Shoot 7 - Straight Images

Shoot 7 - Contact Sheets

Shoot 6 - Work Diary

In this shoot I decided to try and venture and explore further into culture and origin and felt that the location of a skatepark was very effective and successful. This type of location stereotypically attracts and consists of youth and therefore guaranteed me to be able to explore youth and modern day culture. I managed to get great natural light in this shoot through the structure of the setting.  An issue I found during this shoot was that the lighting changed wherever I took the photograph as the skatepark was under a roof. Therefore I had to change my aparture levels in order to see the subjects. Once again I carried on using a 55-200mm lens whilst putting my F stop aperture levels as low as possible in order to gain a shallow depth of field. Both positive and negative stereotypes/interpretations can be taken from this shoot. Firstly, the negative perspective would be due to the association with alcohol present and also through the graffiti which covers the walls of the skatepark. However, an alternative positive view can also be recognised. Themes of friendship within the community is clear through the way all people are welcome. This social setting allows for interaction between many demographics.

This photograph depicts youth in a mixed perspective. Alcohol is present but the subject is seen to be friendly and social seen through the facial expression which opposes the stereotype associated with alcohol. I like the noticeable significance that the significance that the subject has an asian background which provides an authentic interesting aesthetic. The shallow depth of field allows the subject ti stand out from the background effectively. I achieved this by using a low FStop. I like the colour, line and pattern in the background graffiti which provides a sense of identity as graffiti is often associated with youth. Graffiti is either controversially seen as vandalism or on the other hand, art. Graffiti may also express underlying social and political messages and a whole genre of artistic expression is based upon spray paint graffiti styles. Within hip hop culture, graffiti have evolved alongside hip hop music and other elements. Unrelated to hip-hop graffiti, gangs use their own form of graffiti to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. I like the way that the photograph looks almost staged through the composition and natural pose and the lighting is also affective. I created a warm colour scheme in order to present the demographic is a positive light.

This photograph shows a great influence of Ben Gold as I used his technique of including more than one image side by side in order to show a journey and progression of a subject. Here I have included two images together with the camera in the same position in order to illustrate the progression of movement of the subject. In the left image the subject is poised on the skateboard whereas on the right he is in the transition period of actually performing the trick. I edited both images in the same way in order to gain a sense of consistency and continuity.The different body position indicated different moments in time, illustrating the past and also the present which therefore shows a journey. A way that I could perhaps improve this piece could potentially be by straightening up both images so that one continuous line is create across the frame where the wall and floor meet.

Progression: 

In my next shoot I would like to continue with candid photography but this time during the night where I would experiment with lighting and photograph shop lights which would be similar to the arcade photographs in Brighton. 

Shoot 6 - Skate Park - Straight Images

Shoot 6 - Contact Sheets

Shoot 5 - Work Diary

In this shoot I focussed heavily on developing and improving my candid styled work by travelling to London by train, getting off at St. Paul's and walking for the rest of my time there. I felt that this was very effective as it was very spontaneous, coming across things by chance, capturing things I'm the moment and getting very natural responses. Throughout the shoot I only used a 55-200mm lens where I was able to keep a decent distance form the subject, meaning that there was less chance of them noticing me meaning that this was an advantage. However there was a slight down side of using this lens which was that the 55mm zoom in some cases was still too far zoomed in for close encounters which meant that I had to backtrack to a further distance. This was specifically noticeable with St. Paul's cathedral where at first when I was close I was able to fit it all in the frame, however I was still able to capture great detail in the architecture. Therefore I then relocated to another area where I was able to fit it all in the frame. Throughout this shoot I had to constantly alter my camera settings mainly changing aperture, shutter speed and ISO levels. I had to do this specifically where the lighting changed which abled me to have a greater understanding of my camera and usage. I felt that gaiming a shallow depth of field was important in candid photography in allowing a specific person to stand out, in order to do this I tried to make the aperture F stop levels as low as possible, normally around 4.5 which focussed the camera on a subject and blurred out the rest of the composition effectively.

This is one of the outcomes of my shoot which I feel is most effective for several reasons. My intentions here were to show the influence and relation to Dryden Goodwin's work through the style of photography used. Similarly to Goodwin, I photographed as stranger whilst going on a journey on a bus. Despite the fact that I have photographed a stranger I have still managed to gain a sense of intimacy and relation through zooming in close to the subject, seeming closer than I actually am. I like the vibrance of the frame of the bus window and also insured that it was straight through rotating and using the ruler tool and arbitrary rotation. I like the texture of the scratches on the window which imply a sense of vandalism. I feel that the scratched in the window can relate to the way that Dryden Goodwin etches into his photographs in post-production. The vibrance of the red relates to Dryden's etches and also pieces if his art where he paints in red watercolours. The compositions is also effective and I like the way that the frame of the window acts as a border for the image. There is a contrast between the saturated reds of the bus with the bleak colours inside the bus. I insured that the photograph was taken at a low angle looking up at the subject which provides the subject with a sense of power and status.

I also feel that this pieces is considerably meaningful and powerful. I intended to illustrate the contrast between rich and poor through placing them together in a single composition. I used  contrast in many ways in order to illustrate the difference between the two. The subject on the left is dressed in a suit walking into a modern building, assumably for business/occupation purposes. Whereas on the other hand the homeless man in the right image is sitting on the floor of a street next to bags of rubbish scavenging any left overs. The colour and brightness of the left image are much brighter and positive than the left image that is much more darker and dingy. The colours contribute to conveying the contrasting moods, themes and settings. Even though these two images opposes each other in many ways, and seem very different places, they are in fact both taken in the same area, only within a 5 minutes walk apart. I put the two together in the same composition in order to convey this, despite the extreme differences, they still remain in the same place. I also insured that the composition was split half and half in order to show equality.

Progression:

Through doing this shoot I thoroughly enjoyed noticing a great variation with culture through travelling to different areas. In my next shoot I would like to explore youth and visit a location where this social demographic is dominant and prominent. 

Shoot 5 - Straight Images