Planning

I want to photograph Nana dressed up in her Salvation Army uniform. The Salvation army is something which my Grandparents shared and something which was an important part of shaping and defining their marriage. Both Nana and my Granddad were officers in the Salvation Army. My Grandfather served as a Major, and through her second marriage, Nana was promoted to the position of ‘Lieutenant Colonel’. She still attends weekly Salvation Army meetings and wears her Uniforms proudly each time.

For this shoot, Nana has agreed to dress up in her Salvation Army Uniform and pose for a few portraits. It will be interesting to photograph her in her Army Uniform. I am not able to photograph any of my Granddad’s old uniform because it is what he is buried in. By photographing Nana in her uniform however, I find this is a good way of substituting this gap in a way which is subtle and poetic. I am slowly starting to ease down on the number of photographs I take of Nana, and instead am starting to move onto other aspects of the project. This shoot which explores the theme of the Salvation Army I find is a good opening to explore the theme of the Salvation Army, which undoubtedly was a significant aspect of my Granddad’s life.

Evaluation

I am very pleased overall how the images turned out for this shoot. I only took about 50 images in total however I carefully considered different aspects of the shoot beforehand, such as composition and form. Unlike last week, Nana was more willing to help me out this time around and so it was more to my advantage to plan out my location and theme beforehand.

Something I though was quite effective was having an ‘African theme’. In Nana living room there is a painting of zebra in South Africa. I decided therefore to construct a setting linked to this theme by re-arranging the mantle piece to include two Kenyan statues of Massai ladies, as well as a traditional African carving of a tepee tent.

The main disadvantage I was faced in this shoot was the lighting. It was a very dull day which was unfortunate because I was relying on a lot of light coming in from the window. As a result I was forced to put the camera’s ISO setting up to quite a high 800 in order to compensate for the naturally low level of lighting. This means that some of my images are very grainy. This isn’t ideal as it affects the quality and crispness of the images.