I enjoyed shoot 3 which was like a combination of shoot one and two, shooting props but on location. I chose to shoot in my garden in a muddy area as I wanted to convey evidence of abandonment, and it would have been a lot more effective than shooting in a house. Firstly I found it difficult to think of a lot of different compositions using the doll and the top plate and cup, but eventually I moved each prop around to try and make the scene look realistic and like someone had left their toys out in the mud. To make it seem more realistic, after a while I decided to slightly cover the toys in mud and put some leaves on them as if they had been there for a long time. This worked very effectively and created some good shots. I realised that a baby shoe would float in water so I put this prop in the pond to create a scene as a small child had dropped and lost it. This also looked very effective and also a good, clear reflection was created which really added to the images. Another composition I had thought of was placing the shoe on the floor underneath a swing, as If a small child had left it there after playing. The shoe was close to the lens while the swing was slightly blurred which created good depth and improved the overall look and feel of the images. When it came to editing, I thought about the feel I wanted to create. I thought that abandonment was quite a negative thing and it would make sense to try to create a sad mood, so I tried to do this through editing. As well as shooting on a dull day, I turned down the exposure so that the pictures were quite dark and I lowered the saturation so that the colours weren't so bright, as bright colours are associated with positivity and happiness, which was the opposite feel I wanted to convey. After editing I am happy with the overall result of the images.
One negative aspect of this shoot would be that sometimes, especially using the prop of the shoe, it was hard to think of a large variety of compositions. Because of this I ended up with a lot of similar images, but to overcome it I tried to move the show to different areas in my garden for example next to a tree or in the pond. I also tried to take the pictures from a variation of angles too. Something else which would have improved this shoot is if i visited a range of different locations, like an abandoned building, or a path or public bench. This would have created a larger variety of interesting images.
The image above is one of my favourites from shoot 3 which I had gone on to edit and post. This was more towards the end of the shoot when I had thought about putting mud on the toys and had come up with a larger variation of compositions. I really like the composition of this image as there is not a lot of empty space in the frame. I also like how the cup is tipped over as if it had been blown over by the wind and rolled in the mud, which makes it seem more realistic. I like the background of the rocks and trees as it makes the scene look like a deserted, lonely area which seems to emphasise the abandonment more than it would have if there were a lot of people walking in the background. I also like the way the tree trunks create silhouettes of lines as the dark bark contrasts significantly against the plain white sky so that clear shape is shown. This background is out of focus which shows depth, and this emphasises the size of the area the toys are in. The outline of the doll and the toys is also very clear due to contrast with the dark muddy ground. Overall I am quite happy with this photo.
This image on the other hand, was taken at the beginning of the shoot when I was struggling to think of compositions and did not think of covering the doll in dirt and leaves. Because the doll looks clean, the abandonment is not clear enough in this photo, which is what I am trying to convey. I don't like the way there is a lot of space in the frame as the surroundings may be more focussed on than the doll. I also do not like the positioning of the doll in the frame. From the background we can see that the photo was not taken straight, but if this was straightened it would effect the positioning of the doll. The depth of the scene is not clear in this image as the background is not as out of focus as the image above, and I think that this would have made it more effective and emphasised the emptiness of the area. If I was to shoot this image again I would get in closer so that the doll took up more of the frame and I would make it look more abandoned by for example making it dirty. Despite this I like the silhouettes of lines in the background created by dark tree trunks contrasting against the plain white sky.
Progression
What I have learnt from this shoot is that in future shoots I need to think more about composition, as at the start of this shoot I did not really have this in mind and created some images which were not as good as they could be. After looking back at my pictures and seeing the differences between the successful and non successful images, I realised that poor composition was the reason for some of the images were bad, and the props in the good images filled the frame well. In future work I think it'll be a good idea to take pictures of the same things but using a variation of different angles and compositions so that i am more likely to create good pictures. I had enjoyed shooting evidence of abandonment quite a lot so In the next shoot I want to look at the same area. Rather than abandonment I could shoot things like damage or vandalism which are similar subjects. As I am quite interested in street art I could focus on this in the next shoot to show evidence of vandalism. To make these images more effective and to make the evidence of vandalism clear I could go to places in London which have streets full of large graffiti such as brick lane.
These two images below are examples of the kind of photos I would like to take on my next shoot. In the top image the depth is very clear so that the length of the vandalised walls is emphasised. The colour is edited to be very bright so that the art is the first thing we look at. Something else that makes the art stand out is that its bright colours contrasts significantly with the dull buildings and path. The individual colours in the image also contrast against each other so that the shape of each drawing is clear. I think that the white line on the path is quite effective as it shows that the image is very straight and makes it seem semetrical. Something else which is effective about this image is the lighting. It is dark and shadowy at the bottom of the image but the thin gap between the walls lets in the light.
This picture has quite a different composition to the one above. The graffiti takes up the whole frame but this makes the theme of vandalism clear The graffiti stands out as the black and white contrasts against the blue. We can see the paint on this wall is wearing away which gives the impression this is an abandoned building, and makes the image more effective. I like how the door of this building is not central and is very clearly established with a contrasting black boarder.
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