Work record- Shoot 1: Everyday Journey

What I hope to achieve-
Throughout this shoot I am hoping to accomplish my goal of photographing an 'Everyday Journey' by capturing people in their everyday routine. My thought for this idea originated after viewing Lee Friedlanders public street series and Robert Franks photography series, my hope is to capture images that reflect some aspects of both their styles, however including my own twists. A Friedlander aspect I am hoping to include is the aspect of surprise, meaning the fact that in his series the public are unaware of his photographing them. A Franks aspect that I will aim to include is the use of transportation within the images, this is because it would show a clear indications of a journey. Im planning on photographing people mainly on public transport, for example buses and trains, however, I am also hoping to photograph people walking, cycling and siting. I feel that capturing people unexpected would show their true intentions and create a more natural and comfortable feel to the overall images, which is what I intend. I am hoping to edit the images with a low saturation/ no colour as I want people to study my photos and see the story for each person within the image.

What I actually achieved-
I was able to capture images that clearly reflect the overall feel that I was originally planning for, by using both styles. I tried taking images using different compositions, which in some cases worked well for the photographs and I also managed to photograph people without drawing their attention to the camera, allowing the photos the natural feel I was planning for.  The ability for me to photograph people in certain locations like I had hoped to, for example the train station, turned out to no longer be available, therefore I had to work around this minor problem so that I could still photograph like I had originally planned to. I included both Friedlander and Franks aspects into my images, which has worked really well and created a comfortable feel to the photos. The choice to edit the images with a low saturation was good as it does pull more focus onto the people inhabiting the photos and leads me to think in more depth about what they are doing.

I shot this photo from a low angle so that people were being looked up to, also creates the idea that the viewer is still siting while everyone else is moving and standing. The different levelling worked well for this image and creates an alternative perspective for the viewer. I like how also using a wide angle captured the seats either side of the people walking down the middle because it centres the focus onto them, whilst showing typical forms of public transport. The photo draws you in and makes you feel as if you were there, which is an aspect that I didn't initially intend on including but benefits the photo immensely. Overall I am extremely happy with this image and I feel that it conveys an everyday journey in a clear and interesting way.

I also am happy with this photo, however in a slightly different way to my other example. This photo to me shows a wider range of journeys because of the various amounts of people and because there is more variety in how people are acting, siting and walking, which I think is a lovely aspect to the image. I like how the image captured people waiting for the bus and others walking away from the buses because this shows that there are people in different stages of their own individual journey. I think that the depth, which can be seen due to people slightly further away in the image is nice and creates a larger space within the photo. I am also happy with how this image captured different signs of transportation besides the vehicle itself, for example the bus stops, timetables and the fact people have been captured in the motion of walking. I believe that this image shows a journey in many ways and that the overall finished photo works well. I am extremely happy with all straight images leading from this shoot. 

I used an Olympus camera with an Olympus M12-40mm f 2.8 camera lens and had the settings at ISO 200, f5.6 and exposure 1/800 sec. I tried many different angles with this shoot to try and create some diversity throughout and visually this helped the photographs turn out extremely well making it able for me to achieve the final product that I had originally hoped for. The way in which I edited my photographs for this shoot was I would start off by adjusting the brightness and contrast on the image, I would turn the brightness up to 150 and the contrast to -50, I did this because it gave the image an uplifted look which would be needed due to the fact that the end product would be in black and white. I would then adjust the levels and curves so that the image still would look natural but adjusted slightly. Afterwards I would change the vibrance and saturation to the image, I decided to have the vibrance unite high at +100 and the saturation low at -100, this was because I thought that with the vibrance so high it would be easier for the viewer to distinguish where there would be a change in colour within the image even though the low saturation removed any colour from the actual image. I think that my editing process worked well and positively influencing the images by furthering the viewers eye to see the journey within the image.

The denotation of this image is 'Everyday Journey' because its showing people going about their normal routines and taking the small journeys that are not usually thought of when thinking of my exam question. The people are the main focus for showing the short journeys by the way they have been captured in motion and oblivious that the photo is even being taken.

What am I going to do next-
I am extremely proud of how this shoot ended and the photographs I produced throughout my time working on it. I would find it interesting to progress this idea and work on a larger scale. In the future I would like to travel to different counties so that I would be able to photograph how peoples everyday journeys change within specific cities and locations. However, for the moment I am content with this one shoot and feel that I should try and develop my ideas towards showing a journey. For my next shoot I would like to develop the idea from my first shoot where I was taking photographs from inside my car. I had allowed for the car to be seen within the images for the first shoot and I would like to do the same with my next shoot but in a refreshing and subtle manner.

Overall, I believe that this shoot was successful for showing journeys and personally I am really happy with my final images.