All Plants

While i was in London a few weeks ago i made contact with a young company called "allplants"whom  started up in 2016 producing a range of vegan frozen meals. I found this business to have an interesting story because of its beliefs and goals, The food produced by all plants is completely preservative and chemical free as they literally only use plants within the recipes and they also use completely recyclable packaging and encouraging customers to send back the boxes used for shipping so that they can be re-used.On the day of the shoot the i was met by the two founders of the business whom took me for a tour of the facility and then let me loose to explore and capture the story. The first image i captured(as seen above) was a portrait of the two founders JP and Alex.The two guys were alot of fun and incredibly passionate and so i wanted to capture that within the portrait.being in the middle of an industrial estate in seven sisters london i was unable to get them outside which was unfortunate as i feel that a more exciting location would have made for a great opening portrait to the story.despite this i do feel that the white background will be useful within an editorial context for PEP160 as it provides me with negative space to place text.

On the day that i was there the kitchen was mostly empty as it was the tasting day which meant that one of each meal they produced that week is cooked and the team were tasting them to ensure the dish is right.
 The images i achieved at this shoot were not 100% what i was aiming for however i do feel that as an editorial piece i have enough content to produce 2 double page spreads.

Pal Hansen

By far one of the best lectures we had during London week came from Pal Hansen and his assistant.
Pal was the first guest lecture of the week and it was incredibly refreshing to have a guest lecture that wasn't there to simply sell us his new book at the end. He discussed the importance of personal projects outside of our work as a way to fuel our ambition and creativity.He believes in personal projects as being a great way to produce meaningful work that you can then take and show to potential clients and employers.
Pal later explained that it is important to lose out attachment to social media for pushing or work into the world, everyone does that nowadays and so the it is essential to find fresh creative ways to stand out from the crowd. He suggested that going to the effort of travelling to showcase your work in person with a nice printed portfolio is now rare and will surely put you out there as it isn't the mass audience and lots of clicks and likes you need to worry about as a freelance its making sure that the right people see your work. the kind of people that can actually pay you and give you jobs in the future.

Further more pal discussed the importance of a diverse skill set in today's world it simpy isn't enough to be a good photographer,employers need someone they can trust to do several things such as the writing or videography that may need to accompany the images you shoot. although the client will often only commission you for one of those skills at any one time it provides you with more opportunities to be commissioned

I also learn't that in order for me to become successful in my field i am going to need to spend a lot of time practicing and honing my social skills as this is a crucial skill when it comes to getting your subject to open up and provide a more authentic depiction of your subject.

Finally Pal gave the stage to his assistant for a while.Pat(Pals assistant) explained that assisting jobs are priceless gifts allowing you to get paid while providing you time to learn from a professional until your ready to move on and work for yourself.He reminded us to make sure we know what we are worth as it is easy to be taken advantage of by some professionals but that we should also be prepared to work exceedingly hard.

London Week, 5 picture story

London was amazing with so many potential subjects to photograph i could've shot every assignment while i was there!.

For the 5 picture story i wanted to capture the unseen side of london. Having never been to london before that week i was able to look at london from an outsiders perspective because nothing was familiar to me even down to the culture and lifestyle.For the final 5 images i took to the streets to find something which i simply wasnt expecting based on the stories and stereotypes of london that i have been told. Early on Thursday morning i discovered a small corner of london just off of Brick lane called the nomadic garden, i instantly began shooting it, with no one about i couldn't capture any portraits to help tel the story. instead i focused on capturing 5 images which provided an insight into the gardens which were more like an exhibition for incredibly artistic individuals that needed an outlet to display their work.from graffiti to sculptures made from all manner of objects to make shift buildings there was something new around every corner.

The 5 images i chose are a mere peek into the diverse range of things i captured while there. with such a hipster vibe around the location i would be interested in returning when there are people there to capture the full story as i find the small spaces in a place like london can often be the most interesting. once you get off the beaten track, that's when the real stories begin to piece together 

SDA- Health of the Highstreet in Cornwall

With a keen interest in the news and things that are not just effecting large aspects of the country but also having a detrimental effect on a local level i have been researching and tracking changes in the high street since Christmas and have found that countless local small business' loved by the local people are being forced to close die to hikes in business rates,rents and the increase in large corporate business' that can charge far less than any local business can dream of.
I first visited "Party Zone" in January of this year which i have talked about in previous posts and since then have found a recurrence of the same story from business to business and not just in one market for example cafe's, fancy dress shops, bridal dress companies have all been effected by the same two or three factors and the list can go on.

Last week i visited a sweet shop in Falmouth called "the chocolate box" this time i found that the story again related to corporate competition that they simply compete with any longer. The owners of the business have agreed to an interview over email to ensure that they can get there message out there within the editorial section of the SDA which will be presented to various Cornwall focused magazines such as Cornwall live.
In hind sight i definitely should taken a flash with me to this shoot as the lighting in the shop was incredibly poor and the large windows didn't provide enough ambient light as they were covered over with large closing down stickers.

