and Instagram so that people could look at them if they were interested. That post did get a few likes, and my website viewer ratings spiked a short time after that but whether or not it was because of that post I suppose I will never know.

Exmoor Ponies: Social Media Evaluation

It seems that my posts about the Exmoor Ponies were received the best on Facebook. This may be due to me being connected with a lot of local people from my home, and due to this story being local, they were more interested in it.

I only got a couple of likes on my Instagram posts:


I had the same results with my Twitter posts:

This may be because I forgot to put hashtags on the posts both on Instagram and Twitter.

I had a bigger response on Facebook, with people wanting to know where the ponies could be found:

This may also be because I tagged another person in my post, and so my photos reached a wider audience.

Wetlands Reserve, Final Images

There is a moat running the entire length of the reserve, which separates the public from the wildlife-orientated area of the reserve. This means that the birds can live in peace from the general public and any dogs that are walked through the reserve. I included this image to show a vista shot of the reserve, as well as to show the moat that separates the different parts of the wetlands reserve.
The reserve has attracted birds such as swans for breeding and nesting. I used the technique used previously, where I blurred the background and the foreground to create an emphasis on the subject of the image.
This is a robin at the Wetlands Reserve at Cardiff Bay. Although the image is technically correct, it could be better if it was a close-up of the robin. This particular robin was taunting me for about 45 minutes, as whenever I got close, or put my camera up to my eye it would fly to another branch, and I could never get quite close enough.

I did use Photoshop to brighten these images as they were a little dull and underexposed, and I think that they look a lot better after they have been altered.

Wetlands Reserve, Cardiff Bay

For some extra images I decided to go to the Wetlands Reserve at Cardiff Bay. I only got a few that were useable as there wasn't much wildlife around when I went there. But I did manage to get some shots of swans and robins. These are my contact sheets.



Fuerteventura: Sea Lions, Final Images

These are my final images of the Californian sea lions in Fuerteventura.

The female sea lions at Oceanarium Explorer are 17 years old, but Casper the male is only 4. Once he is fully sized he will be twice the size of Donna and Debbie. I have made sure that the sea lion is in the centre of the shot to keep the focus of the attention on her.

The species of the Californian sea lion is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN due to "its large and increasing population size". Sea lions can see in colour, although their vision is limited to the blue/green area on the colour spectrum, and they can actually see and hear better underwater. I thought this made an interesting shot as the sea lion is yawning, and that makes quite a dramatic pose.

This is Debbie and Donna in one of the smaller pools enclosures. They are able to go into the bigger pool as well, but are usually put into the smaller one after a certain time in the afternoon. The females tend to be less aggressive and so are the ones that interact more with the public. Debbie and Donna have been at this particular place for 15 years. I wanted an image with both of the female sea lions in together, and this shot was my most in focus including the two sea lions.


These Californian sea lions have a signal at Oceanarium Explorer, that if they don't wan to be seen by the public they swim with one flipper out of the pool. Any plans for the day are then cancelled, such as having photos taken and the possibility of swimming with them - although this swimming experience happens only once a day, and not every day. I like this image as the sea lion is looking at the camera as it swims by, and the directness almost links the viewer with the animal.
I wanted to use this photo as a title or something as the sea lion is to the left of the image, leaving a blank space for writing, so I ended up using it as the background image for my blog. The sea lion is visible to the side of my writing and images, with the deep blue/turquoise colour being a contrasting background.
This is Donna. She is the sea lion who has been taught a few tricks such as opening her mouth and waving her flipper. This photograph shows the trust between her and the trainer Danny, as she is allowing him to put his hand in her mouth. I included this image as it is a closer look at the sea lion, as well as including the trainer in the shot.
This is Donna with her trainer Danny. This photograph displays not only the trick where Donna places her nose on Danny's hand, but also the bond between the sea lion and the trainer.
This is a close-up of Donna with trainer Danny. Here they are showing me one of the few tricks that Donna has been taught, and that is to wave her flipper.
The main differences between sea lions and seals is that sea lions have visible ear flaps (as seen in the photograph), and are able to walk on land with their large flippers. This is due to the fore flippers being stronger and more developed, as well as rotating their hind flippers forward underneath them. Again, I like the connection that the viewer can make with the sea lion due to the directness of its stare at my camera. Also the fact fits in with the image, as certain features of the sea lion that are being described are visible to back up the fact.
The sea lions are each fed 10 kilos of fish a day, and weigh between 80-90 kilos each. I included this image as it shows not only the daily routine but the positive reinforcement when the sea lion performs a trick (in this case coming when called.
The trainers and female sea lions at Oceanarium Explorer work with children with special needs, such as cerebral palsy and autism. This is because female sea lions are less aggressive and very interactive with the public as they are social animals.
Although Casper and the female sea lions are separated for part of the day to get used to each other's company, after the public are gone in the afternoon they are all put together in one pool. Debbie is still not so sure of Casper, but Donna gets on well with him. Donna is the more social of the female sea lions anyway as she is the one who has her pictures taken and is more in the 'public eye'.
Here is Donna with trainer Danny. Danny is from Alicante and has worked with sea lions for 15 years. I wanted to include an image of Danny as it becomes more real with a person in the image as well, instead of just wildlife photography. It also highlights the interaction between them, and puts a face to the 'trainer' I often mention.
Casper was transferred from a park in Tenerife as his trainers could not work with him due to him biting them. In just 2 weeks progress with him has been made already and other employees can safely feed him as well. He's settling in well at the Oceanarium, and is getting on well with the trainers and other sea lions.
These are the enclosures that they live in. As you can see the pools are in the sea itself, and the pools are 25 feet deep. There is only a small rope and a widely spaced wire fence around the enclosures, so it wouldn't be hard for the sea lions to escape if they wanted to.

