Briefs, Feedback, Self-Evaluation & Communication

Proposed Briefs

Brief 1 - Let's Be Clear Campaign - Barnwood Trust

LBC Campaign - Contact Sheets

LBC Campaign Black and White - Final Images

Getting the commission & Shooting

Barnwood Trust got in contact with the University to ask for photographers to help them shoot for their Let's Be Clear Campaign to promote clearer face masks. Once getting the details from our course leader Paul Roberts, I got in touch with Lucy Adams who was running the media side of the campaign to offer my services. We spoke through email and had a zoom call with herself and another colleague Hannah Bradley. Unfortunately as it was last year I no longer have the emails.

It was my second proper paid commission as a freelance photographer but my first for a company. It was good to work a company and to gain the experience. Before I got them commission, I had to produce a risk assessment and brief to then be agreed and discussed via zoom.

Lucy sent me the posters for the campaign in the post. I think did a reccie up my local high street, Wotton-Under-Edge. I went in and out of every business that was open o hand out A4 and A3 posters, asking for the businesses to display these posters and whether any would be willing to pose with a mask on in a fortnights time. Out of over 30 businesses a total of eight said they would either consider it or would be up for it. I handed out my business cards along with the posters so that the models could contact me.

The following fortnight, I met Lucy in the Chipping Car Park at the top of the high street and we went back around the businesses to shoot. Lucy brought the masks with her and each model got to keep the mask that they posed in. I chose to shoot on auto because of the lighting in some of the shops was very dark. Since then I have been shooting with aperture priority and if I had the chance to shoot again, this is what I would use. Each model signed a model release form for myself and for Barnwood trust, so we both had the rights to the images.

Once home, I deleted any duff images and sent the rest off to the Trust to be looked at. They sent me back the ones the wanted editing and then to use. I then edited them and sent them back. Once they were happy I created my invoice to send off to them to be paid.

Kieran my friend that modeled one of the masks in the local bakery had been selected for a certificate of appreciation, which I created a moving image piece about for documentary film making. The Gazette caught wind that he was also helping with this too and wanted to do a piece on the campaign and Kieran, so they got in touch with me on Facebook to ask.

This was a great opportunity and coverage for myself and Barnwood Trust as well as local businesses. I would work with the Trust again. Through this campaign I have learnt that my photography is good enough and I can make it as a freelancer. I am happy with how my final images turned out however as I said previously if I were to shoot again I would shoot on aperture priority and take more time shooting. As the models were busy I felt quite rushed but next time I would spend more time so that my framing was better. I would have also used a speedlight.

For this hand in, I decided to make my images black an white. I decided to do this because some of the shop were very colorful and I found that it distracted from the masks, by turning them back and white I feel the masks stand out much more and the focus is more central and continuous throughout.

Brief 2 - Sculpture Shoot UOG

Communication - Jamie, UOG Fina Art Student

Communication - Mentor/Mentee

I decided to create a group on Instagram with both of my mentees as that's the only platform all three of us shared. Marcin seemed very interactive but Jack not as much. Marcin came along for the Sculpture shoot, he was lovely to work with, he even drove down to Oxtalls with us which made it easier as we got to know him on the way down. He seemed very interactive in person and followed mine and Rachael's lead as well as taking his own initiative.

Sculpture Shoot UOG Contact Sheets

Sculpture Shoot UOG - Chosen Images

Sculpture Shoot, Lecture Feedback

Don't use for final brief, but add it to blog
Turn up to venues early and rearrange the space if need be or if possible
Explain to the people you are shooting for that they should allow the space to be rearranged if it means better images
Take charge of the space you're photographing

Sculpture Shoot Evaluation

Rachael Adams was propositioned by an old colleague of hers who is a student of the fine arts course to come and photograph their Sculpture Show at the Oxtalls Campus in Gloucester. Which she said yes to but also asked if I could go along and if we could ask our mentees too, which they said yes to.

The show was meant to last a couple of hours however it only last 12 minutes. We were also not aware it was going to be hosted in the café so there was tables, chairs, wrappers, people eating, the whole area was a mess. There was also lots of items in bubble wrap behind the stairs. The whole background was messy and chock a block. So no matter where you stood there was something in the frame. If we knew this ahead of time we would of suggested having the show somewhere else or at a different place in the room where the was the least amount of mess. This would have made the images more aesthetically pleasing. Next time I would take out a 70-200mm lens so I could get closer to the group of people and not have to go up high to get far enough away to take the image.

Brief 2 - Varsity Tennis UOG Shoot 1

I was asked by an old work colleague of mine who now goes to university UOG and plays Varsity Tennis if I could do some pictures for him and his team for there social media.

Varsity Tennis UOG Shoot 1 Contact Sheets

Varsity Tennis UOG Shoot 1, Lecture Feedback

Get closer to the net
Shoot them individually serving
Move with the ball
Take more frames to get the right picture
Take a stool and pivot on it as they and the ball move.

