Dolphinholme

This week we visited a goat Farm in Dolphinholme. It was cold, wet and muddy. When we were first told about the trip and were told that it is a drawing residential, I wasn't looking forward to it. I didn’t really know if there was anything I could do as I am doing the media and photography pathway. Even when we got there I wasn't excited.

I decided that I wanted to take part in creating things for both the photography and media pathway.  On the first day (Tuesday 25^th September) I decided to concentrate on my photography. I first went down to the river and experimented with the shutter speed, on the river. I also tried to take some extreme close-up pictures. Because of the weather it was difficult to be able to get any good pictures. 

This picture was meant to be a rain drop that was on the edge of a branch. However to do this I needed a macro lens, because I didn't have one I was unable to get any of the close-up pictures that I wanted. However I do like that fact than rather the background being blurred it is the foreground that is blurred whilst the background is in focus.

Because I had the shutter speed open for quite a long time this image is very bright and white. Without knowing it is a river I don’t think that I would have known what the image is of. If the trees and the leaves were a little brighter I think I would like the contrast between the colours.

I like this picture because of the contrast between the green leaves and the way that the river is now white because of the shutter speed. 

I really like this image because it does look like there is a lot of movement in the river, which there was, but playing around with the shutter speed adds more movement and changes the colour. I really like the way that the branches are in the image and you don’t just see the water. There is also a contrast between the colours. The white and brown of the river and the brightness of the leaves.

This picture is of just of the water. I like this picture because of the difference between the brown and the white. There is more movement in the background of the photo and only slight movement In the foreground. The middle has the whitest parts of the image.

After I went down to the river I went to the barn where I could get a good view of the goats. I’d always been a animal lover and thought this would be a great opportunity to see if I was capable of working with animals.

I like this image of the goats because the white goat is in focus and the brown goat isn't. I think it would be better if the fence wasn't there, but nothing could be done about that you weren't allowed beyond the fence.  

I really wanted to get a good shot of a group of goats. In some places this shot is too bright and the goat’s eye colour had changes to blue. I seemed to have taken the picture when the goats eyes where closed. 

I really like these pictures because they are close-ups.  I think the third one is the best shot because the focus is on the nose but you can still see the eye. I really like the first one as well because the focus is on the eye.

Later in the afternoon once I had taken most of my pictures I decided that I wanted to go and be a part of the filming groups. I had missed some of the filming, mainly of what the other students were doing at the farm. I had also missed all the planning of what the filming groups wanted to film. Regardless of this I really wanted to be a apart of it. I went to film the interview with the farmer, but because there were a lot of us there was nothing that I could do. After this the farmer asked us if we wanted to see the baby goats. The group was then made smaller because of what other people had done. I asked the farmer if I could take some pictures of the baby goats, he said yes so I rushed of to get the camera from my yurt.

Because of the lighting that is needed for the baby goats I was unable to get a good shot.

The farmer gave us permission to stay round that part of the farm so that we could film and take pictures. I took part in the filming, by doing some still shots and I even experimented with the zooms and pans.

Me and the people in my yurt hardly got any sleep because it was so cold. This meant that everyone was tired in the morning

The next day me and Becki where out filming at eight o’clock. We started getting people to do interviews with us as they past us on the way to get breakfast or on the way back to their yurts. Most of the interviews were upbeat, people saying how they’ve enjoyed working and the challenge even though it was wet and cold. There were a couple who said they didn’t like it and wouldn’t do it again.  For the interviews I was responsible for the sound.  Me and Becki where then given the opportunity to go and film the goats being scanned to see if they were pregnant. Even though this doesn’t sound like something that is fascinating, it is something that you don’t get to do every day and may never get to do again. Me and Becki both spent the same amount of time filming. We had to move around the goats to be able to get different angles. I really enjoyed this because you were up close with the goats and there wasn’t a fence between you. Because of this we were warned that they may try to eat your clothes which they tried to do.

We had asked the farmers son to do an interview so me and Becki went to set up where we wanted to do the interview. We chose the barn where we did the farmers interview but changed the angel and where in the barn we wanted to do the interview. Because the questions where being centred around  what me and Becki had filmed we wanted the goats in the background.

Me and Becki were then asked to do the confessions. This is were you use the same camera shot, a medium close-up and the subject tells the camera there confession.  I got very agitated during this e because not only did people not want to do the confessions, when we asked people to go and get some other people to come and do them they never came back. No one was willing to participate or help get people to participate. Also when some did eventually do a confession everyone else in the room did nothing but make noise and wouldn’t listen. Because of this Becki went to get some more dinner and I went with Chlo to get some more photos. Along the way I took some more photos myself.

I really like this photo because the goats are all in one line. It also shows them all eating.  The goats further away are a little blurred I would have liked them all to be in focus but I like the fact that the first two are in focus and them the further back the goats are the less of their features you can see.

After this there were a couple of cutaways that we needed to get.  Me and Becki went up out of the farm to get the signs and some landscape shots. On the way I used my initiative and suggested we get some of the other animals and surrounding area. We then went down to the river to get some more last minute shots. Here I tool the photography camera to get some more shots. I took nearly 200 hundred photos.

I really liked the challenge of working on location. I had to find ways around the weather.  You have to use what you have and use your initiative. It also reminded me of one of the reasons I decided to get into media. I love wildlife and when I was younger I always wanted to work with animals. This trip reminded me of that and also showed me that I still do want to work with animals. My photography was based around animals and the river. I like water photography because no matter how much you try you can never create the same picture twice.

 On the second day of the trip I started working at eight and didn’t stop until I saw everyone taking their luggage to the coaches. I didn’t sit down until I got on the coach.

This trip showed me what it could be like when I go to Africa with college in February.

I would love to do another trip like this, but preferably when we don’t have hurricane warnings.

I uploaded all of my pictures onto photobucket: http://s1323.beta.photobucket.com/user/em_believe/library/Dolphinholme