Personal shoot 12 - work diary

For this shoot, I decided to go up to London and use a household object to photograph. After looking at the available options within my house. I finally decided on taking a kettle with me as it was something that was very different - which is what Mark does. In terms of the shoot itself, I tried to incorporate a point of view video which was suggested by the class when looking at the mid-term project review. I thought it would be a good idea to do it in London because it is somewhere that is quite busy and therefore would work well in terms of standing out. In terms of the video, I decided to do a point of view video from the perspective of the passerby rather than the kettle - purely because it was an inanimate object and therefore would not look right if I did a video based on the kettle's perspective. After doing this video, I did not particuarly think it looked really good but it did give the perspective that I had wanted to capture. I did a variety of different short videos but I finally decided on just two - although with one of them, I struggled to get the hand in focus. I still used this shot because of the perspective it showed. I also took some single shots of the kettle to make use of the shoot. In terms of the single shots, I thought they looked good because they were different and the kettle was not something that you would see on the streets of London on a daily basis.

Point of View video available to view: Click here

 This photograph is one of my favourites in terms of the background and surroundings. I thought that it would be a good idea to place my subject - in this case the kettle, on the floor of the train. I thought this would look good because of the striking colours in the background - from the red poles and blue chairs. I also liked the way the light from the windows and doors fell onto the floor and therefore allowed for reflection of the kettle on the floor. I liked the angle of the shot as well - it is not 100% straight but gives the shot an artistic feel. In terms of editing this photograph, I thought it would be a good idea to use selective colour because of the background. I therefore used this technique - but in reverse. I put the kettle in black and white and left everything else in colour to make both the subject and background contrast and stand out. If I were to re-do this photograph, I would think about doing more angles because I think the train shots worked really well. 

This photograph was one of my least favourite shots because I tried to capture the reaction of the young boy and his care giver as they looked at the kettle. Unfortuantly while trying to take the photograph, members of the public walked in front of the area in which I had placed the kettle - and therefore you could not see what the young boy and caregiver were looking at. This ruined the appearance of the shot because it looks like they are just looking at the ground rather than anything else. If I were to re-take this photograph, I would've tried to capture the young boy and caregiver from a different angle to ensure that I was able to get their reactions. I would also try to move the position of the kettle in order to do this correctly. I think that that would've worked really well and I would've got a decent shot from it.

In terms of Mark Jenkins, I think the shoot related to his work because of the use of a video that I created and put together. This is due to the fact that he uses videos as part of his photography. I think that it also related to his work because of the subject - it was particularly different and not common at all. I think that I could of improved this shoot by trying a variety of different kitchen appliances rather than just one kettle on it's own.