My Meaning.

Right. I know I've said this somewhere on my blog before but oh well, I'm gonna say it again. I didn't want my models coming over all dolled up. I wanted them as natural looking as possible. I think my favourite image has to be the one of Lisa, mostly because that one was 100% natural. I think this is because she felt most comfortable around me, and that's why she is the only one looking directly at me.

I love taking photographs of people. For most projects that's what I've done, but when I started doing this blog, I kinda wanted to explore some other stuff. That's why I didn't do this page until about the fourth week. The inspiration to do this week firstly came from Nadav Kander's 'Beauty's Nothing' book, that I picked up in the library. I really liked the natural look of some of the portraits. And, first of all that's what I did. I got Lisa to sit on a chair and kinda took photos of her like that. But then after the shoot I got the better one, so I used that instead and gave up on that idea. Which is kind of a shame, because I still like the idea of doing that. So maybe another time, I'll try it again.

When we started the 'My Chosen Image' project I chose Daido Moriyama, and I was actually inspired by him too. I started off not turning my images black and white, because I generally do change my images into black and white and I wanted to try something different. I didn't want yet another typical sophie image. But monochrome got the best of me when I stumbled upon Moriyama's work. I pretty immediately changed all my images into good old black and white and made them have a lot of contrast, just like Moriyama's stuff.

Anyway, I guess the main thing I'm trying to show in these images is that people are still beautiful without all that make-up. I could go on and on about this, but to be honest I want to keep that simple.

Untitled #5

Okay, so there are a lot of things I like about this image. I really the black and grey strip as my background. The light is coming from camera right, and so the right side of his face is a hell of a lot brighter than the other side. I guess I could have made it better by having a completely black background and making the left side of his face darker, but to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't like it as much. And at the end of the day, if you like your own image then it doesn't matter. It's my camera after all ;) anyway, I love how there are like five different things in the background. It makes it really interesting. There's the black bit, the grey bit, the white cushion, his shadow and the side of a...well, it's like a small wooden door thing...The top Pep is wearing also blends really well with all the midtones.

Untitled #4

This is the only image out of this series where I have put two photographs together. I think they both work really well together for two reasons. One, because Kat is looking in opposite directions and two because her expressions are pretty opposite looking. I really like how it looks quite symmetrical. In the image to the left, her top is showing on her right and her hair on her left goes all the way to the bottom of the photograph. This is completely opposite in the other photograph. The object behind her in the photograph is this small window I have that's meant to let light into another room. It has a small wooden frame, and that is what appears in my image. You can see the corner of it on the image to the left and then you can see the bottom of it on the other image. In a very strange way, putting these two photographs side by side, reminds me of a joiner.

Untitled #3

My friend had asked me to take photographs of her and her band while they practised. I agreed and decided to take advantage of this opportunity and include one of the images I got from the shoot. I actually got two like this. The other had her whole body in it but her expression wasn't as good as it is here so even though her feet are cut off, I edited this one instead. This image is completely natural and not posed at all and at this very moment her and her band are actually performing. The main thing I like about this image is the contrast. Unlike the other two images below, this one is really black and white.

Untitled #1

It's in a room, and the curtain is up. This photograph was actually taken just after I had finished my shoot. The shoot only lasted about 20 minutes. I've really gone for the whole natural thing here. I didn't want the shoot to take forever, I mean it wasn't a beauty shoot. After I had finished and was just packing my stuff up, she leant over and started talking to me. I looked up and was literally like 'stay right like that'. Lisa isn't very good at keeping a straight face. She laughs a lot. And I mean a lot. So I am very pleased at how relaxed this image is.

*Also, seeing as I have just finished uploading all my images, I have noticed that this is the only image where my model is actually looking straight at the camera.

Untitled #2

It's by a door, in a chair. Originally my subject was situated in the bottom left corner but I cropped this photo because I felt that too much of the room was showing. The room isn't really relavant, it's my subject who is important. Because I enhanced the contrast the door lost all its detail so I burnt it back in. I also dodged the chair so it was almost completely white. I took this photo while me and Jamie were talking. He is used to posing for me so it was the only way I could get him relaxed.