Evaluation

For this project I had to research certain photographers that shot in different locations and then choose a location where I would like to shoot some photographs and then make a book with the best ones, which was the main aim of the project but obviously I had to do numerous shoots so I had different photographs to choose from and work to show my progress after each different shoot. By the end of this project I was hoping to achieve something similar to the popular Facebook page and blog 'Humans of New York'. I think I achieved the initial idea, however not all of my final photographs are of people that I stopped in the street to ask for their photograph. It's mainly based on the streets of Manchester, the people and the things you see, especially as the second time I went to shoot, it was Chinese New Year so there were lots of red chinese lanterns in trees and hanging from the buildings on the majority of the streets. The reason I chose Manchester was because it's the closest thing to me that's a bigger city, as oppose to shooting in Blackburn/Preston where I live. There's much more going on and there's a wide variety of people, a lot of people wear quite unique clothing and in certain areas, like the Northern Quarter there is many people with crazy haircuts and lots of random piercings which I think are really interesting. Manchester is much livelier and there's more things/people to see, which gave me more photo opportunities and the things I photographed were more interesting than anything I see in the areas I live in.

There were a few technical decisions I had to make and many of them had to be made quite quickly as I only had a couple of seconds to photograph the person once I had asked them to stop, most of the time they worked out well as before I stopped the person, I would get my friend to stand for me where I would be taking the persons photograph and adjust the settings, my shutter speed was usually between 1/100 - 1/200 and my aperture was between f5.6 - f 9 depending on the setting in which I shot the photograph. Most of the photographs turned out well with the settings I had my camera on, especially with the second shoot as I was more aware of what I needed them to be, the first shoot in Manchester, the photographs didn't turn out as well, as I had never shot in the street properly before, especially not taking photographs of strangers so I had to be quick adjusting my settings. Research prior to my shoots was definitely helpful and worked well in making my work better and making me aware of what I wanted to achieve from my shoots. It showed me the different types of location photography and made me aware of what interested me and what didn't. I really liked the idea of recreating Humans of New York but on a smaller scale, I like the concept of it and find it really interesting, also think the results can be massively different and random, which makes them much more interesting for people to look at and make their own assumptions about the person and the photograph. After researching, I knew exactly what type of photographs I wanted to take. I also really liked the idea of street photography but also photography on public transport, specifically the subway like Bruce Davidsons work, however as there's no subway in England, I was planning on going down to London and possibly taking photographs of people on the street there but also on the tube, unfortunately I wasn't able to do that so I settled for taking photographs on the streets of Manchester.

I think my final photographs are good and I like how they all turned out, they were exactly what I had planned, however I don't think I took as many as I would've liked to. Some photographs are stronger than others, especially trying to get the correct exposure in a rush, my stronger photos are from the second shoot and of buildings and similar things in the streets as I wasn't in a rush to get the settings correct for these photographs as nobody was waiting on me taking the photo. I'm happy with my final photos as this is the first time I've been out on a shoot like this, personally I feel like this has boosted my confidence in this area of photography and I know how to handle similar situations in the future. With any shoot in photography, no matter how good the outcome may be, I think there is always room for improvement and that's definitely the case with my work, although I'm happy with the outcome and feel as though the photographs are good and show exactly what I was trying to, I feel like next time I could ask more people if I can take their photograph, I would also be more aware of the settings I need on my camera to get the best results and I would know how to approach people more effectively.

Along with the main part of this brief, we did many different shoots at college that have added to this brief, including the music studio whilst live bands performed, a concert in the theatre and my class went down to the amphitheatre and shot some photos down there, I enjoyed the shoots in the theatre and the amphitheatre the most. I enjoyed photographing the live band in the music studio, however as the lighting was poor, it effected the quality of my photographs which made the experience less enjoyable. The concert shoot in the theatre was good and I enjoyed listening to the music whilst photographing the bands/singers, the lighting was much better and made it easier to capture a better photograph. I got some really good photos from the shoot in the theatre and I enjoyed shooting that kind of photography, which I would like to do again. I also enjoyed photographing the amphitheatre as it's a really nice setting and you can get some really good shots. I took a few photographs of the amphitheatre itself and then some people from my class, the setting adds to the photo and I think it's a really good place to shoot. By shooting in these different environments, I learnt what I do enjoy and what I don't, which I think is really important for photography, especially if you want good results, as you need to be enjoying what you're doing and where you're shooting.

