I wanted to create a more interest set of picture stories that go more into a modern style magazine article as I find this style is becoming more popular and magazines are getting more and more graphic and visual. I want to use geometric shapes to make my picture story more interesting too and to make the images look cooler. I think I like the look of my professional/classic photographic style and will adapt my picture story layout to look sleek and professional too. I think that I prefer the style and layout of a magazine article but then again I am unsure whether or not my specific images will look right with this style, either way I am going to experiment and see how it goes.

Editing inspiration:

Title and text:
For my picture story I have found that my favourite title is ‘Keeping Up With The Baby because it is so true that as a parent you would be constantly running around and having to watch over your baby because they can get up to something the second you look away. I also like this as I took inspiration from the reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians which is a TV show that follows round a family through their everyday life and the use of the play on words that I did for mine basically shows how as a parent the only thing you’ll be able to keep up with is your child. For the text I have been changing it around each time and find the more times I change it the better it gets so for now I am still just experimenting with what I’m writing and keeping to the third person story/not making it sound like a blog post.

Experimentation 1

I really do not like this layout as I find it just looks so cluttered and isn’t good enough. I am going to have to choose between colour and black and white because otherwise the images look too different to me and they kind of look like separate images and shoots rather than one big picture story. This is a lot more difficult than it looks as I just can’t seem to find a design that I actually like. I think the grey background also doesn’t look very good along with the grey triangles, it looks very basic and unprofessional. Through my next edit I will make it a lot better and work on which images I will be selecting to go into the magazine itself. I actually really dislike this layout and think that it looks majorly tacky and will have to have a rethink and make changes to make it a whole lot better.

More editing inspiration:

Experimentation 2

This picture story was inspired by one of my inspiration images above titled Isolation’, I found that this one looked really great and wanted to give it a go myself. I do think that this is a strong image and works well with the text on the left hand side, however I do think that I need to use more images and possibly change the position of the text to make it look better and more like a traditional picture story rather than one that just has one image explaining the entire story. I do really like this image and think that it all works well but I am going to carry on experimenting with this one and possibly some new designs to make the best picture story that I can.

I decided to carry on experimenting with this layout as I do think that it is an interesting one visually and looks a lot better for a magazine layout than any other ones that I have done previously. I think that I just need to focus on what I think looks good and makes sense to me rather than trying to follow a traditional template of what a newspaper photography article would look like. I added three more images down the right side of the double page spread as I thought it added more depth to the shoot and really works well with the title of Keeping Up With The Baby’ as there are plenty of images of the baby running and moving about and playing constantly. I do really like this edit as I think it is the best one that I have done so far. It isn’t visible in this post but I actually made a white boarder around the whole double page spread as this is what I have seen in my magazine style models.

Experimentation 3

I actually really like this edit as well. I think that I was trying to hard to make my picture story fit into the idea of making it like a newspaper which didn’t really work out well for me. I definitely prefer the layout of a magazine as it is a lot more visually interesting and is a lot nicer to look at. I took inspiration for this layout from another of my magazine layouts as I thought it was really interesting. I prefer these layouts and think that it looks good in black and white as it allows the reader/spectator to focus in on the images and the writing instead of being constantly sidetracked or distracted by the different pops of colour within each individual image. I also find these particular images look better in black and white as they were taken inside and the lighting isn’t really amazing and the colours around the house are very neutral.

Experimentation 4

I do like this edit although it is similar to the one above. I decided to make my key image one of my niece with her mouth open looking as if she is shouting and so I decided to duplicate this to make it look like an echo of her shouting, it represents the noise she was most likely making when this image was created. The text is the same as above and basically talks about life as a parent and how hectic it is. The three other images I chose reflect the title of my picture story with the one of the far right being my niece quickly running down the stairs as my sister is trying to jump down before her so she can watch out for her and try to keep up with her. The middle image is one of my niece in her nappy looking up at her dad with a dummy in her mouth. I thought that this image worked well within the picture story as it is interesting to look at and with her leg slightly elevated it looks as though she is ready to crawl away. The far left image is one of my niece drinking from the little medicine tube that my sister uses to give her any medicine that she needs, in reality it’s just sugary liquid. I do like this picture story as it is interesting and would make the reader want to read more and look at the images.

Experimentation 4

I decided to create another layout design for a magazine article. This one I added the page sides that you would usually find in the different sections of a magazine. I think that the text works well in the two columns and looks a lot better than just down one line. I also like that it looks as though my niece is looking up at the text too. I really like this background image as it is interesting and I like the position that my niece is sitting in. I do think that I need to work a bit more on this design and add images around the blank areas to create more of a story for the spectator to be able to look at. I think that this layout looks the most like a magazine article and I like how it looks so far. I think that I will continue editing to try and make it better and more interesting to look at.

I really do not like this second design. I think that it just looks like a bit of a mess. The original edit of this page looks a lot better as it is simple and looks a whole lot more professional than this page that I have added to. I don’t like the way the images look as they aren’t all an equal shape, usually that would look fine but I just think that in this page it doesn’t look good at all. I also do not really like the box around the text but it does help the text and makes it easier to read and stand out a bit more. I do like the image in the bottom left hand corner as it kind of blends in with the background image and looks as though it is part of the same photograph a part from having the boarders around the rest of the image. I think that it does work well with this page and looks good with it.

This is my favourite layout out of the three in this experiment as I do like the boarder behind the text. I find this a whole lot better as the text is easier to read and stands out a bit more and I like that the focus is on the one image of my niece looking up innocently at the text. I prefer this image in black and white as it stands out more as the colour version is really dull as there aren’t that many colours at all to make the image interesting. This one does look the most like a magazine layout and I do think that it looks professional but I don’t think that I will want to use it for a final as it isn’t really a picture story and doesn’t stand out enough for me personally.

Reflection

I don’t really like working with a picture story that I’m not 100% with in the beginning and if I don’t think that I can make it any better then I will completely start over and create a new one. I just find this method a lot easier and more effective. I want to create the best picture stories that I can without making them look tacky at all and I want them to stand out and look professional. I came up with the title/headline of Keeping Up With The Baby and took inspiration from the reality TV program Keeping Up With The Kardashians where a camera crew follow the lives of one family. I thought that this was a good play on words and works well as my niece is always so manic and crawls around everywhere until she goes to bed. I came up with the caption by just writing generically about what being a parent is like and basically relating to my target audience of parents and how they would be able to relate to the text as well as the images as every parent tends to go through very similar kinds of things. Here is my caption: ‘Life as a first time mum can be difficult to say the least.You have no experiencebut the jobs still yours. Motherhood becomes a full-time job as well as your already hectic full-time job and keeping up with both can be a challenge. Don’t worry having a baby and a full-time job isn’t impossible. Becoming a parent can be the scariest and most exciting expeence of your entire life. You can have something that is totally unique and your own.The moment you hold that baby for the first time in your hands you make a neconnection and all the troubles and problems go away. Trying to keep up with your baby is a challenge but we have faith that you’ve got it covered and through the life of this baby, Bella Grace Evans, you will most likely be able to relate to every single image. Babies are often unpredictable and so are the things that they do. You never really know what a baby is going to do next, will they be running around chasing after a toy or lying down and taking a break. Sometimes the best thing you can do as a parent is just be there through all of those times and get to know your child and teach them through life.’  I didn’t really add separate captions to each of my images in the edits above as I thought that it looked better without as a magazine layout but for my newspaper articles I did add some captions underneath all of the images as it did look a lot better.