Armed with a camera, fur coat, guitar and a human being, I embarked on my outdoor photo shoot.
My model, Atlanta, was my independent artist where, in order to achieve the vision I conveyed, I artistically arranged my model in numerous ways to accomplish my goal.
In terms of location, I had originally planned to travel around Central London, taking a variety number of photos.. Places I planned to visit were Camden Lock, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Bank, St. Paul's Cathedral, all of which were sophisticated and well known locations, which relates to my primary theme for the magazine: sophistication. I had thoughts of using various tube stations, where my model could pose as a busker.
Busking was a concept I saw, as based from articles I have read online where busking shows the passion and love an artist or performer has for their work. The passion being so strong that they'll go out of their way to show it to the world; In the cold, the rain, and seeing as it's not about the money as 'mere loose change' is usually gained-their primary objective is sharing their creation out there to the world.
I therefore, wanted to incorporate this into my magazine, as my magazine is an Indie mag, which will revolve around passion, motivation, sophistication and taking pictures of my model doing so, will convey the first hand idea about what I am trying to tell my audience about this specific artist.
Though I had plans to travel around London, my model Atlanta suggested keeping it local, as pictures around these landmarks have 'all been done before' and that I should keep it local. Getting into character of an indie artist, she envisioned an artist who is passionate but plays locally, staying loyal to the area she was born and raised in and not forgetting her roots, even through gaining minor success. I liked the idea, so we planned out a shoot closer to home.
Truthfully, planning a complex photo shoot in our area would be deemed as a bit feeble, as we decided that we'd go out, get into character, and be spontaneous to capture the moment with whatever lighting and conditions we were encountered with.
Our first stop was Spencer Park, which was a 2 minute walk from our base.
A very simple park which had minimal people and great lighting enriched within it, I set out on my first set of pictures.
In total, I took 223 photos in the park. All at differing angles, positions and alternating and experimenting with many different factors such as foliage in the background.
The photos shown are all unaltered and uses natural light to compliment the image for a brighter bolder setting.
The clothing chosen for this particular shoot, will all compliment my magazines housing colours. In this picture for instance, the green may not be an ideal colour, but subsequently, I can edit Atlanta out using an editing program such as Adobe Photoshop and be able to crop her into a white or black background.
The wind is also a spontaneous factor we decided to use to our advantage. Whichever direction the wind was facing, Atlanta was placed to the side to enhance her image, having her hair flow in the wind, again showing naturalism to the photo.
With this particular image, I wanted to travel upwards along the guitar, having Atlanta as a blurred background. I was thinking maybe, to have a heading or subheading on the guitar itself; if used for my feature article for example.
Moving back towards the pathway, we took a hat and began taking pictures of Atlanta busking. As members of the public passed by, I asked a family/group if it would be okay to photograph them, pretending to be members of an appreciative audience.Upon permission, I took 2 photos; one front on and one over the shoulder showing the audiences reaction.
To conclude this location, we ended with a few jump shots.
This image in particular, was my favourite from the shoot. However, the top of Atlanta's head was cropped which was the only downside to this picture. To resolve this (if I was to use this image) I would insert a title for example over the cropped location, which will compensate and hopefully draw attention away from my readers.
After the jump shots, we were supposedly done, but from all the jumping, Atlanta became tired and wanted to have a rest. I in turn saw this as a photo opportunity, and gave her a cigarette to show her impulsive nature but down to earth personality as an artist. The fur coat, guitar placed down and her posture was all natural to which she got into character for.
