Paul Grover

Grover is a photographic journalist for the Times newspaper he has done features about last years floods; he took an  interesting view trying to capture the hight and width of the waves as it crashed over a sea wall in North Devon: 

I liked this image as you can almost see the houses bracing themselves before the wave hits. I also liked how he managed to capture the varsity and magnitude of the wave as  it rises in the air. I feel that this picture does portray the whole story as it shows how bad the storms were as they first start to hit the towns and villages along the coast, plus it does also show what these towns looked like before the storm hit. 

He has also done other articles such as David Cameron accepting leader ship;

I enjoy the hierarchy of this image as the high angle portrays David Cameron as having power, as now he does due to him now in this photography becoming Prime Minister. I also like how he managed to capture the moment where he goes to shake The Speaker's hand, as this is a very important time . I also like the shadows in the background as it also shows the handshake, but from a different angle and viewpoint. I feel that this picture does capture the story of David Cameron winning the election well as it shows his immediate power and leadership. However, I feel as if The Speak should be included within the shot as he does play an important role in the scenario and therefore he should be seen in the shot and not just his shadow.

Photographic Journalists- Corey Arnold

Corey Arnold is a photojournalist who is mainly dedicated to capturing fisherman at work.
 

                                         

Corey was one of the fisherman's in the Bering Sea, at the time when jobs were scarce and he took his pictures during breaks and when storms began, his photos were then published as a monograph by Nazraeli press in 2011. 

I enjoyed the series of pictures as I found you got a real sense of what it's like to be a fisherman and their emotional journey they went through to catch these crabs.  I like how he captured the motion of the storms for example in the 3rd photo. Using a fast shutter speed meant he could capture the full blast of the wave against the fisherman and I found this very effective. I also like how the white background contrasts with the fisherman's suit, this makes him stand out and become the focal point of the image. The second image shows how many crabs do get caught and you can almost see the relief in the man's face that they caught enough which I think is important to tell a story behind the image. I also liked the dark ages around the main image to give a better focal point of the crabs which also focuses the detail of them.

My Portraiture; Strangers in front of Strangers

I went to the local museum 'The Collection' to find some portraiture painting and asked strangers to choose their favourite painting and then I took their portrait in front of it. I didn't ask anyone to do anything in particular whilst I was taking their photo, I just wanted to see their reaction to the camera and the portraits. Here are my final 4 people and their portraits:

1. 

I found this woman interesting as she was very aware of the camera she asked if I wanted to take multiple shots of her from all angles and from different perspectives. I found this interesting as I liked the way she was attentive and got involved with the project. I also found it interesting how she chose her portrait as it took her a long time to choose which one was her favourite and then position herself ready for her photo. I chose the middle image as my final photo as I like the way she is looking partly at the photo and then at the same time into the camera as it shows she has an interest in both. I also like the facial expression she chose as it looks almost displeasing which is contrary to the way she acted when I asked her if she wanted her photo taken, which makes me wonder why she wanted to portray herself like that.
From a technical point of view I dislike the portrait as the lighting was very difficult to work with as the gallery was poorly lit so therefore the picture did not come out as sharp as I wanted it to making the picture less atheistic to look at. I do however like the distance from her to the painting as I feel you can easily see her and the painting .

2. 

             

My second picture was also interesting as this person wanted to have a picture with different portraits as he liked them both. I liked this as I got to try out different lighting, however it is still very dark. I like the first picture here as it goes with the rest of the collection as all the painting portraits have a wooded frame like this one, but I do not like the cropping of the photo as it cuts off the bottom of the frame. I should have turned the camera round and taken a portrait shot rather than landscape. Furthermore, the camera is pointing upwards towards the guy which isn't the best angle, I feel I should have taken it straight on to get a better over-all image. I do like this photo however as I feel this picture is more sharper than the others and more defined. I also feel as if the focus is on his face rather than the painting which is what I wanted. I also like the gap between the guy's head and the top of the photo as I feel this is enough head-room for the picture.

3.

I like both of these pictures as they are both different. I like the first picture as it is taken as a portrait and you get to see more of the guy in this one and I also like how he is standing in this picture as it makes it more formal and professional looking, however the frame of the painting is only straight when you look at it from certain angles. Furthermore the picture is very dark again, due to the lighting. The focus is on the painting rather than the person which is not what I wanted, which isn't a major matter but I would still prefer to have it on the subject. The second portrait is very different to the first as it features two paintings rather than one which gives the viewer more to look at, however I don't like the positioning of all the paintings and where he is standing as I feel it overcrowds the overall image and therefore draws the attention away from the subject. I do however like the lighting in this image as it's brighter than the others and makes the guy stand out but it still isn't enough to make him stand out completely. This is why I chose the first image. 

4. 

This ,an was acted different;y compared to other people that I approached as when he agreed to have his picture taken he demanded that he didn't want to look at the camera, so therefore I had to take a side shot of him. I liked this fact as it made me wonder what he was thinking when he's looking at the portrait behind him and I feel this is a good thing for the viewer to ponder.  However as the man wanted to take a different slant on things I had to change the camera settings but i didn't want him to be waiting for too long so therefore I think that the image isn't the best quality. I feel as if he isn't quite in focus but the background is making the image look blurry but I do like the composition of the image as it looks like he is looking into the eyes of the painting which makes the picture interesting. I feel this image is more thought-provoking rather than aesthetically pleasing and this is why I chose to use this picture. 

