“Men build a house, women make it a home.”

In this image I was attempting to achieve the same contextual ideas as Mahtab Hussain; showing how different cultures live in different countries.

The image is slightly contrasted and brings out some facial features that show ageing; how the older generation live. The aperture used was set at f/4 which means the lens is wider, letting the sensor receive more light and a shallow depth of field. The low f-stop in general makes the background more blurry and makes the background obscure. The shutter speed was most likely around 1/60 as the image is typically quite bright and focused in the foreground which also enhances the textures of the fencing and old objects around him although the background is unfocused.

I captured this photo in natural day light on a cloudy day. The light looks as if it is coming from above and coming straight on as there are no intense shadows created by the man in the photo nor objects surrounding him. The subtle increase in saturation in this image highlights the colour of his clothing. I see a very high level of control of this photo. The man is positioned in the center and he is looking directly at the lens as if he was cleaning the grill and became distracted by the camera for a small glimpse. There are a range of tones from black (fence shadows) to white (highly exposed sky). The middle ground textures are very intensifying and really work as a visual effect. The mans eyes are the main focus in the image.

I took this photograph in my garden, a place that my dad built as my home and which has never been changed. I think this is a very important aspect of the image because it shows that men are typically the ones who build the house but women are the ones who make it a home. This is a strong way of thinking in my family. The older ways of living continue through generations and is an extremely common in the Portuguese culture. The wear and tear in the fence and statues show that this garden has not been refurbished for many years. I think everything in my garden has its own story and for as long as I can remember, my father has always worked for taking care of our family in heavy duty jobs; building and simply being the breadwinner for our family. This traditionally is not the case for many families nowadays, where domestic jobs are shared between a couple.