Duncan Philpott Notes Write Up

Duncan Philpott

Duncan Philpott is an action-adventure photography based in Sheffield, UK. He was originally completing a degree in Mathematics but decided to drop that and become a photographer. His career started through a community of action sports fans and has rapidly grown into a photography career with plenty of work coming in. Photography magazines were his main inspiration to start photography, and from there he made connections with the right people in order to grow his career.

Duncan Philpott describes his everyday life as being packed with work, but worth it because he is passionate about the subject. His day usually involves going somewhere with him camera and taking hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs. He can be doing this for a company, working to a brief, or for one of his own personal projects. He says the perks of being a photographer are: Travelling the world, doing something he loves, being outside and being able to showcase who he is through his work.

            The downsides described by Duncan are that there is no job security in this photography industry and there is no fixed income. Also he works very long hours which leaves him with very little personal time, and because of the photography he does, there is always a chance of hurting himself. There is a lot of paperwork to be done including; proposals, marketing and personal projects. One of this biggest things about the work Duncan does is the fact that he is his own boss. He has to make sure everything gets done for the deadlines set, and budget everything he does. There is nobody there to tell him exactly what to do all the time, he is free to do what he wants, as long as it fits the brief given to him.

            Working to a brief is one of the main things that Duncan does. He will get given a brief by a company, this may be a few bullet points or a very precise description of what they want, and from this he must produce a series of photographs that fits the criteria presented. Duncan has worked on a few big projects, with one of the biggest being a project for the Sheffield City Council. In this project Duncan had to take photographs for a campaign to make Sheffield look like a ‘green’ city. To do this Duncan was told to take photographs of 5 different sports with Sheffield city as the background for each one. He then went on to plan, scout locations and hire actors for his photographs. After a week of shooting, Duncan ended up with over 3600 photographs, only a select few photographs were chosen for the final submission.

            As a part of the planning for this project Duncan had to scout locations for taking the photographs and hire professionals in the selected sports to come and be in his photographs. For the location scouting he used a lot of his knowledge of the sports, as he himself takes part in some of them, and Google Maps to find locations for the shoot. This is to prevent a situation where he goes to a location and it turns out that there is no clear view of the city.

            To select his final submissions Duncan used Adobe Lightroom to sort through him photographs and sort them with the rating system. This allowed him to take the best photographs from his 3600 and narrow them down to a few hundred. From there he can more easily select the best ones for the brief and add any effects or do any touch ups if necessary.  

            In his downtime Duncan mainly does paperwork, personal projects, proposals for projects, marketing and self-promotion. This means that he is always doing something related to his work and can keep himself occupied all the time. Duncan has a lot of ways in which he promotes himself. Some of these methods include; Networking, blogging, social media, personal projects and collaborations with other photographers. All of this allows him to get himself known in the photography industry by making sure that more people are able to see his work and make him a viable candidate for a lot of different projects. He said that the best way to get work in the photography industry is to get your work known. This helps massively as if somebody needs a photographer for a project they will think of his name as a potential candidate as they have seen what he can do.

            Duncan now runs his own website http://www.duncanphilpott.com, his Twitter account (@DuncanPhilpott)  on which he has nearly 2000 followers and his own Instagram account (@DuncanPhilpott)  on which he has 16.8 thousand followers. He has travelled the world while following his career and doing something he loves with his friends. His networking and self-promotion skills are two of the main reasons why he is as successful as he is today.

All images taken from:

http://www.duncanphilpott.com and http://www.sheffieldnewsroom.co.uk

Unit 31: Feedback Sheet

This is the feedback sheet for my Photography Work

Photographic Genres

Landscape Photography

Landscape photography shows a specific place in the world at a specific moment in time. Sometimes it can show a large space, and other times it can show a nearly microscopic space. Landscape photography is mainly focused towards nature and wildlife, but it can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes.

scape photography shows a specific place in the world at a specific moment in time. Sometimes it can show a large space, and other times it can show a nearly microscopic space. Landscape photography is mainly focused towards nature and wildlife, but it can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes.

Andreas Gursky

Andreas Gursky

Andreas Gursky is a German photographer and Professor at  Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany. He is known for his large format architecture and landscape colour photographs.

