Photoshoot 2: Fern Valley

Leave a comment

Context about Fern Valley –

Fern Valley is a secluded valley within Jersey that is compromised of meadows and different types of flowers, plants, etc. It is a valley which is quite hidden and out of the way from the business of Jersey, giving it a sense of calmness and tranquillity. It is very frequent with dog walkers or people looking for a little escape. It is a home to a variety of wildlife such as Red Squirrels, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Golden-ringed Dragonflies.

Where Fern Valley is located on the map.

Least successful shots –

Why I think that this is one of my least successful shots which I took during my photoshoot of Fern Valley is because the photographing of the leaves makes the photo appear as if it is too busy as there is a lot going on due to the different colours and textures of the leaves. If I were to take this photograph again, I would focus more and zoom into different aspects of the photo to get a more detailed view of the positioning of the leaves and the different colours and textures that they are.
Why I think that this is one of my least successful shots which I took during my photoshoot of Fern Valley is because the subject (dog) in the photo is jumping up within the photo on to my legs, causing a movement that makes the photo appear blurry. If I were to take this photo again I would make sure that I am zoomed out enough, as I feel as if the image in quite zoomed in and make sure that the subject of the photo is relatively still so that the blurriness is a small amount within the photograph.
Why I think that this is one of my least successful shots which I took during my photoshoot of Fern Valley is because the sunlight is slightly overexposing in the top of the photograph which creates a dark and heavy contrast against the tree trunk, which I do not like because you lose the details of the leaves and tree trunk formations. I also do not like the framing and background of the photo as I feel as if it is quite bland and doesn’t show the range of colours that the natural forest landscape provides. If I were to take this photo again I think that I would change the positioning of the camera and zoom into the tree or the leaves to change the texture that I am photographing within the photo.

Contact sheets of my best shots in Lightroom –

These are the photos which I have decided are my best shots which I can begin to shorten down into a select few of 10-12 images which can be used in my photobook. I made this selection on Lightroom by using ‘P’ for picking the photos which I thought were successful and ‘Z’ to reject the photos which were not. I really liked carrying out this photoshoot as the weather made the outcomes of the photos easier as it was quite glum and gloomy which made the sky neutral in colour and didn’t cause too much overexposure, making it easier and this was also helped as the Valley was quite covered by trees which casted a shadow over. It had also been raining previously which impacted the surroundings in which I was photographing as the floor was muddy along with having leaves which were wet due to the raindrops which had been left on them.
Here are some examples of images which I have selected to use:

Sorting system –

To make the process of elimination easier when deciding what photos I will be using for further experimentation and being used in my photobook I decided to use a sorting system where the photos that I still was not 100% confident with them being my most successful I decided to be rated 4 stars, compared to the photos which I did believe to be the most successful photos throughout the whole shoot which I decided that they would be rated 5 stars and this would make it easier when deciding on the colouring of them as there were still quite a few photos and I only wanted around 10-12.

Colour sorting –

This is the colour sorting system that I used which helped me to finally decide on the last set of photos which were ny most successful that I wanted to use within my photobook. This was decided through further analysis of the photos where the ones that had small imperfections such as a slight blur, a little overexposed or I just was not sure on the outcome of them after I had photographed them, I coloured them to be yellow. This left me with the photos which are in green and these are the photos which I thought were my most successful outcomes from the photoshoot of Fern Valley which I will later implement into my photobook after further experimentation with them in Lightroom.

Best shots to use in my Photobook –

Here are the final selection of my best shots which I will later experiment with and implement into my photobook. I have chosen these images because I think that they successfully represent the natural landscape but also have inclusion of other subjects within the photos such as close up of leaves which I have, or the photographing of my dog. This is because I think that it adds more individuality within my photos so that they aren’t all the same as it creates a journey, which is what I want to do throughout my work as well as showing off Jerseys unique natural landscapes of valleys which are all around us. I enjoyed this photoshoot because I was able to experiment further with different ways I photographed my surroundings where I would get close up to what was around me or on the floor and the different textures which I encountered when photographing.

Leave a Reply