Glass Ball Photography
Time for something different from my sports photography.
Even though I’m a proud user of Canon, I’ve always been a fan of Nikon Advertising, the song Radical Face: Welcome Home is very memorable and it is always playing my head when I’m taking pictures. One advert I’m very fond of is the one about Andrius Aleksandravičus and his Glass Ball Project that he started back in 2012.
I’ve always wanted to recreate this effect, which in Summer 2017, I finally came across a glass ball/paper weight in my Nans house. I’ve had a few attempts of it in the Cornwall countryside. However today I did my first Glassball shoot. I decided to go on a photowalk with fellow student and friend Ryan Trower.
Ryan asked if I would like to come on a photowalk with him around Canary Wharf this was a perfect chance for me to give the glass ball a proper try. I really like using the glass ball because it gives a feel of a globe or our world. Which Canary Wharf is essentially. It is a financial district which because of it’s location feels like its separate from London. It essentially feels like its own independent world. It has it’s own security team, an airport was built specifically for it.
Below are some of the best shots from the day. I decided to create a mixture of images. I wanted some to be abstract, so I completely blow out the background or I put the ball upside down. With some I want to set the location, so I shoot a bit wider, maybe open up the aperture to bring more of the background into focus.
For a first go, I’m pleased with these images. This is something I’m looking forward to doing and taking forward in the future.
In the build up to Christmas Day, I’d decided to do a photo shoot. Along with photography I also enjoy learning and to an extent, recreating history. I enjoy making and taking pictures of my Airfix models. In particular the First World War.
I was hoping to have an image recreating the legendary football game in no mans lands, however there wren’t any poses that would’ve worked.
Last week we had a talk and an exercise into the economy of photography. Loads of photographer become one because photography is there hobby. However they at some point need to stop viewing it as a hobby and more of a job.
The first thing we considered was travel. We had three choices. Plane, train or ferry. A flight from Southend Airport to Paris would be £73. The train from St Pancras to Paris would be £85 and a ferry would be £80. But remember we would need fuel for the car, so thats another 100 odd pounds. So our current expenditure is £73
So next we considered equipment we would need to hire [which we would use the Flash Centre]. We would rent out two Elinchrom 500. With a deposit of £310 each and a rent of £25 per day. So we would rent for 3 days. So £620 deposit and £75 for 3 [£150] day rent would be £770. Our expenditure £843.
Equipment reminded us that we would also need to check the baggage allowance. The lights were 4.7 kg. 2.6 kg for the stands and 1.3 kg for the softbox. So the total of our luggage would be 8.6 kg. This is with in the flights limit but we would have to pay a £30 baggage fee. So our total is £1035.
Now we need to find a hotel suite in Paris for the shoot. We managed to find one for £600.
One image I want to replicate is this one. As I said I wanted to use a low angle to give this sense of the audience looking up at the model who is maybe there idol. Also when I see this shot I have a feeling of being successful, strong, proud.
Another shot that I want to replicate involves the model interacting with the sunglasses. I want some of my shots to involve interaction. To which I feel that if the lighting is correct, having the eyes in shot could make the front cover image very eye catching.
One final image that I want to recreate is this one. This will be my full body or 3/4 length shot.
We’ve had a few talks from photographers from photographers on this course however we weren’t told how he got some assignments or how he built up his name. He instead told us about what it’s like to be on a shoot. He focused mainly on lighting, how to light a subject. To which most of it was stuff we’d already been taught by Matt and Julian especially with reverse engineering. However it was great to refresh my mind and in some places, we heard in much greater detail.
One thing I learnt about is Inverse Square Law. This is something I had never heard of. However this is something I considered with my photography in the past. I’ve taken images with a flash but they’re still dark. This is because they are too far away from the light source that the light isn’t reaching them. So you need to increase the light exposure [Flash Exposure Compensation] or change the exposure. Another common example of Inverse Square Law is when you use the flash on a close up of someone, the background is dark [which if you shoot at 1/250 ‘flash sync’ the camera can’t take in any ambient light, only the flash], if you increase the exposure you will see the location. This is something Tom had to do for one of his shoots.
Tom also went into great detail about reverse engineering. This was very important to Tom because he believes we should create a source-bank of images that have lighting set ups that we like. This is also important because clients tend to give you shots that the would like to recreate. To which lighting can really change an image. So if your told to redo an image, it would be great if you could actually recreate the lighting set up.
After all the learning. Tom gave us a very good demonstrations of a few lighting setups. Setups involved backlit [also with a reflector], single set up, multi set ups.
I’m still waiting to hear back from Nii agency about the availability of models for my sunglasses shoot on the 22nd of January. So I’m now in the process of looking through the models profiles and going directly to them. Getting in direct contact with the model would be a great step because that way I can communicate my ideas with them before the shoot also I can let them know what kinds of attire I would like them to wear. To which they will probably have clothes that I’m looking for.
