#portfolio3

I initially really struggled to find motivation for my story telling, I couldn’t decide what to base it on. My first idea was to search the city center for the extinction rebellion (extension rebellion are an activist group who organise protests declaring a climate emergency) logo “The search for extinction rebellion” but after walking around the city center and west end i failed to find very much trace of the logo so that plan fell through. My second idea was to document my own personal recycling that i do at home, but after some thought and some shooting i realised that was a pretty vague and mundane idea so i scrapped that. My third, winning idea was to create a 3 step guide to reduce your carbon footprint. 

I explained how reducing, reusing and recycling helps the eco system and how we can do these things. Reducing the demand for red meat (meat in general) and dairy, reusing our “rubbish”, and recycling at home and locally. 

I initially submitted my project with very weak images. My lecturer advised me that I should reconsider my images and resubmit my project. I took the criticism well as i knew it was not my best work and re shot more than half of my images making it overall a lot more creative, showing more of my technical skills.

I find it quite difficult to concentrate and to take in information & remember things at the best of times so I found it quite challenging when I first was given the brief as I stated above that I struggled to come up with an idea, but once I had a solid idea and a plan in my head of what information i needed, what shots i needed to fit with this and how I wanted to display it in a video I started to really enjoy the researching and collecting the information, it was exciting. I learned a lot from this project, I am vegan myself I have been for almost two years so educating myself more on the topic was really enjoyable and the knowledge has definitely only stuck in my brain because I enjoyed reading about it. 

I shot all of my images on location in my home, on the backroads, at a farm, on the Wishaw Main street, and in Glasgow city center. I shot all of my images using a 70mm lens, available light & a 7D. I was creative with this project and used a variety of different focal lengths, depth of field and some different editing techniques like multiple (double) exposures. One image of a butchers fridge with another image of two bulls layered together, to signify the journey and where the meat comes from, my intention when creating this image was to make it shocking. One image of street litter (fly tippers on the back roads) with a image of a recycle bin layered together, to signify what recycling reduces and essentially stops from happening. I created a series of images showing the view looking down on to the massive amount of litter, the view across where in the background you can see a sign post, and a final photo of the sign post which states littering in the area results in a fine. I was particularly happy with these three images. 

It was obvious to me what I had to add to my portfolio when looking at my first 6 images. I had no architectural images, and little portraits. I also decided to shoot a studio still life that was to my personal taste as the still life I had shot prior were given to me as a brief. 

Architectural 

I took inspiration from the photographer and artist Pierre Chantel-Innocenti. My intention with this shot was to use my focal length to come in very close to the building so that there was no background, I took two shots using my 70mm lens and combined them to create the illusion that they were side by side when it is intact two shots of the same building. I thoroughly enjoyed creating this image and really kicked myself for not shooting architecture more. I took advantage of my ability to shoot strong images using different focal lengths, I wasn't confident in doing this before starting college.

Location portrait 

When coming up with a plan for my first portrait I knew I liked the look of natural light, soft and crisp. I used a male model, applied highlighter to reflect the light and had him topless in a bright white room with him holding some white card just below his face also to reflect the light. I shot on 50mm lens f2.8 to blow out the back and have the subjects face as the main focus. i cleared up the models skin using the spot healing brush. I really love this shot, i think its very interesting to look at and I think it would be intriguing to people and people would stop to look at it if they were scrolling through Instagram or flicking through a magazine (maybe thats just me being excited and a little biased about my own work). I worked on my ability to work with available light, and using skin retouching in folio 3.

Climate justice

I done my story telling on Reduce Reuse Recycle, three ways to reduce your carbon footprint. The shot is of a pile of plastic rubbish. On top of that is a shot of a plastic tub that was in the pile of rubbish, being reused as a food container - trying to show it as being reused but I'm not sure if that message even got across :) I used my 70mm and shot at different focal lengths, I used available light although looking back now the first image definitely could've been shot under better lighting conditions.  I really like the composition of this shot. I learnt how to combine images in folio 3 and I've really enjoyed using this skill as you can see in my portfolio as i have used this technique a lot. 

Still life

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this image as I had previously shot a garden plant using zooming techniques and really loved the way it looked. I wanted to shoot a flower while zooming in order for it to look visually like a painting. I used a tripod, a single light and my 70mm with my 7D. After a while I realised I wasn't getting what i wanted from zooming so I decided to try and create a double exposure instead, this is what I ended up doing. I placed the two images together one larger than the other on photoshop. I used my zooming and double exposure photoshop skills that I learned at the beginning of NQ, these are probably my two favourite techniques that I now use a lot & had no knowledge of how to execute prior to starting NQ.

Studio portrait

My love for film photography is what brought me to college, although at the time I had no idea how complex photography really was and I has absolutely no interest in digital photography. I had no technical skill whatsoever i just had a olympus mju 2. Over time I gradually lost interest for my film camera as I realised it wasn't really real photography and I felt like it was kind of pointless me using it which I now realise it dumbbbb and i should've just continued as it did bring me a lot of happiness. Due to all of this i decided i wanted to emulate a film Photo Booth photo strip, I had organised a model to come into college but she never turned up. I used my 70mm, tripod and a single frontal light. I had my class mate stand and took headshots to resemble a photo booth image. When editing i used filters and screens available on moodle, to create a old vintage looking film strip with burnt out end. i edited each image (there was 3 in total) separately then combined them vertically. Once I had the image completed i combined three of the same together, which gave me a rectangle of 6 images. I was so happy with this, even though my vision never came true with my model i still captured some great shots which gave me an amazing final product and i couldn't have been happier with it. This task i set myself has really made me push myself outside of my comfort zone develop my skills in the studio as i previously never enjoyed it but after this task my thoughts on it have changed. I used my studio lighting, communication and editing skills.

Overall, I have gained a large variety of different skills from September until now, social and photographic. My technical skills have increased drastically, I had no idea how to use my SLR before I started and now there is never an issue. And like i said above I love creating multiple exposures and experimenting with zooming, I learned all of this at college.

 I sometimes felt too scared or embarrassed to ask for help because I thought I should've had the answers, but my lecturers always were there to reassure myself and my classmates that that was not the case at all, and were always on hand and very pleasant and helpful. I have learned to be more confident in myself with others, and with my work. There have been numerous occasions where I have thought my work hasn't been good enough and my lecturers have told me its great, so I have definitely became more confident with my work and open to sharing it with others.