Cocoon 1 by Andreas Gursky

http://arttattler.com/archivegursky.html

Cocoon 1 is a photograph taken by Andreas Gursky in 2007. It is completely unedited and is a realistic depiction of his latest gallery. The title is fitting to the photograph because the architecture is similar to that of a cocoon. 

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is photography used in the media (mainly news) that uses images to help report on the situation.
Mark Pain
Mark Pain is a world class sports photographer. He has taken photographs at everything from Olympic Games to Football and Rugby World Cups. Mark has worked at the top of his profession for many years and now also runs his own Sports Photography School.

This photograph by Mark Pain is of Jessica Ennis at the Olympic Games. The image helps to report on her reaction to winning the race and is a realistic depiction of the final moments of the race.

Social Reportage
Social Reportage is photography used to show both significant and relevant images to history and specific historical events. 
Martin Parr
Martin Parr is a Social Reportage photographer that puts his own twist on his work. He uses exaggerated images to give his opinion on society. 

 

This image by Martin Parr appears to be his opinion on other images posted to the internet of other people with their new cars. This image is obviously exaggerated to emphasise how he feels about the situation. 

Portrait Photography
Portrait Photography is the photography of a person in a portrait style. It is used o display the expression and personality of a person and ca also be used to show the mood of a subject. 
David Bailey
David Bailey is an English fashion and portrait photographer. He has taken photographs of celebrities including Mick Jagger, Michael Caine and Kate Moss and has also directed some television commercials.

David Bailey

This image by David Bailey is of the world famous Beatles. The image captures their emotions at that specific moment in time and allows the viewer to get an understanding of how they were feeling when this photograph was taken.

Still Life Photography
Still Life photography is the photography of inanimate objects that are usually small and in groups. It captures very small details about specific objects in order to create a message. 
Edward Steichen
Edward Steichen was one of the most featured photographers in Alfred Stieglitz' magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Together with Stieglitz, Steichen opened a few galleries. Edward Steichen has been involved in still life, landscape, portrait and fashion photography during his life. 

Edward Steichen

This image by Steichen captures how light can be affected by the smallest of objects by photographing the shadows of a group of small rings. This has an amazing effect and gives the message that even the smallest things can make a big difference. 

Fashion Photography
Fashion Photography is the photography used in the fashion industry to advertise products and make people aware of the newest fashions. These photographs are typically used in the media to help advertise the latest fashions. 
Bruce Weber
Bruce Weber is an American photographer and occasional film maker that has done various advertisement campaigns for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Pirelli, Abercrombie & Fitch, Revlon and Gianni Versace as well as a lot of work with some popular magazines. Bruce works with a lot of celebrities for his campaigns. 

Bruce Weber

This image of Johnny Depp by Bruce Weber is one from a cover story of Interview's Magazine's April 2014 edition. It captures Johnny Depp with styling from Karl Templer in order to show of his latest work. 


Street Photography
Street photography is the photography of random events that happen when on the streets. Street photographers tend to roam the streets with their cameras taking pictures of random events that may happen. 
Gary Winorand
Gray Winogrand was a street photographer known for his portrayal of American life and it's social issues in the mid 20th Century. 

This image from Gary Winogrand captures how the people at that time would pay no attention to the piles of waste on the streets. This shows that the people did not care about their city and would ignore the problems happening all around them. 







Night Photography
Night Photography is where the photographs are taken between dusk and dawn. These photographs tend to be of the night sky or of light from cars and buildings.
Michael Kenna
Michael Kenna is an English photographer best known for his black and white landscapes. A lot of his landscapes where shot at night time so he was able to capture the light from all of the buildings and cars.

This image from Michael Kenna captures the movement of cars and boats at a harbor at night time. He does this by using a long exposure to show the moving lights from the vehicles.

Wildlife Photography
Wildlife photography is the photography that focuses on wildlife. These photographs are mainly used in wildlife documentaries on TV channels such as The National Geographic.
Brian Skerry
Brian Skerry is a wildlife photographer for the National Geographic Channel who focuses on underwater wildlife.

This image by Brian Skerry captures a specific moment in wildlife and shows how the different species are living together in harmony.