1. 0Unit 57: Photography and
Photographic Practice
Research of other photographers
work (P1, M1, D1)
Photographer: Rachel Devine
Paste 6 images here include the name & date of image
'a squash in the shade' may 18th 2006.
‘at the bathroom door’ august 6th 2006.
2. ‘rocks are still a favourite’ December 3 2006.
‘my assistant at sunset’ august 14th 2014.
4. ‘a tea party’ august 22nd 2009.
Theme or focus of images
Photo 1 ‘a squish in the shade’ is taken on the 16th may 2006 and her daughter aged 2 at the time is on the
front porch of their lovely house in Melbourne, her mother also calls the collection of this picture and a few
others from that time ‘love fest’ because they had a lovely day connecting with each other. I really like the
colours and contrasts in this picture, the colour of her lips look like she’s just ate a bunch of strawberries,
and you can see the lovely rose colour to her toddler cheeks. I really like this picture because you can see
the baby chub in her cheeks and it’s taken when her daughter is unaware that her picture is being taken.
She’s also done a really good job at capturing her features such as her eyelashes and her lips and little
strands of her hair. I also really like the lighting because it’s a lot of contrasts and deep colours like it’s been
taken on a summers day towards the time of sunset.
Photo 2 ‘at the bathroom door’ is taken on august 6th 2006 of her oldest child gemma invading her mothers
privacy by standing at the bathroom child gate and pulling faces to her mum, Rachel must carry her
camera everywhere with her even to the bath! I love how much the childs eyes stand out there must have
been a few effects from photoshop to make them stand out most, but I’m sure she uses an effect on her
camera called ‘the coca cola effect’ I’m not sure, but it seems likely as all the colours are very saturate
and her skin looks so milky and smooth whereas her lips and eyes look a lot more colourful and focused.
5. Photo 3 ‘rocks are still a favourite’ is taken on December the 3rd 2003 of gemma again, I really like this
picture because it doesn’t just capture the scene and the child but it also captures personality. Personality
from the childs experience with those rocks and it also sets off a happy aura because the child is smiling
and looks fullfiled even though they’re just rocks but they must really fascinate her in some way. Her clothes
also don’t stand out too much it’s more the colours on her face that’re contrasted and warmed up a little
because you can see the rose in her cheeks and the red in her lips, but more than anything her eyes stand
out and I think that is her signature from being a baby to being a junior her eyes are ALWAYS highlighted
and made to look special and sparkling so they stand out the most.
Who and what
I see Rachel devine’s two daughters, gemma and clover in different types of lighting, daylight
sunlight and others, they’re mostly unaware that the camera is there while they act innocent in
their early years.
When and what
These photographs are taken in 2006-2014 of different months. In each photo Rachel is
experimenting with different techniques, such as taking a sincere photo of her daughter in a
little fairy outfit at a tea party, or her youngest daughter a few years ago in an economic
diaper made out of cotton or something.
Where
Each photograph was taken in rachel’s home and near her home, she hasn’t always lived in
Melbourne but that is where her youngest daughter and son have grew up and where most
pictures have been taken.
Composition
Rachel Devine has chosen to focus more on colours in pictures and defines them mostly to be soft and warm or soft and
cool colours and I think this makes the picture completely.
Techniques used
Most techniques she uses are
Art Filters - She says she was a bit sceptical about the in-built art filters when she first heard about them, and she
probably would not use them much at all as she prefers to shoot RAW and edit through Lightroom for complete
control over the look of my imagery. In this case, she thought the black and white (monotone) would work well as the
high ISO added a nice texture with the grain. Speaking of the grain, it is very film like in my opinion…not as “digital
noise” as she and I expected! She has the camera set to shoot RAW + Jpeg and just ran the two black and white art
filters on selected jpegs in camera after they were shot. I prefer the straight monotone over the grainy black and
6. white. While I doubt she will use them often, it worked well here in these pictures and she was still able to edit in
Lightroom for the colour shot.
Strengths & Weaknesses
I absolutely love the way this photographer takes photos of little children because she captures their
happiness, innocence and purity in every single picture. She never fails to make their profile look perfect
because of the effects she uses, she always makes colours look their best and I would’ve thought she takes
some time finding the right lighting to take certain pictures but they’re typically spur of the moment which I
love and she manages to make them look flawless! But with the help of photoshop and lightroom which
she has bought and educated herself through. With these things in mind she has definitely inspired me a lot
through the passing years and is the only person who inspired me to go further with my love for
photography, I would definitely like to take pictures like she does and that is something I will aim for.
Their aren’t really any weakness’s to her work, maybe she could vary her genre of pictures and try fashion
because she only does daily life and that is something she adores doing but she could always widen her
ambition as she has the skills and the gear and knowledge.
7. white. While I doubt she will use them often, it worked well here in these pictures and she was still able to edit in
Lightroom for the colour shot.
Strengths & Weaknesses
I absolutely love the way this photographer takes photos of little children because she captures their
happiness, innocence and purity in every single picture. She never fails to make their profile look perfect
because of the effects she uses, she always makes colours look their best and I would’ve thought she takes
some time finding the right lighting to take certain pictures but they’re typically spur of the moment which I
love and she manages to make them look flawless! But with the help of photoshop and lightroom which
she has bought and educated herself through. With these things in mind she has definitely inspired me a lot
through the passing years and is the only person who inspired me to go further with my love for
photography, I would definitely like to take pictures like she does and that is something I will aim for.
Their aren’t really any weakness’s to her work, maybe she could vary her genre of pictures and try fashion
because she only does daily life and that is something she adores doing but she could always widen her
ambition as she has the skills and the gear and knowledge.