Spring/Summer fashion second shoot

After the first shoot i learn't a lot about lighting, composition and ensuring location conveyed the correct connotations to fit the theme.
The second shoot was carried out at Pendennis point on a hot, sunny day and despite waiting until 4pm to shoot the sun was still high in the sky and was producing some harsh shadows while also causing my model to squint although that was partly the fault of the strong winds present at the coast on the day.

The shoot consisted of two different outfits which both me and the model/fashion blogger agreed where suitable for a spring/summer article. we tried several locations for shooting to create diversity within the work and also find various lighting scenarios.
Throughout the shoot i experimented with different compositions as i was baring in mind that the images where to be used in an editorial context which allowed me to try compositions which may not otherwise work such as the image seen below. This image would usually contain too much negative space to be considered as a final shot or atleast for me, However the extreme volume of negative space in this context allows for headlines, interviews and intros. My only issue with this image would be the pose which while shooting became un avoidable because of the wind.We tried multiple poses but this was the only one which looked remotely natural and comfortable for both the model and the audience

This next image is one which i have mixed feelings about from a technical stand point.The aim for this image was to create something which could work as a double page spread and also be cropped into to work as a tighter portrait if required and from that idea it totally works however, because of the sunlight there were some harsh shadows casting across the model which usually i could easily blow out by simply using some fill flash. This image though was shot between 150-300mm meaning that i was stood quite a way back from the model in order to capture this composition using the aperture settings i desired meaning that even with some fill flash added it simply didn't make too much of a difference because of inverse square law.I also tried to use the flash a slave however this didn't seem to work which is something for me to practice before future shoots. So my problem with this image is the distracting shadows which cover the clothing and the models face and will be something i discuss with my lecturers.

I will leave this blog post with just a few more examples of images from the shoot.

Spring/Summer Fashion

PEP160 has me experimenting with many different genres within photography as i try to find my niche.So this week i have been doing a shoot based around fashion designed for fashion magazines such as Vogue. The shoot for this editorial piece is happening in two parts.the first part of the shoot being the content within this blog where i met up with a popular fashion blogger to photograph one outfit in the woods in order to bring a sense of adventure and create a more aesthetic scene for portraying the idealized vision the magazines portray.

so my idea for this shoot was to combine ambient light with a hint of fill flash to create soft aesthetic images that compliment the clothing in order to work successfully as a fashion editorial set. I looked at posing and location to create narrative and the colour pallet for the shoot was picked out by Ellie after i had briefed her on the exactly what i was aiming for

Relationships- Freja and Bella visit Kennall Vale

Kennall Vale nature reserve , Cornwall, UK,, 26/02/17

This weekend i decided to crack on and shoot my relationships assignment and so i contacted my model and we met in the beautiful setting of Kennall vale nature reserve. The setting was perfect, the winding river and the abandoned old mills created a real sense of adventure which was great for capturing emotive images that portrayed the relationship between my model and her pet spaniel Bella.
Despite the weather being a little overcast i found that there was a good opportunity for portraits as the trees weren't casting shadows all over the model or causing her and the dog to squint.

The biggest challenge that i encountered while doing this shoot was keeping up with Bella, being an excited puppy she was running all over the place which took me a few moments to get used to, however once i did i think i really started to capture some interesting images that depict a connection between the two subjects.
I also stepped away from the relationship photos and practiced panning techniques which i also feel turned out quite well

Overall i captured a lot of  images for the relationship and so its quite a challenge for me to edit it down to 5 however i will show a few of them below.

This is one of my favourite images from the shoot because it really has everything i was trying to capture. Firstly and most obviously is the connection between the two subjects, due to the facial expression and the body language i have captured a really telling moment about the relationship that Freja has with Bella. I also really enjoy the lighting within the images as it is very flattering on the subjects and has produced a beautiful background when combined with depth of field. Composition is another good quality of this image as i really draws your eye around the frame while capturing the relationship and bringing in some context using background .

While this image isn't a candid moment of the relationship between the two subjects i do feel that it is successful as an image for this brief as it kind of acts as your formal portrait within the set however it has a bit of flavour to help project the narrative more effectively. I found as the shoot went on i started to enjoy more an more shots like this where i was finding interesting ways to place my subjects within the environment adding further context to the narrative im trying to create.

For this image i wanted to step back from my subject a little therefore i had the ability to capture a main theme that can be found within the relationship which is adventure. Being a conservation student Freja often enjoys taking her dog all over to explore new places. Kennall vale is one of her favourite places to go with Bella and so i decided this would be a fitting location for the shoot if i am to capture the relationship most effectively.

This image was captured towards the end of the shoot when Bella was all muddy from running around the woods and the old buildings for a few hours and so Freja was trying to get Bella to clean off in the river and so i decided to take some photos as she promised her treats if she went in the water to wash the mud out of her fur.