Assignment 2

People and Activity
 
The object of Assignment 2 is to build upon the techniques learnt during the exercises, particularly the last two, by planning and executing a series of people in some meaningful activity.

The choice is between one person engaged in a different activities, or different people at the same single activity or event.

I chose the latter: a set of images taken at the Taynuilt Highland Games on 14 July 2012. It was almost a chance occurrence. We saw the Games were on while passing through on a touring holiday and arranged to be back in the area a few days later.

A requirement of the assignment is to concentrate on explaining the activity and 'telling moments', and to critically assess the finished work. In order to maintain a flow to the first part, I have set out the images below with the explanations, and subsequently made a self critical analysis, including what went well and what was less successful.

TAYNUILT HIGHLAND GAMES 14 JULY 2012

Taynuilt Highland Games opening parade with the Chieftain on the right of leading group

If one word summarises the Highland Games, it is tradition. The Games are centuries old, originating with essentially three aims:

• to locate men who would be useful to the clan in warfare. Running competition would show who might be suitable for taking messages across the battlefield, for example; successful competitors in the strength events would be chosen as bodyguards;
• to compete against other clans in a competitive but not aggressive manner;
• to provide entertainment

These days, there remain Chieftains although many of these are more of a compere for the day - an internet search on another highland games (www.gourockhighlandgames.org.uk/history/chieftains) reveals such luminaries as Andy Ritchie, Jeremy Beadle and Cancelled due to bad weather (making an unwelcome number of appearances) as Chieftains. 

Climbing the slippery pole is a favourite game for the children.

Taynuilt is a village about 9 miles east of Oban. Taynuilt Highland Games are not one of the larger events - their results do not register on the  official Highland Games site, www.shga.co.uk, so one must assume this is a less serious event: there were only six competitors in the field events. On the other hand, it is clearly a great village day out, with many events for children.

The three legged race included some less serious competitors

Winning the 100 yards

Part of the tradition is use of imperial meassurements. The distance events are 100 yards, 440 yards, and mile. The weights are in stones and pounds, the 28 pounds and half hundred weights being standard measures for crop bags in the past.
 

A piper playing to the judges while a half mile competitor and a competitor in the caber toss go about their business

Anyone who has been to an athletics meet will understand that track and field events occur simultaneously. So it is too with  the Highland Games, with the added allure of more cultural activities such as bagpipe playing.

Preparing for the dancing competition

The dancing provides a cross over between the Highland Games as a competition and as entertainment. At Taynuilt, competitors could participate in several events, such as the Highland Fling, Flora MacDonald and the 1/2 Reel of Tulloch.

In front of the judge

Oban High School Pipe Band

 Music is an essential part of the Highland Games. As well as the competitive bagpipes competition, Taynuilt hosted the Oban High School Pipe band who accompanied the organising committee in and played at intervals throughout the afternoon.

No day out is complete without an ice cream

Taynuilt Highland Games is very much a family day out, a blend of what would be a village fete south of the border with an overlay of semi serious competition. Eating and drinking are part of the day out, the loudest cheer of the day being raised on the announcement near the end that the bar was staying open for another hour.

Locally produced food is an essential ingredient of the enjoyment

For all the local fun and entertainment, it is the field events that most people associate with the Highland Games.

The tug of war is the ultimate team competition

Most closely identified with the Highland Games is Tossing the Caber, an event which combines balance, strength, speed, and timing. It is said to originate from the need to toss logs over chasms in order to make a bridge to cross.

The competitor runs with the caber as fast as he can before throwing it

The object is not to maximise the sheer distance of the throw, but rather to have the caber fall directly away from the thrower after landing. A perfect throw ends with the 'top' end nearest to the thrower and the 'bottom' end pointing away in a straight line from him.

A judge scores the toss as to the straightness of the caber on landing

The afternoon at the Taynuilt Highland Games was a marvellous combination of sport, competition, entertainment, and fun for all the family. There is a mix of tradition and contemporary activities that provides something for everyone.

Critical Assessment 
General comments 

I enjoyed this assignment. Have made point before that I am doing this course to complement and enhance my photography generally. This assignment made me think about planning a set of images before and during the afternoon. Without this discipline, undoubtedly I would have taken a more random and unstructured set of images, too easy to do with the subject matter and a digital camera.

