I start the module with some trepidation - I usually go out of my way to exclude people from my shots and have not used a blog before - and given I spend 5 days a week looking at a pc screen I haven't entirely embraced spending any free time doing so. I am conscious as I start that the coming year gives me less time for photography than I have been able to allow previous modules but hope, as has been the case with previous modules, that I am pushed to move from a comfort zone, find out what I like and what I don't in this area of photography, pick up some new photographers that I wasn't previously aware of and feel it was worth it at the end.
At the end
Looking back over this module I note the following:
- I need to remember to get lower rather than immediately be shooting from standing height
- I need to consider cropping more as this has on occasion given me a more interesting shot or a more contained one
- I need to remember to sometimes include people more often for a sense of scale
- That I am more confident with “street” photography
- That rather than keep people out of my shots as I normally do, I can include them but don’t necessarily need the entire person – it could be some part of a body, a bag, or to focus in on what the person is doing rather than focussing on the entire person
- That I have confidence in directing people
I have confirmed that I prefer to be hand held – I find using the tripod a more laborious, less spontaneous experience and more removed from the situation – maybe if I were photographing people up close for a greater period of time I would either come to accept the tripod or possibly like the barrier that it creates between me and the subject. I also prefer to use natural light.
I have noticed that when shooting friends they have a sense of ownership of the image – I’m not sure if this would be apparent if shooting a stranger with their knowledge as we wouldn’t have the familiarity with each other. Friends also have a sense of how they want to look and this doesn’t necessarily fit with what is in my head.
I use photography as as a way to remember – places or people captured at a particular time, and as a way to express myself and my interests - something I often find difficult with the OCA modules as I am following lessons and trying to satisfy their requirements first and foremost.
I still struggle somewhat with the desire to have people in my pictures – I have more of a preference to not include them – often waiting some time for a person to move away before I start shooting. This module has encouraged me to use them a little more but taught me that having a sense of people in a shot has been equally important – I don’t need to show a body in shot to be able to give the feel that a person was once there.
Given my normal preference to keep people out of my shots I don’t yet feel that I have any sense of style developing in relation to shooting people – I’ve not yet got enough experience of using people. I do however feel that my preference in using people going forward would be to have some part of the individual as the focus of the shot rather than the entire person – this is comparable to then end of the Landscape module when it was apparent that intimate landscape was my preferred style.
Finally, I have struggled in the same areas that I have in previous modules – and that is with time. A full time job and family responsibilities mean that I don’t get whole days to just be taking pictures and also have to fit the write ups and the other written work around my life. The blog has been a new experience for me and I want to learn more about presenting work in a blog format in order that for any future modules I have the experience and will be better prepared to include shooting information and tutor's reports all within the blog from the start.
Overall, was it worth it - of course it was.
