Documentary Photography - My Life - Work Diary

Documentary Photography - My Life - Work Diary

Evaluation

The concept behind my series for documentary photography was to portray 'My Life'. To do this, I chose to capture the outdoor element of my life, with my photographs including both my family members and animals which are part of my lifestyle. Overall, I believe that my series was successful in portraying my lifestyle and I feel that I managed to gather a wide range of interesting shots. I feel that my series presented a clear theme which therefore contributed to the series success at conveying my lifestyle. I especially like the composition of the images as I feel that they help to create interesting and eye-catching images. Some of the images have leading lines and distinctive curves within them which helped to make the images more attractive and original. In addition, I like that the images have eye-catching backgrounds. When I went out to capture my images, I firstly ensured that the it was a bright or sunny day which helped me to create eye-catching and effective images. In my images, I included many of the formal elements such as colour, depth and in many instances, lines which helped to create bold and striking images. Finally, I edited the final images in order to make them brighter and more vibrant and in many cases, I adjusted the curves and contrast of the images. Below shows some of the images which I feel are strongest and most successful at showing my lifestyle in my series.


I think that this image is strong as it is successful at showing the environment as well as showing one of the horses. I also like the way that the light falls and the shadows which have been created within the image as I feel that this helps to make the image more appealing.


I really like this image as it is simplistic but has bold and striking colours. I also like the curves which are present as this makes the image more appealing and as a result helps to draw the viewers eye into the photograph more.


I also really like this image as it is original and interesting. I like the aspect of leading lines within the image as this helps to draw in the audiences eye. I also like the way that the image has an interesting background and like the slightly distorted effect which has been created by the angle that the image was shot at.

For my shoot, I had my camera settings as f/stop 5.6 and alternated between using manual focus and autofocus and for most of my shots, had my ISO at 200. These camera settings helped me to capture interesting and effective images and were appropriate for the type of images I was shooting. 

Idea Development

If I were to improve my work, I think that I would have gone out and shot at different times of the day in order to get the different lighting. In addition, I would have chosen to go out and shoot on an even brighter day than I did as some of my images still came out slightly duller than I would have liked considering the days which I shot were nice and light. In addition to this, if I were to shoot again, I would have experimented further with different angles as the images which I captured using a slightly peculiar angle look very effective and interesting. 
I would also like to use a tripod next time I shot for this topic as I think that this way, I could have achieved even more images and would have not been limited by means of which ones I chose. Finally, I would further improve my work by including more portraits of my family members with my inspiration being the series known as 'Cowboy Church' by Ed Thompson. I like the portraits he includes in this series as you are able to clearly see the individuals lifestyle simply by looking at their expression and clothing. Here are some of these images by Ed Thompson which I would use for inspiration if I were to shoot for the topic again.