The first model that stood out to me was 
Another model who I think would look good for the shoot is 
One final model who I might contact for my shoot is 
The first thing we discussed was potential work experience for the summer. We felt that an experience of picture desk or photo editing would be very beneficial considering the photographic environment I work in.
I followed this with if I was at a picture desk that uses an agency like Press Association of Getty. I will get a sense of how quickly images come in and the selection process that would go into selecting the front cover shot. Lets take tomorrows papers for example. Theres 1297 images for the Premier League, however the main article will be about Manchester City beating Manchester United. On PA there are 246 images of this one match. Imagine the thought process and how many different images and types they will experiment with to choose the cover of the sports section. I’d guess they would have 10 different covers but an experience of being on a picture desk would let me know for sure.
code for the organisation and you could get into direct contact. Another great way to get this opportunity is LinkedIn. It’s a social media where you don’t find photographers, but you find people who employ photographers. Matt also said that I “need to be generous with an email” write something like “this would be a valuable experience” or “I’ve been a fond follower of your paper/magazine“. I need to set up my LinkedIn account.
The next thing we discussed was website. I was recommended SquareSpace. I had my eyes on this and it seems like a good engine to build a “Nice and simple” website. It seems to be very popular amongst creatives. I was also told not to put to much on my website. Also “Website is a hub … easy way to hold and link everything” I’m in the process of making my site on SquareSpace.
We moved onto social medias next. We started with looking at my Twitter account. The first thing Matt said was about my choice in cover image. Matt said I had a good image of the Statue of Liberty but we agreed it gave out the wrong message about my photography. It makes me look NY based or a travel photographer. My profile picture did rescue my style but the cover image stands out. I have since changed it to a sports image. It was recommended that I use Twitter for not only my professional images but also some BTS shots. Use it as a blog. Matt did like how I used Twitter to retweet my work, just to give a quick overview of who is using my work. “Twitter is a community … ‘Like’ and ‘Retweet’ other peoples work”
We moved onto Instagram. Matt really liked some of the images but at the same time felt there were some images that were out of place. For example the pictures of the Santa Dash didn’t match the sports images. I was also told to save Instagram for just my professional work. Only show my best images, also keep the BTS shots for either Twitter or my personal Instagram.
The last thing we discussed was avenues of research into documentary photography. It was recommended that I visit shows and festivals like Visa Pour L’Image the International Festival of Photojournalism. It is held in Pergignan in Southern France. It was described as hard hitting and brutal exhibition. It showed images that wouldn’t even be shown beyond the watershed. That how tough the images are to look at imagine how hard they were to take.
It holds talks every morning which I could possibly get myself a press pass to all the talks.
I myself am aware of 
Matt recommended me to the Sony World Photography Awards. I was told “Even if your shortlisted, you have made it“. They have both Professional and an Open categories. To which pro categories need a series of 10 images. But open need just one image. I was told to look at the Sports category in professional and culture and motion in the open category. Also they are free, so I have absolutely nothing to lose by entering them. Even if I only get shortlisted my name is still getting noticed by someone.
We started by doing a spider diagram about potential ideas for our shoot. Here are a few of the stand out ideas
We also had a quick look through the books in the library and we found this image in a book that compared Donald Trump and Barack Obama. We felt this was the typical image of migrants and refugees. People looking down at them.
For some of the pages I might get the type involved the image. So if I have an action shot, I might cut the player out and get the text to around the dynamic shape that the player has formed. It could help for images where there is a distracting background and if I take my time it can be eye catching and look professional. This does however seem like a very advanced skill for Adobe InDesign. So I might be able to do this, I might not.
I could write about how my love for the club started. When did I start supporting them, away matches, chants. This would be a good way to start my journey from fan to photographer. This would be a good opportunity to try out what Terry suggested to me. He said I could take images of my phone which is displaying images that I took when I was supporting Charlton. Me and Terry think this would be a good way of looking into the past. Like how we look at old negatives of images that we took in the olden days.
On Saturday I’m covering Charlton Athletic vs Portsmouth which is the closest date to the 5th of December. Which is the day that Charlton Athletic returned to the Valley. This year marks there 25th anniversary. And the first match back at the Valley was against Portsmouth. So this is a very big day for the club. To which I’ve been given an access all areas pass. So I’m going to get a perspective I wouldn’t have got if I was just a supporter of the club.
I think I should do an article about my photography, showing that I don’t only photography Charlton. This could be combined with another idea from Terry. I could scan my passes and lanyards in and place them on a page. Could create something nice and different.
Ben Peters Digital Photography 