COLOR SET - GROUP WORK

For this group project we had to create a color set, a collage of photos with orange as the main color. The group consisted of Imogen, Connor and Laura and me. We had only 48 hours to take the photos, select the best ones, create the color set and present the final work. Given the short time available for the work I decided to use my iPhone to take the pictures so that I could easily edit and share them with the group.

My photos

I decided to take photographs of everyday orange objects. I tried to use minimal backgrounds to highlight the main object, experimenting with bluish backgrounds to make the orange color pop. As we started composing the color set it turned out that the photographs I've taken needed a dramatic cropping so that they could blend better with the other photos. The final work is the following:

Group color set

SHADOWS FOUND & MADE - 04

How shadows become an important part of night urban landscapes really fascinates me. Street lights and artificial light give a lot of opportunities to play with shadows.

In the first photo the artificial lights on the ceiling divide the photograph in two parts: the darker left one and the right illuminated one. The subject is walking towards the darker part and his shadow blends in the darkness. Only his back is illuminated and its face and expressions cannot be seen. The shadows here have the only function to add mystery to the subject, nevertheless the photo as a whole doesn't feel flat and soulless, thanks to the different layers: the street, the pavement, the illuminated shop windows and the ceiling compensated by the obscured wall on top. Each layer contributes to an overall symmetry and balance.

New Milton, United Kingdom

In the second photograph I played more with the light. In the skate park the street light creates a very long shadow of a man that reaches the photograph right in the lower-right corner. That creates dynamism and depth. Following the shadow the viewer reaches the subject that's blurred (because of a slow shutter speed) and blends into the very dark shadow behind. The only visible human characteristic is the feet. That gives the picture a mysterious and supernatural look.

New Milton, United Kingdom

Taking this picture I played with shutter speed to achieve blurriness and an unclear subject. I played with different shadows lengths and shapes to achieve a quiet and self-reflection moment, even in a  darker and sadder environment typical of night photography.

Contact sheet

SHADOWS FOUND & MADE - 03

Framing is a powerful tool, really effective in attracting the viewer eye to the subject and creating order - a tool extensively adopted by Nirav Patel. In this picture I tried to frame with the entrance in the background a bizarre and strange subject: an elegant street musician with a cat's mask. One thing that I like about this picture is the way the the long shadow of the man bends on the door and is framed by the shadows of the entrance. The shadows not only gives depth and soul to the main subject but framed feels like a separate subject. The shadow also has the two main characteristics that make the subject interesting and bizarre: the long ears of the cat's mask and the trumpet. This two things cause the eye of the viewer to move back and forward from the man to its framed shadow and in general grab the viewer attention. 

Southampton, United Kingdom

Particular, mysterious and interesting subjects are often part of Nirav's portraits and street photographs, because they're part of quiet moments of self-reflection that stimulate the imagination in the viewer - moments he really loves to capture.

SHADOWS FOUND & MADE - 02

One of the feature of hard and intense light is its ability to create strong shadows and therefore photographs with an high contrast and depth.

In this half-lenght portrait I used the bright light of the sun to add a dramatic effect to the picture. The shadow formed on the right side of the subject bend over the shapes of the face, adding tridimensionality and depth. The hard light hitting his face highlights tiny details, like the facial hair and the skin texture. The neutral and flat background with parallel and perpendicular lines also emphasize the subject. However photographing the subject without sunglasses would have made the portrait more expressive and less tense, more in style with Nirav's photographs.

Stefano - Southampton, United Kingdom

Contact sheet

SHADOWS FOUND & MADE - 01

One thing that is easily tangible in every Nirav's photograph is the strong composition. He uses leading lines to conduct the viewers eye to the subject and symmetry to create a sense of balance and calm.

In the two photos I've taken - both of subjects going downstairs - I tried to take advantage of composition to create symmetry and balance and to draw the viewer to the subject.

In the first picture the sidewalls and the yellow handrails form the leading lines of the composition that make the eyes of the viewer travel downstairs and take them to the subject. This type of composition creates depth and the symmetry creates order and tranquility. The shadow of the sidewall on the right also contributes to the overall symmetry being centered on the stairway. There is one element that breaks the composition and that's the shadows of the little lady that pops out in the middle of the photograph. This shadow, this imperfection in the symmetry adds depth and soul to the photograph without breaking the balance. Without this human detail the photograph would have felt a little boring and flat.

Southampton, United Kingdom

In the second photo there are the same leading lines of the composition, but in this case the walls that surround the stairway work also as a frame. These details contribute to give the subject importance in the composition. The light geometrically projected on the walls and on the subject gives the photograph depth and tridimensionality without disrupting the symmetry and illuminating the otherwise dark scene.

Southampton, United Kingdom

Photographing the subject from behind gives a sense of mystery to the whole photograph. There is nothing anxious and tense about their moment and about the environment surrounding them. That plus the symmetry and the overall balance of the composition adds to the contemplative and quiet mood

SHADOWS FOUND & MADE - THE ARTIST

Nirav Patel

Nirav Patel has always dreamed of becoming an engineer. Finding a job that would give him and his family security and prosperity was his top priority. In 2009 the discovery of his parent’s wedding album changed his life plans forever. He began to capture intimate family moments and quickly fell in love with photography. Day after day he maturated the decision to leave his dream job and to pursue wedding photography. Today he is also a lifestyle and travel photographer based in San Francisco. 

Here comes the bride - Perth, Australia

He is a rare flexible photographer who excels in many different style of photography - street, portraits, landscapes - without loosing his distinctive characteristic: being a master of light and atmosphere.

Islamabad, India

What fascinates me the most about his pictures is the quiet and contemplative atmosphere that is strongly tangible in every photo. All his street and travel photographs - from the ones in Islamabad to the ones in SF - have a constant characteristic: shadows that direct the viewer’s attention to the subjects and that reinforce the composition. He also loves portraits and uses hard lights in them to reveal tiny details, to add contrast and drama and to expose skin texture. Another permanent feature of his pictures is the presence of film-like desaturated colors and often high contrast BWs.

San Francisco, USA

The way he uses shadows, light and strong composition to convey that contemplative atmosphere has been for me an important inspiration source for this first project. 

Editorial for Escape Magazine Vol. 3

"I like to capture moments of self-reflection and calm. I guess my parents saw this coming as my name actually means 'calm/quiet'."

More from Nirav Patel:

http://www.niravpatelphoto.com