Personal shoot 1 - work diary

I have to say that I really enjoyed completing my first shoot. During a weekend trip to Estonia with my father, I decided to take the opportunity to complete a shoot there. We visited the local abandoned prison which we were told was bizarre and not like any other prison. I decided it would be a good opportunity to shoot in the prison due to the fact that a lot of Mark's work is out of the ordinary and very bizarre. In my personal opinion, this shoot was successful in terms of being Mark Jenkins inspired. When entering the prison I did not know what to expect in terms of surroundings, subjects and appearance but, I did know how I wanted to capture whatever was in there - by getting up close and personal with the subjects and using different angles to do so. When I finally went into the prison, I was intrigued by what was in it. There were many random objects in the halls and cells of the prisons - items that would not necessarily be seen in a prison such as tyres, cutlery, shoes and a continuous amount of books.

 This is one of my least favourite photographs. This is due to the fact that it doesn't really make sense as a shot. At the time of the photograph, I thought that it would be interesting to capture. But after looking at the finished product, I can tell that it wasn't the best attempt and therefore the photograph lacked the Mark Jenkins inspiration that I wanted to show. In terms of editing, I decided to avoid editing this shot as I thought that there is not much I could do to imporve this shot purely because of the subject in it. I felt like it was best to leave it alone and try to concentrate on some different photographs which had a better appearance/attraction to the audience. If I were to re-do this photograph, I would capture the pattern itself more than the rest of the shot.

This has to be one of my favourite photographs that I have taken from this shoot and from the technique shoots. I think that I really like this photograph purely because the way the door is positioned. The fact that the door has come off the hinges and is sitting at a tilt gives the photograph that 'Mark Jenkins' feel that I wanted to capture in the very beginning. I think it works well because it is not common for a door to be positioned like this and therefore it is different and captures your attention as soon as you look at the photograph and then you become confused as to why it's sideways. This is the main purpose of the photograph - for the audience to look at the door and question it. In terms of editing this photograph, I did not want to do too much to it because I thought that the shot was good enough on it's own. I decided to just play with the levels and curves to make the door's colours become darker. By doing this, it made it easier to become the centre of attention and the main focus within the shot - due to the fact this is where the eye is drawn too.



I think that overall I achieved what I set out for the shoot. I think that this is the case purely because the shots that I took related to Mark Jenkins who is my inspiration for my project. It relates to Mark because of the subjects within the prison are crazy and appear odd to the naked eye which is what he likes to capture. I think that the surroundings of the prison were the perfect place to shoot and I was very pleased with the overall outcome of the photographs and I think that it was a very good and interesting experience - one that benefited my photography project well.