James

My final shoot of the day was of James, who brought with him his watch. Having known James for nearly two years now I cannot say that I have noticed him with this watch. Maybe this is down to being oblivious on my part, or maybe it is not something that he does not wear that often. Somehow, I did not get the story behind how this item is important to him, however I shall be asking him in the near future, out of both personal interest and for the purpose of this project.

For now here are a few of the images I took of him, experimenting with different angles and ways in which we could shoot the watch:

To begin with I went for the casual stance with James arm at his side. However, whilst I am pleased with how those images came out, I couldn't help but notice the similarity with the way which Caz was photographed and so I experimented with a couple of different stances for James to take whilst I photographed.
I feel that the image with his hand on the back of his head is not as strong as the other stances as I think that the attention is taken away from the watch and is instead taken to his hand, making us question why he is in this stance. I feel that it instead makes us look into maybe what emotions this is conveying rather than looking at the item of importance to James.
On the other hand, I particularly like the image of James with his arms crossed. I felt that the image with his arm by his side was too similar to the one of Caz and I feel that this image is in some way more "manly", the crossed arms portraying a sort of male dominance. Or maybe a more natural stance for James to take rather than the gentle nature of the relaxed arm at the side.

Image taken on the Hasselblad 503CW, digital back.

Drew

The second person who I chose to photograph was Drew who brought his guitar with him as music has been always been part of him for in some degree or another. Even though he has many other interests, he hopes that music will continue to play a part in his life.

Whilst waiting as I looked through some of the images I had already taken, Drew then turned his guitar around and balanced it on his foot as he waited for what was to happen next. When I questioned him about it - after all, its not everyday you balance a guitar on your foot! - he said that he also does this with his skateboard when waiting around, often in shops, small supermarkets and the like.
Deciding to photograph this, we resulted in this image, which I like for its uniqueness and slightly humourous quality:

Image taken on the Hasselblad 503CW, digital back.

Cairwen

So, two days after my last photoshoot, I am back in the studio with three new models. Three! Having only booked the studio for two hours and not knowing what the three were bringing with them to photograph I was worried about having enough time to shoot the three of them. As it happens though the session went smoothly and I managed to shoot all three of them in plenty of time.

The first person I chose to photograph was Cairwen (Caz). With her she brought along her bracelet and a dress. She also has a tattoo on her wrist which means 'forever' in traditional Chinese and is in memory of her aunt and grandmother.The bracelet was present from her grandparents and her family have been adding to it since then, brining them closer whilst she is away from them studying at university here in Cornwall.

As for the rest of the images in this project, I have here used the Hasselblad 503CW available at the college, (if only I could afford my own!) with the digital back and using a smaller aperture than in pervious images as so to widen the depth of field. My favourite of these images is the first, which I have been told has a very gentle quality to it making it very pleasant to look at.

"What Means Most"

"What Means Most" - the things that mean most to us. The objects or belongings that we would be lost without, that we would be devastated about losing, what we cannot imagine living without.

This is what my final major project is based upon. I am looking to shoot as many persons as possible in the studio with what means most to them. 

I am based in Truro and if you are interested in getting involved in something like this, or know someone who may be, then it would be much appreciated if you could send me a message. Either through here or to my e-mail: andphotography@hotmail.co.uk

Many thanks!

Studio Shoot 3



Back to my Final Major Project 'What Means Most' and my third session in the studio. For this shoot, Mike offered to model for me, in comparison to the previous two shoots where I asked my models if they would be ok to come into the studio with me. For the shoot Mike brought with him the keys to his van which he describes as being everything to him, "its my freedom my escape, my only thing I had left after I lost everything". I found this a difficult shoot as I found it difficult to arrange the shot and had some difficulty in deciding on how to shoot the image.





This image was again taken on the Hasselblad 503CW, which I plan touse for all the images, with a wide aperture for a small depth of field to focus the attention onto the keys. Of these images the first two are my favourite and will both be in consideration for when I exhibit this project at the Lander Gallery in Truro on the 10th June.