Evaluation

Evaluation

The concept behind this project was not to clear in my head at the beginning of this project, I always wanted it to be around my grandparents but finding the link between them and the extra-ordinary was hard for me. But once I broke down the meaning and realized that anything can be extra-ordinary due to that fact everything is extra-ordinary in its own way. To me their outlook on life and how happy they are together 50 years on is just that.

The factors that really influenced me during this project was defiantly the images Natalya Renik has made of the documentary project entitles ‘Days with my father’ Before this I couldn’t decide between portraiture and documentary and what kind of lighting, background etc, I was finding it very difficult to find my direction with the photographs. Once I came across those images I made sure in the next shoot I tried out softer lighting and a more fly on the wall approach to the shoot, capturing them doing everyday things, almost a day in the life. After this shoot and I reviewed the images I knew those were the ones I wanted to use for my final project.

I feel like my final outcomes for this project brief meets the requirements, because extra ordinary can mean anything, everything is extra ordinary. Something that is normal and everyday for one person can be amazing to the next, an example would be us having electricity is normal and something we take advantage of everyday, but to someone who is less fortunate than us who does not have electricity would think it was amazing. 

If I could go back to this project and improve my work I feel I would try to capture more candid images of my grandparents. I did include a few images that had my nana looking directly into the camera, and looking back I feel images of candid photographs would best represent my concept of capturing my grandparents in everyday life.

For this project I feel in order to take documentary images I had to gain a better understanding for this type of photography. Unlike other people I am close with who often shoot in a documentary style I don’t tend to go in that direction. Through research I feel it defiantly gave me an image in my head of what I personally wanted to capture during this project and also just a better understanding of documentary as a whole.

New skills I have learnt throughout this project are defiantly to be critical when choosing images that are my own. Images that I think are amazing might not be so great to others; equally images I hate might be really good to others. I also feel like I have gained more experience observing people whilst taking photographs of them, I have always spent a lot of time around my grandparents, more so when I was younger but I haven’t really taken in little habits they have. Going to photograph them made me sit down and observe them so I knew exactly what activities and traits I wanted to capture. This is a skill that not only applies to photographing people but also general people skills.

This assignment challenged me in a lot of ways, it defiantly made me have to think to find a concept, it made me take photographs in a style that I really haven’t gone into a lot in my own work not only just in university. I am very glad I challenged myself to take photographs in a way that I am not used to because I am happy with the way it turned out and now I feel a lot more comfortable in a style I’m not used to.

In the end I chose 5 images to put forward for this project, they were all printed in A3 and the paper type was lusture. After we all had our prints an outside editor came in to condense the class’s images down to one or two images each. These images will then go into the magazine that will be put together in the near future. I have ended up with one image which is a portrait of my granddad I am happy with this final image and it is actually one of my favorites of the entire project.

Upon reflecting on this project I am extremely happy with the end result. The images I have put forward I feel are the best I came up with, although every image and concept can always be done better. I feel my images perfectly portray my concept.

Reflecting on this project

Reflecting on this project

To be honest at the start of this project and mostly throughout i wasn't motivated for this project i think the majority of the problems i faced was lack of ideas. Coincidentally i did get ideas i would have rather done but i only got these ideas when it was basically too late to change the idea i had no time left. Because of this i just found it hard researching and wanting to take photo's however i did persevere and i have completed this project, Toward the end in this final week i have been a lot more motivated this is basically because my final shoot the week prior was my best and i was proud of how they looked and also today with Jason made me feel a lot better about the work i selected and also Antony at the end saying well done gave me a confidence boost in my work, at the start i thought everything i was doing was was rubbish. Thankfully i am happy with my images now!

Jason Hynes

Editing down our final images

Today Jason Hynes came into CCAD to look at the classes images, because this project is going to be published into a magazine, Anthony and Jamie thought it would be good to bring an outside editor into the college to help condense down our final 5 images into one or two to go into the magazine. The image Jason chose from my five is shown below.

I respect what Jason said about it being difficult to be critical of your own work that's why its best for others to edit and condense down your work, i do find it hard to find the images i do like best, there is another image i wished he had chosen which i will include below..

But i do also like the image he chose, he said he was drawn to the image because of it basically capturing the person and i completely get that, i feel like my grandad looks deep in thought and also looks very grumpy. I am happy with how this session turned out and i think it was very interesting to see and hear his thoughts etc. 

Studio session with Richy Leeson

Studio session with Richie Leeson

Today a former CCAD student was shooting a shoot for a clothing company, mainly around accessories. This session was so enlightening and motivating. He gave us useful tips on location shooting and also studio shooting. One of the most important things i feel i learnt from the talk he gave was that he explained that everything he was using were things we have used before, he broke it down and made us realise that we have the ability to shoot photographs on the level he does. With practice you will achieve anything you want. 

Later in the day we got the chance to go back and see him in action as he takes photographs and he explain how crucial it was to have a makeup and hair team and also that if you get the lighting right in the first image, little or no post editing will be needed, as time is money.

New photoshoot

My newest photoshoot

This is by far my favorite photoshoot and i think i like the images enough to use in my final 5. I went with natural light and tried to capture my grandparents in their everyday lives. 

These are a selection of images that i thought were the best out of the shoot, there are many similar and different but i likes theses ones the most mainly because of the lighting so i am glad i chose to experiment with this. 

Natalya Renik

Research into Natalya Renik

I was researching documentary photography of older people, due to this being my main concept from now and i came across this website (http://vjic.org/vjic2/?page_id=2424). The post was an essay exploring how aging is represented in documentary photography. This lead me to research this particular project further and i loved how she photographer the older generation. 

The images i am showing below are images from a project called 'Days with my father'.

The images to me were so moving. In goes through images of a old man and in the end there is an image of chair he was sat in, in a previous image, but this time the chair was empty im not sure if the man died but to me it was pretty evident that he had. Images like this to me is so hard hitting. I am going to show the images below.

I love the way the images look, i think the colors really work and i also love how the images don't need to be completely lit to portray the message i think this is something i am going to carry through to my next photoshoot. I want to use natural lighting so it doesn't look set up, so its more natural to the eye. 

New photohoot

I tried out a different approach with today's photo shoot, i attempted to use a more documentary style, and focus more on capturing my grandparents on a normal day in their life. Basically involving knitting and putting together jigsaw puzzles. I Don't entirely hate the images i got today but i don't exactly love them either, I'm going to work more towards this direction in the up and coming photo shoots as i feel like this is the right path to go down.

Editorial and documentary photography

A new end goal

I started out wanting to achieve a set of portraits for this project, but as i took portraits over various shoots, at the end of the day when i would go through them i didn't like what i saw. I didn't like how they looked or anything so i sat and thought and looked at some photographs that i had taken just because i was their and i noticed they were more of a documentary style, images that appeared to just observe my grandparents. I liked these images a lot more and i decided that i should research this kind of editorial photography and then my next shoot i can do this and hope for the best and hope i like the look of them. 

The first person i looked at first who's work was both editorial and documentary was Richard Beaven.  http://www.richardbeaven.com/

He has done a project called 'Faith in Rio' and i was more drawn to this than any others due to the fact that this was the project that i could see the most candid and non candid pictures of people, this being what i want to capture now opposed to the portraits i originally wanted to capture. 

In this the obvious difference is that these images are taken out and about in Rio where as mine will be in my grand parents living room. 

Below are a few examples of his work that i most liked. 

Final images!

I briefly touched up my final images, i didn't feel they needed too much work as i wanted them to be as natural as possible.