Project Plan

For my shoot I will shoot in a few different locations which will include Preston Train Station, on the train within my journey to Manchester, many of the train stops on the journey, then Manchester Train Station and in and around Manchester, which have chosen to do to show many aspects of my journey on the train from Preston to Manchester as well as many of the interesting aspects within Manchester throughout my day. When shooting in these locations I will focus on the aspects of these train stations, such as the signs from the outside, the different platforms on the insides and maybe even some trains heading in different directions. Whilst on the train I will focus on aspects of inside the train, as well as outside the train, such as things we pass, as well as the stops the train stops off at. When in Manchester I will focus on photographing the train station as I get there, and then the places I visit and around them, things such as the buildings and the streets and things I do and see throughout the day.

The photographers that have influenced my idea are Stephen Shore with the American Beauty, which shows images of places and things on what looks like a road trip. As well as Joel Meyerowitz because he shoots the urban streets, such as the surroundings and what goes on, which has helped to inspire me how to shoot within the city.

Stephen Shore:

Joel Meyerowitz:

The equipment I will use will be my DSLR camera, which when shooting with this I will have to consider the camera settings with the lighting I will be in which will be day light. As well as this camera, I am also hoping to use something such as a film camera camera with an old/expired film which will help to give my images different effects such as the coloring or the look and a vintage look. I am going to try and use different experimental techniques such as slow and fast shutter speeds whilst on and also photographing trains, I will try to use slow shutter speeds to get the blur of the train moving, or the objects I am passing on the train, as well as fast shutter speeds to capture the train focused as it passes, or the object I am passing focused as I pass them.

Practical considerations:
I will be considering the time of day I will shoot at, which I have chosen to shoot at midday, as it will enable to capture good images, whereas at night it would be difficult to capture images in the dark on a moving train. I will not need any permission to gain access to this location other than needed to purchase a train ticket. I will have to make sure my camera battery is fully charged and have a good amount of space on my memory card.

Train history
Within my shoots for this project I will be on the train from Preston to Manchester, which is run by First TransPennine Express trains, which is why I have chose to research into this and show a little history on it. First TransPennine Express is a british train operating company that runs regular inter-city services between the major cities Northern-England as well as to the Central Belt of Scotland. All services used to previously call or terminate at Manchester Piccadilly, but as of May 2014 a new service is now running between Newcastle central and Liverpool Lime street, calling at Manchester Victoria. The brand was launched in May 1998 by Northern Spirit and was maintained by its successor Arriva Trains Northern. In 2000 it was announced that a First TransPennine Express franchise would be created for the long distance regional services. 

Location shoot 1 'The Overlooked'

"If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough" - Robert Capa

"Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts" - Gary Winogrand

"You become technically proficient whether you want to or not, the more you take pictures" - William Eggleston

For this first Location shoot, the overlooked, the task was to go out into the college and photograph areas of the college, capturing different aspects, as though you would never know or find it difficult to figure out where this location is. From this I have a produced a good range of images specific to this task, within a few of them showing a good colour contrast making the images more appealing. Some of the images I have produced from this are successful in doing this task and some not as successful. 

I have chosen to show on this post the ones that I felt have been the most successful in this shoot. The ones I think are the most successful within this set of images is the second image, because I had gotten up close and it has a good colour contrasts and makes one aspect of the image stand out within. As well as the eighth image down, because of the same reasons, the bright yellow colour contrasts well and stands out from the rest of the aspects of the image.

Whilst doing this shoot I learnt that the closer the better, being closer creates better and more interesting outcomes, as well as having good colour contrast. Areas for development within this work for me would be to get closer whilst shooting and not feeling the need to capture the whole of something whilst taking an image of it. 

After doing this shoot I then went onto using the computer to create a photo book using these images in indesign. Doing this helps to show what my final outcome will be for this project and how I will create it. It also helped to learn how to use the programme and how everything will be laid out and gives me a rough idea how to lay out each page and position each image.

Research

Joel Meyerowitz (Urban streets)

Joel Meyerowitz began photographing in 1962, becoming a street photographer in the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, but works in colour.  I like his work because of the moments he captures, it isn’t staged and he catches people in the moment, and also like the locations he chooses to shoot in and the style of his images. I think that he photographs in this location as it is very easy to get effective and different pictures each time, as in these locations there is always many people around, always doing different things, which I have chosen to show examples of in the two images below, a busy street and also what looks like some sort of festival, which is interesting as it captures many people doing their own thing, and this could be a reason as to why this photographer chooses to shoot in this location. I would associate words with this location such as busy, crowded, fun, happy, summer. The practical considerations the photographer would have to think about when shooting work here would be having the space to shoot, as it is very busy a lot of the time, he would have to be careful not to damage anything and consider the space he will have so he should also think about what equipment he will use.  I enjoy this photographers work and the style of it and possibly hope to use this photographer as inspiration within creating my own work, developing along the way and referring back to this photographer when needed.

