Research and things to do:

The reason i chose to look at this photo is because of the reflection on the water. Though this wasn't something i has chosen to do in my shoot, it has given me an idea to experiment! The past photographs i have decided to look at are both black and white. However this doesn't mean that i will be doing this, i would like to shoot and keep my photographs colour, though i will play around, as changing a colour photograph to black and white can show a certain mood.

I really like this photograph mapplethorpe has produced because its hiding the identity of the subject. This is something i kind of want to do for my shoot. with my sequence of photographs i want people to understand to start with but as the sequence follows along i want the viewers to be confused and make up their own opinion on what is happening. 

For this shoot i need to find a LONG bit of fabric that is slightly transparent, lightweight and fairly cheap. I have looked through the internet and have tried to find a material that will work for this shoot. I have shortlisted it to 7 materials.

Looking through all my options, chiffon was the most appropriate material. It is cheap and has a slight transparency to it. However it is not as transparent as organza. I have had a look at ordering some chiffon. To start with i will be ordering 10 metres, i need the material to be long enough to cover my model when she rolls up in it. but not too long that it comes out of shot when i have my model in position. I have also decided that a dusty pink colour will suit with the sand/sky and models complexion. 

Researching Models:

Baroque art 

CHANGE OF LOCATION

I have decided to change the location of this shoot, i have several reasons behind why, one being that as the photographer and art director of this shoot i have a duty of care for my model and the weather conditions in November at camber sands beach is way too cold for the little amount of clothing i expected my model to wear. Though, this isn't a problem and it hasn't changed my idea as a whole. When i was looking at the baroque art it is very much to do with nature, most of the time there is water involved but also trees and woodland. This is why i am now changing my location to Ashdown Forest, a well known forest in East Sussex that is 30 miles long. The forest is has so much character and each part of the forest is different. I will be doing a reeky this week to decide which part of the forest i would like to shoot on. I have been looking online to try and find an example of what i am trying to portray in this sequence of photographs.

Although this photograph isn't 100% what i want to do, its really helpful to show the type of shot i want, which is the model to be in the foreground, establishing shot however with the background behind her slightly blurred. I also want my model slightly to the right of the shot. I really like the colours in this photograph as they are extremely natural.

Sketches for shoot.

My plan is to get a different variety of shots form close up to a long shot, i would like to be able to see the background in some of the shots however i want to also focus on the material on the model

Makeup artist for shoot.

I wanted the makeup for this shoot to be very simple and look very bare, but i still have decided to use a makeup artist for this photoshoot. Because i am in East Sussex shooting, i decided to look online to see if there were people in the area that would be interested in helping out for this photoshoot. I had found a few people that were interested but i have narrowed it down to one girl who actually lives around 10 minutes away from our shoot location. 

Although her makeup looks are quite bright usually she has told me that a toned down version of makeup will be achieveable.

MOOD BOARD FOR MODEL.

I have found photographs online using sheer material that i think would be good to show my model so that she knows how to work with the fabric. Today is my shoot day 10/11/18 and the weather is clear but it is wet on the floor. Knowing that this could be a problem i have made sure i have a back up idea if my photographs don't turn out the way i wanted. This will be to shoot this weekend after in a studio. 

Equipment List:

CONTACT SHEET OF PHOTO SHOOT.

These are a few of my favourite shots. When looking back at these i realised that the meaning had kind of change, i still agree its to do with flow but the model being naked refers to someones vulnerability and i think that the meaning behind this shoot is having a blanket between you and everyone else but the flow of the material shows how people can let their guard down for a specific person which is why the material is sheer. I haven't edited the picture too much at the moment and i will be trying home in black and white to see if they look better. However, i do quite like the blueish tint that i have currently used.

EXPERIMENTING EDITING

SECOND SHOOT- I decided to do the shoot again because i wanted a more of a variety of pictures, we shot in the same location but just in a different part so that the photographs didn't look as similar 

                                                  5 FINAL SHOTS

CONCLUSION: 

I found this project quite enjoyable, however due to the season taking these photos it came out quite differently to the idea i had in my head. The first shoot that i did was ok. I found it hard to work with the natural lighting but the weather on that day was perfect as it was windy so the fabric was flowing naturally. In some photographs i did have to get my assistant and stylist to help move the fabric around although i found out that it didn't look as good as when the wind was able to pick up the fabric. If i were to do this shoot again, i would definitely re-consider the length of fabric to work with. I brought 7M of chiffon and actually i think that it would have been easier to work with if i had a little less fabric. I am really happy that i decided to shoot again, after showing matt my first shots and experimenting with the look i wanted i knew that i needed to get more of a variety of shots so that they were different but still fit in a sequence. The second shoot seemed so much easier than the first and i guess it was because i had a better idea on what i was visualising in my head. Although, this time the weather wasn't as helpful and there was barely any wind. I told my model to almost dance with the fabric and i managed to get some really nice shots with the chiffon flying in the air. The editing was something i had to experiment with quite a lot. I started off putting a blueish tint on my photographs which i thought gave quite an eery effect, before i made this my final though i changed it to a more green tint which i thought fit the surroundings of the location more. When doing this shoot i actually thought a lot about careers after university, this is when i started looking into art direction. i really enjoyed thinking of the idea about this shoot, the location, the type of fabric and just how the whole photograph should look. this is something i am going to continue looking at and talk about in my presentation . Overall, i am quite pleased with how this shoot has turned out in the end, taking photos of people isn't usually my 'thing' and i generally stick to landscape and wildlife but i am glad i pushed myself to do something different for the final year at university.

ENTERING SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITON.

Series Description:Ashdown

I took these photographs in November 2018 in the Ashdown Forest which is in East Sussex, it took two weeks in total to finish the series as I was depending on the right natural lighting to fit the desired look. I took these photographs because I wanted to explore the vulnerability of a person and what it means to each individual. When i consider vulnerability, it means to have nothing and being stripped bare,  having things around you will create a comfort blanket which is shown in the location I decided to shoot as this is a place I consider home to me and a part of my identity. I wanted to show that vulnerability is something that is maybe not easy but with time, you are able to develop and grow which is shown physically in this series with fabric.