Varsity Tennis UOG Shoot 2 Contact Sheets

Varsity Tennis UOG Shoot 2 - Chosen Images

Varsity Tennis UOG Shoot 1 & 2 - Evaluation

Shooting sport is very out of my comfort zone but I thought if I don't give it ago I would never know if I was any good at it. This shoot above was my first proper shoot for this brief however it was my second time shooting this team at Plot Court in Gloucester.

My first experience was with Rachael. We had done a little research before we had gone, but when we had done the shoot and gotten home to see the images we realized just how unprepared we were. The images were awful. Very grainy, extremally dark, almost black and the ones we had shot on auto were incredibly grainy. Our ISOs had shot up into the high thousands. So after this shoot we decided to have chat with Paul to talk about what went wrong and what could could do better next time.

Paul had told me that my camera just wasn't capable of shooting tennis with a 28-77mm lens. Following this chat he told me to take out a Canon 5D M3, Canon 70-200mm F4 Lens, and take it to him to set up for me and to shoot on shutter priority. So I went back again this time on my own, my mum came along to watch. This shoot went much more smoothly and I was much happier with the images however they were still a little grainy. I sent them over to Jonny and we discussed them and he said they were much better quality and said I was more than welcome to keep coming back to get better images for my module.

So the next time I went back again but this time I took out a f2.8 and speedlight as I was going to be taking some pairs shot and I thought it would better help with the lighting, in hind sight it would have been better to take out a longer lens because I was still struggling to get far enough away from the court and still get decent frames. The f2.8 and speedlight helped a lot. I was able to bring the ISO down even more so this meant this shoot was my least grainiest to date however I still had more grain than I would have liked. Once edited I sent them over to Jonny and once I had done this I thought it would be interesting to see what they looked like in Black and White as I do love black and white photography. The second I changed the colour profile I knew I had to stick with black and white. It made the images much more powerful and intense and it made the court and there surrounding less distracting.

There was this sports photographer talk on Facebook which I was going to go to, it was after my shoot but I thought it could help for the future and to add research into this module, however I completely forgot about it and sadly missed it.

Brief 3 - Briony and Rosie Contact Sheets

Briony and Rosie - Communication

As Briony is my next door neighbour, all our communication was in person. Briony knew I was looking for commissions for my module and said she wouldn't mind some outdoorsy summer photos and that I was more than welcome to come around and submit the images for my brief.

Briony and Rosie - Chosen Images

Briony and Rosie Evaluation

During this shoot the weather was very bright so I decided to shoot on aperture priority to see if I could get the best lighting without blowing out my ISO. I found this very nice to shoot on, it also helped me to keep a high shutter speed as she was moving as I was taking these images. At first I found it quite awkward and so did she because she asked me what she wanted to do and as I am not a gardener I was unsure, I just asked her to act as if I wasn't there and just do any gardening that needed doing and I would follow her, after a few mins we decided to change up where she was gardening to get different angles and point of view. Once we got in to a flow it went quite nicely and felt much more comfortable.

Shooting slightly on the darker side meant that I had much more to play with in post-production, I found it was more about slightly lightening the images and spot healing or clone stamping the odd thing out. I had sent the images off to print and then later discovered that Briony wanted all the images of her and her dog. I realized that Rosie was in most of the images and that actually the shoot worked better like this. This meant I needed to order some extra prints. Unfortunately this meant that I needed to apply my second extension because the images were supposed to be arriving the day of hand in and I didn't want to risk them not turning up on time. I also decided to lighten them a little more which I raised as of when the first lot of prints turned up, they were a little on the dark side, so I had made the right decision to lighten the second lot more.

Overall, I am very happy with how my images turned out, in hind sight I should have shot a little sooner because of prints and delivery days, however which everything going on at home this was not a possibility.

Bokeh Bellas

Their Description - "We are a community made by women in the photography industry, for women in the photography industry. We are here to help with the day-to-day problems of women around the world who are both amateur and professional photographers."

This is a group of female photographers from different parts of the world that Rachael came across, once she had became a member she decided to add me to the group so that we could get feedback on our images/projects. Above I have screen-shotted my communication with the group.

Gloucestershire Camera Club

As well as Bokeh Bella's I also posted my work in Gloucestershire Camera Cub on Facebook. I got a few comments some of which were very helpful and some of which were not. However it was nice to get some feedback either way. If I had some more time I would have like to have applied some of this feedback to my images to see how they were with the series. This would be something for next time.

Why I chose project names rather than saying what types of images they are?

I decided that choosing the project names, defined and personalised my work/website further, giving a little more context. I don’t like the idea of having to keep clicking folder after folder, having all my projects laid out shows easy access and makes it more user friendly I feel.