BLOG POST 12
Uses of Photography- Reflection
My final product of Assignment 4, Self directed photography portfolio assignment was a set of pictures centred around the title “Dreaming of home”. These images displayed a collection of images that contrasted from bright, light colours to dark, warm colours and aimed to express the feeling of longing and reminiscence.
A key learning that I discovered during this assignment would be the importance of planning photoshoots, but also the essentiality of meaning behind images. I found that the more I tried to express how I was feeling in an image, the more that photo stood out as having purpose. Without an idea of something I wanted to convey through my work whether that be a feeling or an idea, my photos would have ben pointless and purposeless. I only truly discovered this towards the end of my photoshoot.
In future some things that I would need to work on would be; working on planning my project properly. I found that when I arrived home I didn’t know what I wanted to take photographs of and struggled to decide where and how I wanted to take them. Over the portfolio process I was able to realise the importance of staging out each shot and what exactly I wanted in the shots because when it came to the actual shoot, it took a lot longer than expected and I took a lot of extra shots I didn’t need to due to little to no planning. In future I would write up a run sheet for the day, highlighting what shots I wanted, what setting my camera had to be on for those shots and the locations I wanted to take them in. I also hope to in future, learn to properly work my cameras aperture, shutter speed and ISO. If I know my camera better I’ll be able to start properly taking photos that will be able to focus what I want them to focus on and capture the right colouring and lighting that I want. By doing more research on my camera model and how it functions I should be able to figure this out for future projects.
I found it incredibly interesting to learn about ‘experiments in controlled lighting’ and found the concepts we focussed on very relevant to my studies. I hope to apply these different concepts to my work in future, learning more in depth how to use light modifiers and other tools to manipulate the way light reflects of the subject in the image and also how it bounces off the lens of the camera. One of my favourite topics that we looked at in class would have to be when we looked at the documentary ‘Finding Vivian Maier’. I found this an incredibly interesting discussion to have as we focused on the discussion of what makes a photographer a photographer and the importance of privacy when taking street photographs and exposing artists work. In was very engaging to discuss the fine line between hobby and career and learn more about the reasons for Vivian’s photography.
Overall, uses of photography has been and incredible class to take and has opened my eyes to the different techniques and ways I can use photography for all different purposes.