I wanted to include facts about Californian sea lions as well as about these particular ones so that the project was more well-rounded and informative. I decided to use the following hashtags when posting an image on Instagram, so that they would hopefully reach a wider audience. #oceanariumexplorer (this is the name of the place where I took the images) #canaryislands #sealions #ocean #conservation #Fuerteventura.

Fuerteventura: Sea Lions

Over the Easter holiday I went to Fuerteventura for a week, and whilst I was there I went to an Oceanarium at the harbour a few times. At this Oceanarium were 3 Californian seal lions, 2 females called Debbie and Donna, and one male called Casper. I decided to use these sea lions as the main focus of my wildlife conservation project as there was a variety of shots I could take, coupled with a lot of information that I could write about them and the Oceanarium.

Unfortunately the sea lions were born in captivity so could not be released into the wild, but I wanted to show the positive side of this type of conservation. Although the sea lions are in captivity, the Oceanarium is in the sea, on a beach, which is as close to the wild that they can get without actually being wild Californian sea lions. They have 3 pools, two smaller, and one large, and all are at least 25 feet deep, and in the sea itself. There is only a relatively low rope and widely spaced wire fence around the enclosure, meaning that if the sea lions were inclined to, they could escape. I will include more information in my post with my final images of the enclosures and sea lions that I took, but for now, these are my contact sheets.











After the employees allowed me to get access beyond the rope and wire fence, my images were a lot more detailed and in focus, as I was a lot closer to the sea lions, close enough to touch them (although I didn't). I took these photos over a period of a week, going back 3 or 4 times over my holiday to gather more information about the sea lions, the Oceanarium and the trainers, as well as to take more photographs. I have decided not to post any video for this project as often people will not take the time to watch it, so I am going to stick with photographs.

Exmoor Ponies Final Images

I spent about 3 hours finding then photographing the ponies. I had to be very quiet (as expected really) when photographing the ponies as I didn't want to spook them. At first I was worried about getting too close in case they ran away, which is why my first shots are not as close-up, as I was slowly but surely making my way closer, until I hid behind a tree. My only problem then was that the ponies had gotten used to my presence and so wouldn't raise their heads to look at me like they had done at first. This meant that I had to cough or talk to them, and finally one of the ponies did raise their head, allowing me to get a couple of decent shots. These are the two photographs that I picked as my best from my contact sheets.



Some of the images were slightly out of focus in places as I was using a manual focus on my lens, and so I picked the photos that I thought were in focus the best. I did use Photoshop to brighten the images, as they were a little dull due to having slightly the wrong settings. The weather was temperamental on the day I decided to shoot, and I would get the camera settings right only for the sun to either disappear behind clouds or become very bright, making my images either underexposed or overexposed. In the end I decided that I could fix this by using Photoshop, as by constantly messing with camera settings I would sometimes miss a photo opportunity. I used the same technique as Craig Jones did in his wildlife photography, by making both the background and foreground out of focus. I also used light as a key element in my images, as the light is glancing off the one side of the ponies flank and mane.

I posted these photos on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I'm not sure which will end up being the most popular, but since this is something that is local to me, it depends on which outlet I have the most local followers/friends.