Project The moment

Exercise: Capturing the moment

This for me was the standout moment of the day, I had been taking photographs in and around where this brass band had been playing, I was watching the crowd quite closely and my attention was drawn to the gentleman in the photos below. At first he was just stood there with his companion/partner enjoying the music and you could see he was getting more and more into it.

He then broke from the crowd and danced up to the bands money box and dropped some money in. The reaction of the crowd obviously spurred him on as he handed over his shopping bags and preceded to perform a full on dance routine to great applause.

By watching the crowd and there reactions to the band I was able to capture the moment.
For me the images that personify this particular moment the best are number 6 and number 14. They just seem to capture the fun and spontaneity that led to the series of image.

Capturing the moment 1

Capturing the moment 2

Capturing the moment 3

Capturing the moment 4

Capturing the moment 5

Capturing the moment 6

Capturing the moment 7

Capturing the moment 8

Capturing the moment 9

Capturing the moment 10

Capturing the moment 11

Capturing the moment 12

Capturing the moment 13

Capturing the moment 14

Capturing the moment 15

Capturing the moment 16

Capturing the moment 17

Project A comfortable situation

Exercise: Developing your confidence


For this exercise I choose my home town of york, mainly because its a popular city with tourists and no matter what the weather is normally pretty busy. To get a feel for the day I first took a walk around the city center to scout out any potential hotspots for shots later and also to kind of gauge how I was going to approach the task.

I started off using a 55-300 lens I choose this because I wanted to get a feel for taking shots with out being to overtly obtrusive. This enable me to stand-back somewhat and get more natural pictures of people without them realising they were being photographed.

Generally in my experience if people see you taking photographs they instantly act different and the naturalness off the situation you were trying to capture is gone, by using this lens to start with you cane remain anonymous whilst still achieving your results.

It didn't take long for me to get into my stride and felt quite at ease, because of the location as well made the task much simpler as I appeared to be just another tourist taking photos.

Part 2 - People Unaware

Cage fight photo opportunity

Cage fight photo opportunity

On visiting a local sports center, I picked up a leaflet for a cage fighting event that would be held there.
I contacted the organisers of the event and explained that I was a photography student and would like to photograph the event. The initially agreed over the phone.

I purchased some rather expensive tickets for the event and turned upon the night with all my equipment, I took along a two digital SLR's fitted with a 70-200 F2.8 and a 17-55 F2.8 and a Nikon SB900 flash gun.

Once at the venue I met with the organiser who had since had a change of heart about me taking pictures and explained I could now only take the shots for the spectator area. I was quite disappointed as I had planned on not only trying to get some close shots of the fighters but also crowd shots and there reactions from the cage itself.

I managed to get a few pictures but not of sufficient quality because of the distance from the cage and the very low lighting in the auditorium. All in all I was very disappointed with the whole evening I had planned and anticipated some great shots but unfortunately the organisers reneged on what they had agreed and proved to be an expensive waste of money. there are a few photos I am happy with which I have posted below.

Assignment 1

A Portrait


Overall I thought this first assignment was quite challenging. When I read through the first chapter of the course work and decided I was going to use my daughter Tilly for the main assignment, I hadn't quite realised how difficult and how time consuming it can be photographing children. Of course I take pictures (snaps) of my children all the time but when you try to make it a more formal exercise from what they are used to (albeit you also try to make it fun) their reluctance to participate is only too obvious and reflected in some of the photos. In hindsight (that being a wonderful thing) I would have given much further consideration to whom my main subject might have been.

That being said I am overall very pleased with the shots I have managed to take of my daughters. It has taught me some valuable lessons with regard to taking formal pictures of small children and how they react to direction, and indeed how they cope with what is probably quite a large amount of photo shoots for a child in a relatively short period of time, when they clearly would be quite happy doing something else. Timing is also another critical element I have learned, when to choose the best moment for a shoot and when to avoid it altogether.

In summary I have found this module challenging but enjoyable. I have varied my photography subjects and completed my first studio shoot. looking back over this module I seem to have accomplished quite a lot in a short space of time. I personally believe the standard of my non assignment photographs have greatly improved from the Art of photography, I am now not just producing photos to exhibit a particular action/purpose, but treating almost all the exercises as assignments also.  


Just Me
This image works well for me as the subject seems natural and relaxed, although there is a lot of  bold colours in the image, it is well lit with a nice amount of flare in the eyes, The subject is looking straight down the lens and is nicely proportioned within the frame.

Just Me

Watching the world go by
I think this picture works well in b&w, there is the right level of DOF and the reflection in the subjects face against the glass adds further depth to the picture. Having taken this image in colour and seen the results I don't think it would have had the same impact as it does as a black & white version.
I think with this image you really do get a sense of watching the world go by.

Watching the world go by

My Favourite Bear
This for me is the winner of the bunch, the POV and expression make the picture work, the lighting in the picture also worked well for this photograph. I was able to catch the subject enjoying what they like the most, in this instance playing with her teddies. I think if I were to maybe change anything in this image then Micky mouse would have not been in the background as it seems to contrast against the softer colours of all the surrounding teddies. That being said I don't think it detracts to much from the main focus of the image.

My Favourite Bear

Story Time
The focus of the eyes is the strongest element of this image, with a penetrating stare I think it draws you in. This for me is one of the pictures if mounted on a wall would follow your gaze which ever angle you looked at it from. The subject is evenly lit with bold colours to further enhance the image.
For me this image conveys a multitude of emotions which further draws you to it.

Story Time

To Many Teddies
This is one of those photos I think works well but shouldn't. Tilly is surrounded by what she loves to play with the most but somehow seems to demonstrate she is in a place she likes the least. You can pick out of the photograph Tilly's wry smile at the fact that she is surrounded by the things she likes, but holds back smiling fully as she was quite frankly photo shoot weary by this point.

To Many Teddies

Sisters
This image works well as it displays the relationship between two sisters. The key element in this photograph was the portrayal of fun. With Keira pulling a funny face and Tilly clearly aware of what she is doing makes the photograph work. Fill in flash was used to enhance the surroundings as it was taken on an overcast day.

Sisters