Brighton Visit

In week 5 we went on a trip to Brighton, with the aim being to develop and enhance our portrait skills and also our confidence skills of approaching strangers to ask to take photos. All of these skills are to be come essential in the final project so i felt i had to go for it and really push my interaction boundaries, by not being scared to approach anyone that would make a good portrait.
We started off by taking portraits of each other within our group. Here are a few of the practise portrait shots;

Here is a use of the rule of thirds. I like this technique as the figure still holds a key position even though she is not centered, whilst it also allows for the image to capture and incorporate the nature that surrounds her.

This is another shot of the rule of thirds. I like how this is un posed and the subject is also looking at her camera, however, the wind blowing her hair ruins the picture slightly as you can not see the concentration on the subjects face.

This shot combines the rule of thirds and also depth of field techniques. This is my favourite image of the day. It is one of my most successful ranges in depth of field and i also enjoy how because of the position in which the photo is taken the angle of the builds lead you into and towards the main subject. Also with the grey sky and wandering pose of the subject, their is quite a raw emotion in the image of longing that i like.

We then had to go off and take a series of photos of a stranger in a working, socially interactive environment. After numerous rejections, gutting feeling that the amazing book shop was too dark and  the incompetence of the street cleaners, i managed to find a 'friend' in one of the traditional sea front 'Rock shops'.

I feel the framing and composition of this image make it appealing. The idea of looking through a doorway into a new space is something that i like and i feel the contrast from plain and white on the outside to joyful and bursting with colours through the doorway adds to this idea of a exciting opening through the doorway.

This photo was one of the best photos in incorporating the style and layout of the shop. It captures the variety of colours and patterns within the sweets that summarises the shop as a whole. I also like the compositional lines and how the horizontal lines lead the viewer across and into the distance of the image, similarly to the doorway idea of heading towards something new and exciting in this colourful shop.

One of the criterias was to get a detailed shot of the subject doing something. Although i like the angle of this shot, i feel it is boring and doesn't truly represent the excitement and joyful colours that summarise this shop. I will know for next time to ensure i make more of an effort to encourage the subject to do something that i would like and know would make a good photo. Ie; slowing pouring a portion of sweets onto the counter.

The final criteria was to get a portrait of the subject. I don't particularly like the appearance of this photo, however, when i looked into it deeper i liked the contrast that our within the shot. The first contrast is between the regimented order of the sweets to the cigarettes. The fact that cigarettes are in a sea front sweet shop represents the common culture of our society and could also emphasise the sign of the times, that even within a happy and exciting shops their our negative and depressive objects.
The second contrast is of the subject himself. His appearance is untidy and poorly groomed, unshaven, grey hairs and unflattering and rather large t shirt, and i feel this signifies our theme of 'cost of living'. It shows this through the contrast between his worn down, unemotive persona to the joyful, bright colours of the sweets. To me the deeper meaning of this image is the suggestion that it is a hard and tough life (shown through the subject) living off this bright, joyful but old fashioned, traditional sweet shop.