Overall I found it hard working with people as I panicked when it came to taking the pictures that I wouldn't have enough time to change the settings as I didn't want to keep people waiting. I also chose a location where the lighting was difficult to adjust and use to my advantage and this is why some of the pictures aren't to the best quality. I did however try to come up with an interesting concept and I would at some point like to re-do some of the portraits. 

Andrew Hobbs

Hobbs is a commercial photographer and does shoots for magazines. Even though I don't want to produce commercial style portraits, I like his style of lighting and how he asks his subjects to stand.


I really like the photo above due to the shadows produced by her hair across he face, it makes the shot more detailed and interesting. I also like the way he's represented his model as she is looking straight into the camera and on top of that she's standing towards the camera with her body facing it; this suggests that he's representing women powerful this is also further reinforced by her being the only one in the shot. I also like the contrast of the model compared to the background. As she is being lit by warm side lighting which enables a glowing feel the darkness of the background becomes more significant as it's hard to see what is behind her.

Larry Towell- Portraiture

Towell produces images in 2015 from Bangladesh, Savar slum district Dhaka; of families holding a portrait photograph of family members who died in the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse. I found these portraits extremely moving and saddening but I was inspired by his confidence to ask the family members to take their photo with their deceased relative. I also liked the idea of incorporating a photography within a photo. I also admired his use of editing skills to make the overall pictures dimmer  to show loss and nostalgia. I also find the concept of taking photographs of taking pictures of lost  family members interesting as he wanted to show the impact of the factory collapsing not only to the business itself but to the remaining family members. Then he went on to take portraits of nearby factory workers in Dhaka, these images are just as saddening when you know that the nearby factory collapsed and then you see workers at the ages of 11 working in similar conditions.    

The overall project was inspiring as I would like to show the impact of change on people whilst showing their feelings and reactions to this change. I also liked how he incorporated the pictures of the deceased who caused this change in their lives, I would like to incorporate portraits within my project but take a different slant on the style compared to Larry Towell. 

Portrait influence Martin Parr

Whilst researching into portraiture and street photography I came across Martin Parr and ability to capture strangers in a every-day setting. I was inspired by advice he gave about street photography and then I saw it within his own work and then this helped me come up with my own idea.

1. Focus on sets, not individual images
For my set I want to use a museum or an art gallery where I can find portraits of people then take pictures of people in-front of them. This will mean I will have to think about the composition of the set for each photo and think where I can ask people to stand.

2. Make statements about society through your photographs 
For my statement I want to show how society has changed around the individual but that the original form of the human hasn't changed that much over time.  

3. Be obsessive
This means that you should take more than one photography and therefore take loads so that you can choose the best one rather than having to use a rubbish one.

4. Think outside the box
Meaning that the original idea should be something that nobody has tried or someone has but take a different slant on it. From what I have researched I can only find photos of artists stood in front of their work  or pictures of people with famous art work behind them. So therefore I hope this idea is different enough to work.

5. It is rare that you take a good photo
Following on from being obsessive, it is important to try and take as many photos as possible to get the best photo 

6. Find the extraordinary in the ordinary 
this means that by taking a picture which could be in an everyday location, it is your job as the artist to find something unique and different about that photo by for example asking strangers to put their slant on the photo by asking them to get involved.

7. Get Close
Getting close to people puts a different perspective on the photo for example their reaction could change and therefore the overall vibe of the photo might be different. Also by getting close the foreground becomes more dominant over the background and therefore also changing the perspective.

8. Exaggerate your photographs
“Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate”… Martin Parr. He elaborates in another interview: “With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society’s natural prejudice and giving this a twist.” this means that I will have to create a twist with portrature photography such as taking a single person and putting them in front of a picture of a person.

9. Don’t get people to smile
My aim is not to ask people to smile but just see what their natural reaction is to the camera and see how the react and compare it to different people's reactions.

10. Experiment 
I will experiment with different photos and different people as well as camera settings to create different photos and perspectives 

Movement Pictures

I found this task very difficult as I was unsure of how to interpret different moving styles through the use of shutter speeds. After a lot of research into different photographers and their take on movement and discussion with friends and family I decided on using the 4 elements as the basic idea of my photos.
I then found it hard `to use different shutter speeds for each picture as I found using longer speeds outdoors let in too much natural light during the day so I only used the long shutter speeds at night and short-speeds during the day and outdoors.

Fire

Earth

Water

Air

Above are my element photos, you can see I used a mixture of inside and outdoor shots to try different shutter speeds. For example the 'Earth' photograph uses a quick shutter-speed of 1/750 to capture the movement of the car but it has a static background, I found it was more effective to use this shutter speed rather than 1/1000 because I seemed to miss a good positioning of the cars, I used a similar speed to capture the birds in the 'Air' photo, this also didn't capture the blur-motion of the sea-gulls which means the image is more crisp and defined. I did however use slower-shutter speeds of around 1/30 to capture the motion of the fire and water. I found focus on the background was important when taking the photo as if the background was blurry the whole image ended up being blurred, this is why I used a tripod. I prefer the fire image over water as I think its more interesting and shows better movement within the candles but I like how defined the drip of water actually is.