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Reflecting on recent Shoots

In reflection of my recent photography shoots I can say I’ve developed as a photographer gaining new knowledge of how my camera works and what the different settings will do to photographs. Its a really interesting learning process where you always find new ways the camera interprets the photo.

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Project Ideas

Following on how the second shoot could've worked well for the identity project, I could have actually used identity as my concept. The project would delve into peoples individual identities and what makes them people, the night time part adding a more peaceful and less distracting environment to draw the focus onto the models expressions and body language. The project would need actors, just individuals with personality which would become a good bonding experience as I learn what makes peoples brains tick. It could blossom into something really interesting and amazing that broadens the narrow-minded.

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Shoot 2 - In my second shoot I decided to use a few friends. Similar to my first shoot, I used a longer shutter speed but I tried to use places with natural light rather than my cameras flash as it brings out my depth and contrast within the photos. Some of the pictures have a motion blur like effect which was created from small camera movements, slight edits and having the models move in little intervals whilst the shutter is still open. The photos give off a really wavy atmosphere and would've worked amazingly for the Identity project.

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Shoot 1 - For this shoot I used a mixture of photographical techniques. On some photos I had a longer shutter speed selected and I primarily used the flash. I traveled around Gravesend taking around 50 photographs, using the 10 that were satisfactory shots. This was an enjoyable shoot and was quite a peaceful experience where I learnt that part of being a good photographer isn't just finding good shots. It includes finding a good shot, in a bad environment with little atmosphere.

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Exhibition Statement

For the exhibition I’ve sent off a few of my images to be printed out professionally and I'm going to showcase them with a short description of my project, the concept and the work I went through to complete it.

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Critical Evaluation

My project was centered around cityscape photography with many developments throughout the past month. Loads of small things would change every time I researched into a new artist or photographical technique and it changed the course of my project and developed me as a creative individual.

 I was originally going to explore how the cover of night puts a whole new perspective onto cities and the culture surrounding them, I had a mental image of bustling streets with bright lights flashing all around and with a simple long exposure technique I could capture this, but when I went to complete my shoot the town was dead, the only people around were people who had just finished work, it pushed me into taking a new approach and showing how the time of day can change a city, when I arrived at 7pm there was so many people moving round constantly, but by 9:30pm everyone was inside, the only people that were out were either in a pub or hanging around in groups on street corners. This meant I had to improvise, I took a few long exposure images, leaving my shutter open much longer than normal as there was a lot less activity. I also used the reflection on glass buildings and water to give more depth to my photographs.

 My tutor greatly assisted me with this project helping me to be flexible into all situations, when something was going wrong I could talk to her and we would find a new more suitable approach, same with the other students, if there was something I didn’t understand or if I wanted an outside opinion on my work, I could ask one of my friends and they would peer assess me.

 Finally, I can see the development in myself as a creative individual by looking at my very first blog posts where I had come to this college with a mind set on doing digital art and animation, but the tutors and students helped me to change my outlook and brought me into a whole new specialization, this being photography. As soon as I picked up my camera for my Year 1 FMP I knew I could capture some amazing moments.

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Evaluating my Shoot

For my FMP I was set on doing night time cityscape photos, but once I started shooting in the daylight I applied all the same aspects and techniques I’d studied for shooting at night and they proved to make some really beautiful day photos. Capturing the sun setting behind the skyscrapers was a really unique experience for me as I hadn't ever been that close to buildings of that size.

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Final Photos

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- Test Edits -

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- Test Edits -

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Test Shoot: Light Experimentation

I also experimented with how light affects your lens and photo during the night as it can commonly become the focal point of your photographs. One of my photos in particular, I had a light below the lens when I took the photo and it created a soft burn-like effect on the outcome.

The colour faded from a green/yellow into a pink/red giving an aura like feel to the photo. I feel like it matched perfectly with the colour of the sky as it wasn't black, but still had a clouded feel to it.

The other photo from my light experimentation that I liked was one I took across the river. The brightness illuminated half the river, showing how the opposite side has life. The different colors of the lights reflecting onto the water is my favourite part of the photo, you see so many more different colours even though you would normally just see standard yellows and oranges.

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Different Angles of the clocktower in Gravesend.

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Test Shoot: Angles of buildings

In my test shoot I decided to experiment with different angles on buildings and how they look when you take the photo. A photo is a set frame and theres no peripheral vision to it, its simply the square you see, thats why you can do some interesting things to manipulate whoever is viewing your photos perspective.

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Test Shoot: Looking for Patterns

On one of the night time photography tips I read about looking for patterns in everything, I attempted this in my test shoot to try and gain an understanding of it.

The bricks are layered in patterns, theres a repeating layout. I want to attempt this in my final shoot, in the form of finding patterns in buildings.

The fence is also in a pattern as the bars are all the same length, width and evenly positioned between each other. This photo also added some experimentation with how lights look on the camera in the night.

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Test Shoot Ideas

Angles on buildings

Looking for patterns

Experimenting with daylight

Experimenting with a model

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9th May. Practical.

Today I'm going all out with my photography shoots, I’ve rented a camera out for the next 2 days and I'm going to try and get between 100 - 300 photos. I’m going out into Chatham and Rochester where I'm going to experiment with different things to use in the shoot until it gets dark then I’ll travel to London and start a shoot around the city using the most of the night.