Feedback from First Tutorial

Over the course of the project I will have group tutorials with my tutor about my work. It was really interesting looking at everyone's projects because they are so different and unique.

At the beginning of the project, I was unsure about which direction I was heading in because I thought I was going to go to lots of Churches around Bristol and photograph the people who go to them. I knew I wanted to photograph people and then interview them about when and why they became Christian, and then make this into a photo book.

In my first group tutorial, I had a few test shoots to show Liz, but nothing that I was going to use as my final images as I had not got round to meeting anyone from Churches in Bristol. She suggested that it would be more interesting to photograph Christians in their homes as opposed to in or outside the Churches that they attend. I don't think that this idea will work because I really want to focus on the one aspect in the individuals' lives, God, and if I photograph them in their homes then it will let the viewer see every aspect of their life and so the project will become about the individuals' lives in general, not about Christianity.

She did like some of the images (especially the one below) and so I will try and make my final images look like these. I like the image below the best out of my test shoots as well, as I think it is the most aesthetically pleasing and I like the way that Becky is looking at the camera.

Fourth Test Shoot

St Mary's Church - Maidenhead

This shoot was a test shoot but I may potentially use one or some of the images in my final piece. The images are of my sister, Sophie, in the church she attends. All of the images are inspired by Clare Hewitt's portraits, just like in my previous test shoots. I experimented with different angles, and wanted to see if the image looked more effective if there was more of the background in it, or more of Sophie. 

I told Sophie to look straight at the camera for some of the images, and to look into the distance absentmindedly for others. It took her a while to become comfortable around the camera, and this shows because some of the images look too posed, and in others she is laughing. However, I think that a few of the images have some potential, in particular the close-ups where she is looking absentmindedly towards and away from the camera.

I am focusing on the individuals in the images for my project, but what I learnt from my previous test shoots is that the background needs to be interesting to make it an all-over successful image. This in mind, I wanted to have something that was interesting and also related to Christianity in the background, behind Sophie. In the majority of the images, there is a large cross, a stain glass window and the procession stands with bibles in them. This makes the viewer immediately think of Christianity, and so will directly link to the quotes that will be next to the images. The cross and the stain glass window is also quite unique, and so if I get enough images of other churches, the images will not look too similar and dull.

I usually borrow the University's Nikon D800 camera for my projects, however as I was unable to book one for the Easter holidays, I have to use my own Canon 450. This camera is not of the same quality and so I had to try a lot harder to make the composition of the images look just as good. This is challenging but I am glad that I have to do it, as I feel like I was relying too much on the good quality camera to give me good quality images, and not using my own skills enough. Therefore, this project will test my photography skills more than the previous projects.

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