Summer Project 2015 - ‘Lost Boys’
Blog Content: Introduction, Inspiration, Moodboard of LJ Photography, Moodboard of ‘Lost Boy’ Theme, Project Brief, Contact Sheet of Images, Final Images & Analysis & End note.
Over the summer of 2015, we have been asked to start preparing for our Final Major Project by producing our own considered project. We are able to shoot in whatever style, genre or format that we would like, but just need to plan and record everything we do involved with that shoot.
Having always had an interest in Children’s photography, I knew I wanted to do a shoot which involved children however I wanted to do something on location rather than studio based. This meant I was able to be more creative in terms of flexibility with the style/theme of my shoot.
I have covered my social media network sites with various different photographers from all over the world that specialise in the sort of photography I am interested in pursuing a career out off ranging from fitness photography to children’s photography and have found it keeps my mind inspired daily.
One photographer in particular, Lisa Holloway, is a Fine Art Portrait photographer based in Las Vegas, affiliated with Professional Photographers of America, inspires me daily. She produces beautiful fine art photographs of children but are different to many others I see, they spark your imagination into producing a story almost, very fairytale-like with rich natural colours and the subject is always amongst nature. I love her style and use of colouring portraying innocence and youth in such a stunning way.
I have chosen to take the ‘fairytale’ style from her work as well as the ‘storylike’ style and incorporating that into my work.
- Moodboard of LJPhotography
Another influence on my work came funnily enough from having a movie night in with my nephews over the holidays. We watched ‘Peter Pan’ together after a long old evening of attempting to amuse them when I realised they were as wild as the ‘The Lost Boys’. This made me do some research into the sort of costumes and style of the characters playing either Peter Pan or the Lost Boys in other plays and movies to gain more inspiration of what I could add subtly to my shoot. I didn’t want to have my nephews wearing costumes or anything to obvious or cheesy, I wanted my images to have a hint of the ‘Lost Boy’ theme.
- Moodboard of ‘Lost Boy’ Theme Influence
Aims - Produce a considered shoot in whatever style, format and genre of my choice.
Location - I will be shooting at Ashridge Woods, Buckinginghamshire/Hertfordshire border.
Equipment - I will be using my Canon EOS 700D to shoot these images with a 16g SD Card.
Lighting - I will be using natural light for this shoot.
Theme/Style - I will be including the ‘Lost Boy’ theme from Peter Pan to influence my images, I wanted my subjects appearing in a natural state and would like to shoot some images of them without their tops to appear ‘lost’ and ‘feral’ like.
Genre - Fine Art Portraiture
Audience - Tutor & Classmates
Contact Sheet of Total Images Shot
- I shot a total of 102 Images on this shoot. As you can see from my contact sheet, I tried various different areas around the woods. I wanted to make use of the woods and beautiful surroundings to produce some interesting shots.
6 Final Images & Analysis
Image 1 - This was one of the first shots I tried to produce, I knew in my mind that I wanted to focus on the texture of the ground. I scouted for ground that had various different shape sticks and leaves that would make an interesting background. I loved the slight colour coming from the leaves symbolising the up coming end of summer and approaching autumn. I wanted my subject to appear in his own little world of thought, leaving a question mark for my audience as to what he is thinking about. I considered my composition before shooting and wanted to angle my model in this way so that I had reasonable ground space to display texture as well as enough space for my model, it made the image more interesting to have him this way. I used a warming filter on Photoshop to add a warming colour to my model’s skin colour, an added ‘Vignette’ effect and sharpened the ground texture which is the only digital manipulation after editing in Camera Raw.
Image 2 - This image I loved as soon as I shot it, although I knew it would work better in black and white. I felt it worked a thousand times better in black an white as he was ever so pale which amongst the grass didn’t work aswell as the tones did in black and white. His facial expression was totally natural, I asked him to lay there with a blank expression as he was normally giggly and I captured this. He looks deep in thought and sort of sad which I felt worked well with my ‘Lost Boy’ theme. He looks sort of lost, dazed and confused which is exactly what I aimed to capture. I liked how his collarbones sectioned the lower part of the image which really underlined his and helped frame his head creating emphasis for facial expression which was the main theme of the image.This image has an added ‘Vignette’ effect applied.
Image 3 - This image I really loved straight away, I felt it was the image that captured the story telling theme I really wanted from this shoot.I was quite particular about the composition of this shot, as you can my subject leads your eye straight away down the slight pathway, between the greenery, ahead. This allows a sense of storytelling of a journey for the subject. I also liked the idea of his top of and tucked into his trousers symbolising a ‘lost boy’, scruffy looking as if he doesn’t have a mother around to correct the way he is dressed as the ‘lost boys’ didn’t have in Peter Pan. I loved the overpowering green from this image, it was such beautiful natural colour and was great for my story of the sort of surroundings they are in. I also used a warming filter on this image, after editing in Camera Raw, in photoshop as well as some slight sharpening along with a ‘Vignette’ effect around the edges.
Image 4 - I had so much fun shooting these images with my subjects, the younger of the two, he was such a natural poser and had an amazing ‘blank’ expression face after the giggles. Seeing as I wanted this image to be focused on the subject rather than the ground texture or story telling theme I felt it worked really nicely in black and white.
Image 5 - We purposely scouted for an area that we could try to get this sort of shot from. I took a few images like this but this was by far the best. I wanted the main focus of the camera to be of my subject’s eye through some plants and greenery. I wanted it to appear like he was some sort of feral and lost child hiding from the rest of the world which I hope I managed to capture well. I don’t feel the plants in the foreground are too distracting which was my original concern. Most tweaks to the image I tried to complete in Camera Raw, meaning I did not have to do much in photoshop other than add a warming filter and apply the ‘Vignette’ effect. I was really pleased with the outcome of this shot in the end, we had so much fun shooting it and got exactly what we wanted.
Image 6 - This 6th and final image is most probably my favourite. I really loved what I managed to capture here, his eyes were the key feature for me. They are so clear and appear glass like which reflects the tree tops and light gap beautifully. His facial expression is so blank and serious which is something I tried to maintain throughout this shoot. This shot was definitely better in colour, his eyes are a beautiful shade of brown that matched the autumnal theme of the rest of the image and the way his eyes are staring straight into the camera is so striking. His skin is absolutely immaculate displaying the beauty of youth in a young boy. This has a warming filter applied as well as the ‘vignette’ effect. Overall, my favourite image.
I really enjoyed this shoot in its entirety, we really had so much fun together finding cool places to get some photographs, the willingness and creativity in the minds of the my subjects really helped make the shoot easier too, they were great models and enjoyed looking at the final images with me. I feel I successfully planned a shoot with an idea in mind of what I wanted beforehand, getting onto the location and scouting the area for places to shoot really benefited me also, luckily the weather conditions were okay for us to shoot without any interruptions although we were mostly shaded by treetops anyway.These were only 6 of my images of my final images, there were others i was equally extremely pleased with too however these were the best. Overall, I feel it was a successful shoot and I am really pleased with the outcome of my images.
