This was a two part module, firstly to present five powerful images to the group and discuss and secondly to present an image of our own.
I had trouble with this short module as after reading the brief I was apparently looking at it from the wrong angle.
The brief started by saying, and I quote,
"The news media often use shots (filler shots) with the task to keep the reader interest either by surprising, engaging or intriguing"
After reading this I automatically started thinking about how magazines, journals and newspapers use single images to support a story being presented.
I took a look at what events were taking place in the local area as it was a short project with little time to leave the area to cover other events.
I came across a local vintage rally held in a nearby village http://www.prescott-hillclimb.com and decided to cover this as an event as if I were a photojournalist sent by a vintage car enthusiast magazine.
I looked through several specialist magazines to see how they cover similar stories and got an idea of how I wanted to capture my single image.
The plan was to use a panning technique alongside the racetrack to freeze a car in motion and blurring the background, a familiar shot considering the subject but one I could imagine being asked to get for the particular type of publication in mind.
Having never attempted this technique before it would be hit or miss as to whether I got the shot or not so rather than relying on this style alone I also covered other parts of the events too, mainly the cars and owners but also a few 'event' style shots of families and the goings on at the event.
After spending the day shooting I realised I hadn't captured the shot I wanted well enough to be a strong shot for the magazine, either the car wasn't in sharp focus or the background wasn't blurred enough to give the sense of speed.
I decided on a different style of shot for the final submission of an enthusiast driving his steam car though the event ground with a large cloud of steam bellowing out from underneath the vehicle.
As the vehicle was so well maintained with beautiful bright paint-work and highly polished brass components I decided to fire alot of flash at the subject to make the colour 'pop'. Luckily the car had momentarily broken down giving me a chance to compose the image and fire several shots to get the right balance of flash etc.
Unfortunately at the crit my image was widely panned as it wasn't a strong 'lead' or 'establishing shot' and was in no way 'powerful'.
This particularly frustrated me as the brief clearly discusses a 'filler shot' (see previous quote) and not an establishing shot and although I agreed that it wasn't particularly powerful from many peoples point of view I wanted to point out that this image wasn't destined for general consumption but for specialist enthusiasts magazines and journals, but when you have a large group of people on one mindset it is difficult to express ones views satisfactorily so I decided to let it go.
The images with this post are a few from the final edit as well as the final shot itself at the top of the page, I have not stated on each image why I didn't choose each image individually but will happily comment if anyone wishes more info.
Enjoy
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