Iona focused her final exhibition on landscapes after being inspired by images on National Geographic and the work of photographer Thomas Hoekper. For practice, she photographed macro and portrait subjects on her school grounds. Her favorite practice shot was of scratched paint, which achieved an abstract effect. She then narrowed her exhibition theme to horizons, collecting example images. Her final photographs were of horizons that she edited in Photoshop to highlight colors and adjust exposure. Feedback noted the improvements from editing and suggested considering borders and arrangement for future presentations.

1. Iona Spence-Dingle Unit 9 Evaluation
I decided that I wanted to focus on landscapes for my final exhibition after undertaking my research ;my primary
inspirations came from the landscape images featured on the National Geographic website, and landscape
photographer: Thomas Hoekper.
Buddhist temples in Burma,
1984
Photograph by Thomas Hoekper
Practice shot, rose bud
Practice shot, scratched paint
Practice shot, frustration portrait
PART 1
House of Annapurna
Photograph by Daniel Hoshizaki,
Toad River Valley, Canada
Photograph by Michael Christopher
Brown
Although really admire the images on National Geographic, because they are all so visually stunning, I was most
inspired by Thomas Hoekper, as his landscapes seem to really capture the atmosphere of the scene he is
photographing. For example, in his photograph of the Buddhist Temples, he really captures the tranquillity of the
rural Burmesse morning in the lighting and composition of the image.
For my practice shots I predominately photographed macro and portrait subjects, as I was struggling to find
interesting examples of landscape on school grounds. I have included some examples of what I consider to be my
most successful practice shots. My favourite is the scratched paint photo, because I was struggling to take a truly
abstract photo, but I think I achieved abstraction in that particular shot

2. Iona Spence-Dingle Unit 9 Evaluation
After further researching my subject matter: landscapes, I chose to narrow my exhibition theme down to simply
horizons. Here is a collage I created from images of horizons that I found on the internet and particularly liked.
These images further built upon my vision of the sort of horizon images I would like to take.
Here are my final photographs. I edited my photographs in Photoshop because I wanted to adjust the exposure,
brightness, contrast and offset to best highlight the colours in the clouds. In most cases I adjusted the image so
that the horizon itself appeared in black, so that none of the viewer’s focus was taken away by the intense
colours and interesting shapes of the sky and clouds.

3. Iona Spence-Dingle Unit 9 Evaluation
Gernerally the first step was
increasing the brightness of the
image as much as I could,
without it looking stange. Through
this process I learned that
sometimes less is more, in the
sometimes it is better not to mess
with the brightness and controst
so much that your image no
longer looks real.
The second editing step was
tweaking the vibrancy and
saturation of my photograph. I
enjoyed this step because I think
that the small alterations I made
at this step were what really
enhance my photograph, thus I
learned how to improve the
appearance of my images, with a
fairly simple technique.
Here is a good example of how I
have editing can improve an
image. As I mentioned before, I
have altered the horizon so that it
appears very dark, then I
increased the brightness of the
sky. I particularly like the fact that
this image has an almost
painting-like quality to it.
Upon comp leting my questionnaire, mos t people commented on how editing had improved my images effectively,
and that on the whole my images are interesting and attractive. In terms of constructive criticism, some people
recommended that I thought more carefully about the presentation of my images, in terms of borders and
arrangement.
‘I like the glare around
the edge of the photo
because it brings out the
colours around it, which
are nice’
Tom
‘I like the way the sun
shines through the clouds,
and the amount of light it
gives off’
Kieran
‘I like the contrasting
colours of the sky, cloud
formations and horizons’
Cloudia

4. Iona Spence-Dingle Unit 9 Evaluation
Overall I am very pleased with my final exhibition photos, as I feel like I have achieved everything I wanted in
my images; they are all aesthetically pleasing, and really capture the natural beauty of the New Forest. If I
was to do the project again then I would perhaps choose a topic that allowed me to experiment with different
subject matter, for example macro. In my questionnaire the most common criticism was that not all of my
photos were particularly eye-catching, but I think choosing a more open exhibition title will ensure that this is
not an issue next time. Furthermore, I would probably arrange my photos slightly differently, maybe with
larger boarders, next time.