One thing became clear: the best laid plans need amending quickly once reality dawns. The original aim was to take images of the field events but I straightaway realised the limitations of this ambition as the audience were not allowed in the arena; reasonable enough but I had not foreseen how far we would in practice be from the action. A good zoom lens overcomes this to a degree but one is limited to a perspective that only looks across rather than angular possibilities. Most of the throwing events would have been much better taken closer up, with at least some of the images taken upwards. Here are a couple of examples:

The first image above works reasonably well insofar as the action is caught: the blur on the hammer indicates movement, and there is some context with the crowd and the hills in the background. Technically, the competitor is not wholly in shot (the perils of using a 480 zoom with no tripod) and the image has a lot of unwanted clutter - the light, the building on the left, the tent - that is too big to contemplate removal of using the Photoshop content aware edit tool.

Similar issue with the second image. Here the action demands a low shot looking up from the right of shot as taken. There is less "noise" but the connect between thrower and object is not as strong as it needs to be to demonstrate the action.

Consequently, I thought of what the folk were here to do and see. It was immediately obvious that there were plenty of children's events, and, as said in the text, there is a fun side to the event, as evidenced by the eating and drinking, and the music. Making a positive from the negative, it seemed that that was the story to tell: an event that is wider in its concept than many might think, but with an ending that evidenced most people's perceptions of what Highland Games are about.

Apart from the photography, I found the background research interesting and fun to do. It complemented and enhanced the enjoyment from the day to find out a little of the history of the Games and the events, and to follow up some of the observations made on the day, such as the use of imperial measurements. I tried to make this light-hearted and non highbrow, to enhance the feel of the images used.

Even after shifting the emphasis of the narrative, there remained limitations on the range of shots one could take. I tried several attempts to get dancers in action, but could not take an image that was technically good enough without unwanted background. This was the best:

The action is caught nicely here, with the co-ordination almost perfect but the image is spoilt by the background of houses. Perhaps a wider aperture would have done the trick, to put the background out of focus. Instead, I chose one image that provided a more human face to the competition: the girls getting ready; and another, from behind the judge's shoulder, that hopefully provides more than just action: an image designed to focus on the protocol of the competition (smart kilt with number, feet at 90 degrees, in front of the judge).

Specific comments

The introductory image works fine; it gives the impression of tradition both in the dress of the leaders, and in the idea that they lead with the villagers behind. It enhances the background and history narrative.

The second image combined a nice action pose - you get the sense of thought and patience as the boy works out how he will get to to the top as well as the context of the Highlands in the background, and even, arguably, the dark clouds that are rarely far away in this part of the world.

The third and fourth images were a deliberate contrast - the classic children's race with effort and expression to match, contrasting with the girls ambling around having a chat in their three legged race.

One was constantly aware of the amount of activity going on at any one time so I found a spot where I could incorporate three activities, a deliberately busy image. Technically, it is perfect of the piper; although the runner is slightly out of focus I considered the positives of subject matter and the perspective (I did manage a lower angle here) and the context of the hills in the background merited the image's incorporation.

Music being an integral part of the afternoon demanded one image. I selected one with strong expressions of the musicians as well as some obvious movement of the drumsticks.


As the third aim of the narrative, it was important to include some shots of those who turned up to watch and enjoy. I declined to include shots of the audience watching, on basis partly that most could have been any audience at any event, and partly that several of the images include the crowd as contextual background anyway. Instead I chose a couple of contrasting images in terms of expression, the wonderfully non self conscious woman with interesting headgear tucking into her strawberries and cream, and the reflective, somewhat distant expression of the little girl. Crucially, the latter image includes the kilt and socks of another person (photographically a juxtaposition), providing context to an image that otherwise might have been taken anywhere.

The final three images reverted the narrative to the classic field events, and finding the best vantage points I could in the circumstances. Tug of war was impossible to take in entirety, so a close up of two participants - on in full regalia, the other, probably a ringer called in at last minute - seemed to work.

I found a line more or less directly in front of the the caber competitor, deeming this necessary to fit with the narrative about the importance of the straightness of the caber when it lands, and the fact that this is what is judged, rather than distance. The focal range in the second is slightly limited, but the action is caught well, with just enough of the caber in shot.