I could potentially destroy my camera so that I could do double exposures, or I could just simulate a double exposure with back lighting, a flashlight, night, and a 5 to 10 minute exposure. Experimentation with exposure has definitely forced me to be more resourceful and creative in developing ways in which to recreate an image in my mind onto a photograph. Practice is a large part of this process, but a lot of the time it's just a clever mistake.
I knew immediately after shooting these portraits that they would be over exposed. I was stuck in the mode of holding on to the bulb for minutes from previous experiments and definitely held the exposure for too long in this set because of that. When I saw these pictures for the first time, I did not like them and was annoyed with my mistake. I haven't looked at them for three weeks until today. Today, I like them. I think they are fantastical, a little nightmare-ish, slightly unnerving, and intriguing. This has happened to me before, where I look back at photography from years or even days ago and appreciate them (or not), and completely change my opinion or find a new insight. I'm excited to try this lighting with portraits again knowing that a mistake or failure could actually bring something interesting that I didn't even imagine while photographing, which will also open up my field of experimentation. Failure can be artistic.
I will do everything I can think of with a tripod: low light portraits, ridiculously long exposures, moving lights, pretend double exposures, and anything else I can think of. Lighting is so important, even at night. A full moon, street lamp, or dark indoor lighting can completely change the mood by just seconds of exposure. I am still having difficulty in exposure time and in recreating the night as I see it.
I finally got a tripod. I have been waiting to experiment with night photography for so long! I'm still experimenting and it is great fun. Having a tripod makes life so much easier. The first night I got it, I went to the beach and took pictures of the full moon and the lights of the wharf in Santa Cruz. It's difficult to recreate a night scene in film. I am only just beginning with guessing at exposure times, recording results, and crossing my fingers.
Night photography is more than just recreating night scenes, but creating eerie scenes like the photo below. It's not daylight, but it is no longer the night. It is something unreal and confusing to look at.
Two more experiments! The first two photos involve tilt-sifting, which involves taking the lens off the camera and tilting it in front of the body of the camera, guessing with the focus, then taking a picture. The point of this is to make it seem as if everything is miniature. My two attempts didn't work that well because it was hard finding a place where things would look interesting as miniature, and also because the focus is a huge guess and didn't work for me. I have not experimented much with that technique sense then. The second experiment involves longer shutter speeds to catch movement in water. It's difficult to do without a tripod, and I'm really surprised that the first photo actually came out. Neat. Actually, I don't even think the last photo was part of the experiment. I think it was really my attempt to capture water droplets in sunlight or maybe those annoying small bugs that hover in sun spots. Experimentation never really ends with photography. I keep thinking I've tried everything, then I discover something new. Also neat.
What type of film that is used can change the tones, temperature, and over all feel of pictures dramatically. Even though I took this set on a sunny day in Uvas, I was using a light temperature film, Kodak vivid color, and now these photographs looks like they were taken on a cloudy day or early morning. Kodak VC is meant more for portraits and gives more of a natural color and effect to photographs. I have also found that Kodak tends to be of a colder temperature than Fuji, and makes great use of blues, greens, purples, etc. Anyways, film should not be overlooked, and is one more thing for me to think about besides lighting, subject, time of day, aperture, shutter speed, color... The more I learn about photography, the longer it takes for me to take one picture.
