The Secret Spot

This shoot was to show, how they would find remote locations, and then give these locations a youthful and energetic ambiance by their presence. It was to capture living in the moment.

When organizing this shoot, I had to ask for permission to use this land, as it’s actually private land. Therefore I had to set up a time and day for the models to come with me, by looking at things such as the weather forecast in advance, just so I could make the owner aware. This location was special to me, as the swing makes it energetic and youthful but the remote location of the beach in the background, shows the adventurous side to the models.

The form of the image below, is a girl playing on a swing whilst holding her little dog, and closing her eyes, smiling to herself. It looks as if she’s breathing in the salty air and taking in every single aspect of the remote location she has found. It’s about how she’s content, feeling completely relaxed in life, which is hard to do with modern day standards. However she’s escaped everyday reality in this moment and she’s embracing every single moment she has away from it. I think the image has worked well below as it is over exposed in the top right corner by the sun, which actually works well. The light brightens up the model and makes her stand out, lighting up the important characteristics of the photograph such as her smirking.

 

Even though the model’s looking directly at the camera, in the image below, it still looks natural. It’s as if she’s looking into someones eyes and not the lens. The way she’s looking into the lens, makes it feel more personal to the person viewing the photograph, and therefore captures the moment more from the viewers perspective.

The composition of this photograph works well, as in the foreground of the image  there is the tree and grass, in the middle ground the girl and in the the background the sea and the sand. However, by the use of the rope it works as a border making the model the main focus, also making her the main subject by using the rule of third.

 

I love the image below, as the contact between the two models creates a playful energy. It’s as if they’re completely oblivious to the camera pointing directly at them. They are the main subject of the photograph, and the background is slightly out of focus. The natural lighting has created a split lighting on the models face to the left, which is typically used in dramatic portraits,  I believe this works well in this image.

When taking my images I would approach the models directly making them aware the camera was in front of them, this is shown in the image below as one of the models is looking directly at the camera, when taking the images I felt the quote below by Juergen Teller was relevant to how I approach my shoots;

“I don’t like taking a sly picture on the side. I like the direct approach. I want to be as honest to myself and the subject as possible. And I’m depending on their humanness to come through.” Juergen Teller. 

The colors of the clothes and hammock, compliment one another, and look’s as if it was done on purpose. As if it’s in the style of a fashion shoot.

 

 

 

 

Le Cœur de la Mer

For this shoot, I wanted to represent the obscure places the friendship group would find, just from driving around with one another. This shoot was inspired by Ivan Troyanovsky and Theo Gosselin.

The image below reminds me of Theo Gosselins work as Theo tended to capture people in cars driving, as a way to represent the road trip that he’s on whilst taking his photographs. Therefore, I took a photo of the model driving to the location. This photograph worked well because we were driving up a hill, we were above sea-level and therefore one can see the sea out of the window, which shows the viewer we’re very close to the sea. The natural light coming through the window, adds a bit of light highlighting his silhouette which makes him stand out.

When taking this photograph, composition was key, as anyone can take a photo of someone standing on a beach. However,  understanding how to make it different from your stereotypical image was important. Therefore, to achieve this image I climbed up this wall so I could be a lot higher than the model, yet because it was high tide the model doesn’t appear to be too far away from the camera lens. This image represents how small we are, in the world that we live.

I love the colors of these two images, as the models hair and shoes are a very similar color to the seaweed, and the grey jumper matches the grey rocks surrounding him. Therefore they’re all the same colors just slightly different tones. In the image on the right as well if you look really closely the model has green eyes, and he’s holding up a piece of sea glass covering his eye, which is bright green

The image below reminded me of this quote from my artist research;

“When I photograph, I try to use my instincts as much as possible. It is when pictures are unconsidered and irrational that they come to life; that they evolve from showing to being.” Jacob Aue Sobol 

This quote links to the below image because if I was to stage a shoot, where I had the models to pose for me down at the beach, the outcome would be completely different, for example the body gestures would be perhaps more tense. As the viewer can see this is a moment which has been captured rather than set-up, it makes the viewer imagine the moment more, and therefore become more connected to the image.

  

I love this image, as it shows a lot of the landscape which is important. When looking at this image your eyes are immediately drawn to the wave which is crashing in the background ,therefore creating white wash surrounding the coast, and therefore your eyes follow from the left where the wave is crashing to the left where there is white wash and therefore one can see the person standing up on the rock.  I love the expression of the model, as he’s looking directly at the camera, it looks as if he’s implying ‘common lets go.’ yet there isn’t really anywhere else you can go.

 

 

 

 

 

The concrete wave

This shoot was because skating is a form of travelling, without harming the environment and often one see’s travelers with skate boards when exploring new places nearby to their camp set-up.

The reason for capturing the model driving, is because I didn’t just want to capture the moment, but I wanted to capture how we got to that place, the journey that happened to live these moments. This represented how I went from one shoot to the next, as if it was a journey I went on, and not staged shoots.

The image below works well as the focal point is on the models head/hat, this shows his long hair which he’s covering by the hat, but also focus’ on the tye-dye which is on the hat, both of these aspects tend to be associated with people who are free spirits etc. therefore representing the people on the journey to the viewer subconsciously. The negative space on the windows, caused by the over exposure from the lighting outside, creates a frame around the model and therefore isn’t too distracting from the image.

This image works well as he’s skating along the white line in the middle of the road, therefore drawing your eyes to him immediately as he’s in the center third and he’s breaking up the white line which your eyes are drawn to. For this image, I love the style as he’s doing a skating trick and therefore showing that this is a hobby of his and he’s not just got on a skate board for my shoot. He’s the most detailed subject in the image, and he’s the most important, which was hard to capture as he’s the subject which is moving in the image yet the road and the banks are the aspect which are out of focus.

The image below is one of my favorite photographs from this shoot, this is due to the composition, as I was sat down on the bank on the side of the road I was taking the images from below. Therefore it made the road look more interesting, as it looks as if the white lines are merging into the sky, and therefore looking as if the road takes you into the sky, this is just due to the angle I’ve taken the photograph and the way the road goes up and then down. Also the image works nicely, because of the composition the models head is against the negative space (the sky) and therefore making one focus on his face almost immediately as the brightest space is where you immediately look which is the sky and then your eyes go to him.