Shoot Two - Work Record

In this shoot I wanted to challenge societies stereotypes surrounding age. In this shoot I decided to photograph one of my elderly neighbours smoking under a street lamp at night, I chose to do this in order to challenge ideas about youth and the elderly, as this activity would usually be associated with younger individuals, not an elderly lady. Moreover, this shoot challenges, and explores the way different people lead their lives, as usually you  wouldn't think that an elderly individual would roam the streets at night; however this is not normality but a mere difference in the way people chose to conduct their lives daily. 
In this shoot I wanted my neighbour to have her hood up, as this would link in the viewers mind to anti-social youths, therefore causing conflict in the viewers mind. 
I photographed this shoot using a tripod, in order to make my images as sharp as I possibly could, I experimented with my images by not using flash, however I found this gave my images a red/orange tone to the photograph due to the street lights- therefore, I believed that the images where I used flash came out better, and clearer as I could capture the wrinkles on my neighbours face, which allowed me to strongly portray to the viewer how old she is. 
Overall, I believe this shoot was a success as in my images there's no shadowing, which I tried hard to eliminate as I believe this makes the images look unrealistic; moreover, I believe the connotation I aimed to portray is done so efficiently as the wrinkles on the ladies face are evident, meanwhile exploring how different people can live.
Inspiration: Mary Ellen Mark inspired me for this shoot with her image of a nine year old girl smoking, this made me question about societal norms, therefore it caused me to want to explore our perceptions of society about how individual's live, therefore in this shoot I chose to challenge societies perceptions of elderly people, therefore I chose to photograph my elderly neighbour smoking on the street in order to challenge the perception we have of people, and how we, as a society, can be extremely judgemental. 

Best image of this shoot:

This image I believe is the most effective from this shoot, as the background is completely black, which allows the viewer to deduct that the subject is outside, alone- this consequently creates questions within the viewers mind as to why she is there, and what she is doing, as it's unusual to see an elderly lady out alone after nightfall; subsequently this relates to the different ways in which individual's chose to live their lives. The cigarette in the individual's hand is a symbol of death, as it's common knowledge that smoking kills, therefore this may be a link to show how the individual is close to death, possibly due to illness or old age? I wanted to capture the individual's hand, as the subject suffers with arthritis in the hands, therefore by capturing her crooked fingers within this image it allowed me to again exploit her age, along with the texture from the wrinkles on her face. Moreover, the individual's glasses exploit another weakness as she cannot see extremely well, therefore this creates conflict in the audience's mind, as if the subject can't see well, then why is she out at night? Furthermore, I chose to convert this image into black and white as I believe that it makes the image appear more edgy, and ambiguous as the viewer cannot see everything clearly (e.g. the background.)

I photographed the above image on the following camera settings: ISO 3200, shutter speed 1/60 and an F stop of 5.6....

Worst image of this shoot:

The above image is the worst from my shoot as there's deep shadowing within the image behind the subject, this is due to me using flash, but not using the correct angle; in my other photographs that I angled from the other side of the subject, no shadowing occurred. Furthermore, the audience cannot see all of the detailing on the viewer's face, which means it's not as easy to work out the age of this individual, therefore making it harder to work out the connotation of the shoot. I photographed this image on the following camera settings: ISO 3200, F 5, and a shutter speed of 1/60, I also used flash within my photograph whilst also using a tripod to reduce any shaking.

 However, I do like the portrait angle of the image, as it allows the viewer to see more details  in this photograph, including the subject's clothing and the brick wall behind. 

If I was to reshoot this image, then I would have positioned myself at the other side of the subjection order to eliminate the shadowing behind the subject. 

Progression:

If I was to conduct this shoot again I would compare my neighbours lifestyle (smoking) to another individual, in order to strongly focus on the two differences that can occur between individuals. More interestingly, I would like to focus on family members, as they would have been raised in similar ways, therefore any differences that exist when they're older are more interesting that any differences between complete strangers, who would have had completely different lives. 