I have learnt a lot about the different technical things involved within photography and I know that composition within a photograph is vital in how the photograph is going to turn out and you need to try and make it look as interesting as possible and sometimes less is more. I've also learnt how to handle my camera correctly and about a lot of the different equipment that is used. My final piece of work turned out really well and I'm happy with it, I think the photographs fit really well together and as a piece. There's a mixture of buildings and people, I think I've been creative with it as I was basing it on Humans of New York and it's like my own personal interpretation of how that looks. I decided on Humans of New York because I really like the idea of approaching somebody random in the street that you've never met before and asking for the photograph and then somehow getting them to open up about something extremely personal about their life. My work has combined Humans of New York and things in the street of Manchester that caught my eye, which is unique to me.

I've learnt that when I'm taking a photograph now, I do tend to try and think about what would look nice together and although not all my photographs show this, compared to when I first started taking photographs, I think about the composition much more than I used to. I have also learnt that I really enjoy taking portraits, either in the studio or on location, I love working with people and taking their photographs, especially when it's random and you just never know who you're going to meet, it's exciting and interesting and that's the style of photography I'm most interested in. Although I'm happy to work on other styles, apart from landscapes and wildlife/nature, as I find them really boring, I like looking at photographs of them but shooting it myself, doesn't interest me at all.

Working in specialist locations, varies on what type of location you're in, depending on what you need to consider, for example shooting photography on a street, there's many things you need to consider as anything could happen so you need to be aware of your surroundings. Whereas if you're working in abandoned buildings, although you would need to be careful in case the building is private, there will more than likely be nobody but you around, so you don't need to worry about taking photographs with people's permission. The same goes for airports, train stations etc. You may need permission to shoot in these kinds of places as they're public and they may have certain rules, banning some types of photography so that's something to take into consideration. As a photographer, you need to be aware of certain rules and should probably research a place you are planning on going to shoot and seeing if there is any laws about photography there.

If I was given the chance to re-do this brief, I think I would keep my location the same as I really enjoy this sort of photography, however I would ask a lot more people for their photographs and that would be the main focus of my brief, rather than taking photographs of buildings and similar things, I would also go to a few different places to get the chance to meet lots of different people. I would also think about possibly shooting some photos in abandoned buildings or urban streets in cities, just focusing on graffiti as I think photographs of graffiti can be really effective and look really good. Overall I am happy with how my brief turned out and there isn't much else I would change as I'm happy with the results, I would definitely make sure to take more photographs so I had more to choose from and I would be more aware of what settings to use on my camera, so hopefully the results would be much better. However, I am pleased with my results.

People of Manchester

Location Shoot 2 (Manchester)

My second shoot was in Manchester again and based on the same idea as my first shoot and Humans of New York was my inspiration. I really liked the idea of stopping random people as they're just going about their day and asking them for their photograph. All of the people I asked stopped and allowed me to take a photograph, apart from one man but there was a slight language barrier which caused a bit of difficulty. Although my main focus was on people in the street, I was also shooting some of the things I saw in the street that caught my eye, like the red telephone boxes and the arch ways outside a building. I really enjoy taking photographs in the street because it's exciting and I like the idea of making things that people might not always notice, look good. I really like buildings and I think some buildings on photographs can look really exciting and it fits in with my theme as it's street photography. The main focus was people, however buildings and other things in the streets that catch my eye tie in with the theme so they're not completely random. I feel like the second time round doing this same kind of shoot, I had more courage to approach people and ask for their photographs and luckily everyone I asked, was nice enough to allow me to take their photograph. This kind of photography really interests me, especially as I like photographing people and the results from this kind of photography can be really random but also really different and interesting because it's stopping people as they go about their day and asking for their photograph, I like approaching people because they draw my attention. In the future, I would love to get some results more similar to Humans of New York, as he takes their photograph and then asks them some sort of question and usually gets told something very deep and personal about themselves, which I really love and think it's really interesting. 

Concert Shoot

I shot these photographs when college had a concert for the music students, I much preferred working in the theatre than in the music studio as the lighting was much better which improved the quality of the photographs a lot. I really like the photographs I got from this shoot as I had much more room to move around and different angles to shoot from, either on the ground where the seats are but having access to the balcony area as well which was good. I think the quality of the photographs has improved significantly compared to the first music shoot. I enjoyed taking these photographs and i'm happy with the results. I took more photographs than the ones shown on here but I have chosen my best ones.