Sequential Story Telling
During class exercise “The Exchange” I worked very literally with the theme. Although it was it noted that some images needed to create a sequence I wanted to push myself during PB3 to tell a more abstract story. Here is an example of a sequence I had shot:
However when creating my story the 10 to 17 shot restriction really forced my hand not to waste a single slot. As I was trying to capture the overall atmosphere of the bar and it’s owners, I couldn’t spend to long unfolding a single sequence. Below is what this original sequence morphed into this over time and what I went with in the final brief.
It was a challenge to merge images that spoke to my subject matter over ones that were already conveniently in a sequence or ones I found to be a better shot. Overall I’m happy with how the story unfolding, I tried to follow these four principles in order to convey the atmosphere of Bar Sk.
When raising my camera I found it easier to break up in my head what shot I was capturing, while looking back at what was taken I was able to see if I was lacking any photos in a category.
I was also lucky enough to show the work to a variety of friends asking if anything needed to be changed or didn’t make sense. In the future I would like to find a more diverse range of peers to show my work to, as my friends obviously have more bias than someone unaware of my intentions and my person.
Confidence and Experience
I feel like journaling would be a lot easier once I became a more experienced photographer as my images would all of quality. At a basic photography level I felt myself struggling to capture such a dark environment such as a bar, I wanted to retain the dim, cosy quality through my images, but think focus and exposure struggled because of it. Also moving between outside and inside was also proved to be challenging as I would have to reconfig my whole set up. I should have given myself more time to learn how to shoot in the area but often found myself just wanting to get the shot done as quickly as possible, and bothering the owners as little as I could. This lack of experience and confidence is something that can again only improve with practice. The in class exercises have helped with this in some ways but I still find myself struggling to ask people to take their photographs. I might try building this confidence by working my way up to asking strangers, I might start with friends of friends, or my partners family first.
Scraping Ideas
Originally I had planned to focus on friend who collected keycaps. I had spent quiet a lot of time story boarding a well thought out plan documented shot for shot in pervious blog post. However after a conversation with Brian I found myself reconsidering the whole idea. While I had planned a lot of interesting shots and a easy to follow story, I began to ask myself if I was just settling for what was easy rather than really pushing to tell a good story. The idea of focusing on a hobby in a bedroom didn’t compare to how interesting interior and relationships of SK turned out to be. I am hoping in the future that I can identify the more interesting idea earlier as I wasted a lot of my planing on it. I feel as if this project brief would have turned out better had I had more time to plan what I wanted to shoot and had spent some time with the owners and the space beforehand. I will try to employ brainstorming in the next project so I don’t fall on whatever idea I think of first, and consult with my peers and lecturer asking for feedback sooner rather than later.
Failure to Collaborate
Unfortunately based on the people I had access to, it was hard for me to find someone who was comfortable being photographed by a stranger. As most of my contacts where my age with interesting hobbies, they did not feel comfortable sharing that with someone they weren’t close to. After moving on from keycaps, I approached a friend that I knew had visited SK Bar as he was studying game design, however he expressed concern that he would be misrepresented as he felt he didn’t frequent there enough or feel to be cemented in that community. Luckily he was able to suggest another acquaintance and I was able to get the strange community needed to complete this brief. This exercise has taught me a lot about how to mark a potential subject or collaborator as some people are more comfortable in their selves and how they are represented than others. Most people need to trust that whoever is handling them wont do harm or falsely present them.
Final Reflections
Even though I am not happy with my photo journal as I still worry it does not convey a strong enough story, nor was it shot practically well – I am glad I pushed myself beyond confront zone. I hope to continue this heading into PB4 as well as my future practices. Next time I will try to spend more time getting comfortable with the unfamiliar space and allow more time to plan out shots or not be afraid to ask for certain photos I need to take. This photo journal proved to be the hardest brief I’ve encountered, but I know that when done right, photos are a powerful medium to convey a story through. That’s why I would someday like to get better at creating them.