How I edited my photographs:

Firstly in photoshop I opened the image I wished to edit, by clicking 'file' at the top of the screen, then 'open' before clicking on the image I wanted. Next, I moved my cursor to the bottom right hand corner of the screen and selected the button which is in the centre of the panel, which looks like a half moon:

I then selected the black and white option on the panel which pops up:

Another menu will then pop up (as shown below)

Once you have adjusted each colour slider to where you are satisfied then you must go the the 'opacity' option, which is located as shown below:

Then you must drag the slider in order to change how opaque you wish the black and white filter to be, once you have done this your image is complete.

Shoot Two - Neighbour - Straight Images

Shoot Two - Contact Sheet

Shoot One - Work Record

For this shoot I wanted to compare how individual's live, in respective to their employment; to do this I decided to photograph my mum outside of our house, and my aunty outside of her house, whilst also compering items which exist inside the respective houses. Within this shoot I also attempted to explore class divides, through looking at how people live corresponding to their wealth. 

I photographed my images outside of the individual's houses as I believe that the size, and objects inside of the houses indicate the wealth of the person; moreover, I chose to photograph my mum and my aunty as my mum works, whereas my aunty is unemployed, despite this my aunty has a more expensive house then my mum, therefore this explores class divisions and challenges peoples judgements and perceptions of people. 

I made sure that my mum was wearing her work clothes when standing outside her house, in order to highlight the fact that she works- whereas, I told my aunt to wear whatever she would day to day. I didn't instruct the individuals on what to do in the image, as I wanted my images to be candid as well as capturing the rawness, in order to see how they would naturally react to their homes, through their body language. 
Inspiration: Mark Laita was the inspiration behind this shoot as he compared Americans side by side, who were polar opposites, in order to explore the inequality which exists in America. Mark influenced my images as I wanted to show how although two individual's amy be sisters and of had the same upbringing, their lives can be completely different, with one individual working and the other unemployed, but living in luxury. Bogdan Gîrbovan also influenced my shoot, by challenging me to explore the differences in people's homes who may be related/live in the same street, moreover to explore how their homes may link to the type of character they are.

Best Images:-

The two images above and below are photographs which I took of the two individual's outside of their houses, I believe these two images show a direct contrast between classes, as the viewer can see both the house and the individual who owns the house in the same picture, allowing them to create links in their mind as to how much the subject may earn, or what type of job they may have. The fact that my mum has her hand placed on the door handle of her house suggests she has more of a personal connection to her house, or more ownership of it; in contrast to my aunt who is standing with her hands down her side- this may imply that due to my aunt not working she may not feel as much of a personal connection to the house, as she has not funded it (my uncle has through his work.) Additionally, the clothing differences between the two females was on purpose as I wanted to demonstrate again the differences between classes, I also believe I explore a juxtaposition as it's a common belief that if an individual doesn't work they must not be well off, however through these two images it challenges people's judgements as my mum who works owns a less expensive house in comparison to my aunt who doesn't work. The two subjects in my images are sisters, therefore by them being related this allowed me to explore how although they were brought up the same, they now lead very different lives to one another.

Worst Image:-

This image is my least effective from this shoot due to the heavy shadowing created by the car on the drive, as a result of the sun being towards the right in the sky, subsequently the subject is also squinting due to the sun being in her eyes. The car being on the drive also cuts out some detailing from the front of my house, subsequently if I was to reshoot this image I would move the car from the drive. The framing of this image is also slightly off as the camera is slightly wonky, this is due to me not using a tripod in this image- the result of this image lead me to reshoot these images, and use a tripod also which consequently gave me better images. Moreover, I do not like how far away I am from the subject, as I believe if I was closer to the subject it would create a more personal feel within the image, which would link to the fact this image is taken outside of someone's home, which is an extremely personal place. This photograph is taken on the camera settings of ISO 200, F 10 and a shutter speed of 1/400, I believe these camera settings were effective as the lighting of the image is acceptable, however the showing is not, also all of the image is in focus which is what I was aiming for, this is due to the camera setting F10 allowing me to have a wider depth of field.  

Progression: 
If I was to reshoot some of my images I would work on my framing, as in the photograph of my mum outside of the house the top of the door is slightly cut off, therefore if I was to reshoot this then I would ensure that this was in the frame of the image. 

Shoot One- Aunty Jacky - Straight Images

chair 

twigs

Shoot One - Contact Sheet