AD4803 Street// Set Exercise 001 (frame within a frame)

Blake Andrews Driving while phoned

This image is a self portrait. It has been taken using a reflection of a car mirror. The image is slightly off centre with the rest of the window being in soft focus, filling the frame. The image is black and white and contrasted. There are a lot of grey tones, but the mostly white background and the black of the camera make the image contrasted. The image has been taken at around mid day, with the light source being from the avaliable lighting from the sun. The image is a landscape. Due to only the subject being in focus, it suggests that an aperature of around f/8 has been used, with the rest of the image still being visible, just soft. The iso seems to be reasonably high, due to the noise in the image, maybe around 800, which would mean the shutter speed would be high, to also freeze the movement of the truck in the frame.

I decided to recreate the image with two different approaches. I wanted to use the factors that Blake Andrews used in ‘Driving while phoned’ but also experiment with the style. In the first attempt I used my rear-view mirror, much like Andrews. I liked the effect of this and felt it was more true in recreating his shot. I also kept the camera in shot, like he did. It had been raining on the day I took the image which I felt worked well in adding more interst and texture to the frame. It also worked in breaking up the scene outside which was quite busy. For the second attempt I used a different mirror in order to create a negative space around the main subject. I felt like this hsot was less distracting bu still gives enough context about the image being shot in a car. I enjoyed recreating the image and felt like my first attempt at a self portrait went okay.

This image has been shot through the window of a car. The window has rain on it, which gives the image a painted effect. The colours in the image are quite calming and cool, showing blueish grey and green. Through the window we can see a road, trees and some grass. The image doesn’t really show any obvious context or purpose, but instead, shows a peaceful scene. The image is succesful due to it being shot through a rainy window. The image is lit through the sunlight coming through the window. It appears to be after sunrise. The iso would have been at around 200, with the sun creating enough lighting without having to use the iso. The frame is sharper in the middle and softer towards the edges, suggesting the aperature is around F/8 or F/11.

For these images I tried various ways of recreating the original. I tried to stay to the original in a couple of shots, but also experimented with alternative ways, sticking to the same theme of shooting through a car window on a rainy day. I focused on showing the rain on the window and mainly made the focus outside a bit soft for a more abstract finish, similar to Andrews. In the two middle shots I pulled back a bit and used the inside of the car to frame the window more and make the composition a bit more interesting.