Robert Frank (Urban streets)

Robert Frank began his photography career in the mid-1940’s. What I like about his work is that he shoots in black and white, it gives off a different effect from shooting in colour, and it helps to give them a deeper meaning. I also like that he has a mixture of different images on the streets, he has many that include people within the streets, that all have their own meaning behind them, then he also has many that include just the streets, such as the buildings within these streets etc. As well as these things I like that he doesn’t just stick to one location of the streets, he shoots in different countries and not just different streets of one place. Whereas something that I don't like is some of the styles of his images and don't appeal to me personally. Just like I said with Joel Meterowitz I think that this photographer photographs in this location because it is very easy to get interesting and out of the ordinary photographs from shooting in this location and there is always many different aspects of things to photograph within all different cities, and every country is different. With this location I would associate words such as sad and happy, winter. Whilst shooting in this location this photographer would have to think about things such as what and who he will shoot, as with the streets it is not always possible to move things around.

Adam Murray and Robert Parkinson (Preston bus station)

The Preston Bus Station provides a document of a weekend spent in arguably Preston’s most iconic building, created by Adam Murray Robert Parkinson and Jamie Hawkeswort. I like this work because they have caught many different aspects of the location; they have shown different parts in different ways and even included people within this location, as well as just images of the location itself. I also like the theme of some of the images, but some of them I am not too sure about. I think that they photograph in this location as it is part of the ‘Preston is my Paris’ project, and also has many different aspects available to photograph, such as vending machines and the busses etc. I think that some practical considerations these photographers would have to consider when shooting in this location would be timing, because if they didn’t want people in the background of these shots, or within the shots other than the people they are photographing, they would have to go and shoot at a particular time, when there would be no one in the way, they would have to plan far ahead. This location compared to Joel Meyerowitz work of Urban street has a range of differences. They are two different environments, urban street is outside where as the bus station is inside, therefore whats in the images is going to be rather different. As well as these things there is also the difference of the camera settings, when shooting inside the camera settings will have to be different to let more light in. There is also the difference of the time of day these two photographers have shot in, Joel Meyerowitz has shot at a time of day where the location is busy, whereas the preston bus station project has been shot at a time of day where it isn't busy and they can capture aspects of the location without including other people within the shots unless they wanted to.

Bruce Davidson (Subways)

I like the work of Bruce Davidson’s subway photography; there is a range of excessive scenes involved within these photographs. They range from fights, to people needing medical attention and all sorts of outrageous things, to people simply sitting or standing riding the subway, which is what I like about these photographs, looking at his work I never know what type of image is going to come next. I like the style of the images, and also how dark his images are, it makes them mysterious and make me wonder what is going on in the background, and that he also photographs from the outside as well as the inside. I think he photographs in this location because different things happen every day on the subway and is also un-expectable. I would associate the words dark and unpredictable with this location. The practical considerations this photographer would have to think about when shooting work here would be the peoples reactions as he takes the pictures of them, whether he would ask them first, as some people will react different to others.

Luke Stephenson(99x99's)

I like the 99x99’s project by Luke Stephenson; it documents the story of the 99 ice cream through a photographic road trip around the UK, and documented the seaside ice cream vans and parlours as well as the 99 ice cream itself. It is a very interesting project and involved a lot of travelling and visiting different places each day, I think that it is a clever and interesting thing to do. I think that the photographer has chosen to shoot in these locations because they are relevant towards his project. The practical considerations he would have to consider would be the heat to make sure that the ice cream wouldn’t melt straight away therefore giving him time to photograph it, also whether there would be places available to buy ice cream from once he had got there.

I have also researched and found this website http://www.99x99s.com/, which includes a video of Luke Stephenson explaining how and why he did this project. It includes him explaining that he "in the summer drove around the coast of Great Britain, with quite a simple aim of visiting 99 locations and photographing a 99 flake in each location". He also explained how he "Made a portable ice cream studio" which allowed him to "get really close up to the ice cream vans and parlours to photograph the ice creams before they melted" as well as this he explains how he got around, in which he "purchased a little camper van called the Bedford nipper" which he says to of been both his home and his mode of transport, as well as how he photographed and how he got around, he also explains his one rule when purchasing the ice creams, which involved the rule of asking for a 99 and if they asked if he wanted sauce with it he would have to say yes, otherwise he would get it plain. He explains that from this he created a book naming it 99x99's, including the image of the ice cream next to a photograph of the parlour or van it was bought from. I think that this video is a very good form of research and helps me to understand this project a lot more, it puts into perspective how it is done and why.  



Simon Roberts (Pierdom) 

The pierdom project by Simon Roberts started off by him being commissioned by the times for him to photograph piers around the country. I think the location which is piers is very entertaining, it is a nice location in which all these piers are located, which helps to create a more successful image. He has chosen to shoot during the day, which creates a fun and happy feeling, whereas some days have clear and bright skies and others have cloudy skies and are also foggy, which creates a mysterious feeling of wanting to know what is behind the fog.

The practical considerations this photographer would of had to think about whilst shooting in these locations would be carrying around his equipment and getting it to the specific location around the pier in which he wants to shoot from. Also the whether conditions, whilst setting up his equipment which if it is windy would create difficulty, as well as taking the photographs as if it was raining it would get his equipment wet and probably effect the lens and the outcome. He would also have to think about whether it would be busy or not and whether he wanted to create an image with other people within them.

I enjoy the style and the theme of this project and the images he has created. Within the project he has  shot each pier from different angles and perspectives, he has focused on different parts of the piers, sometimes photographing the whole pier, sometimes focusing on an aspect of it such as the frame, the sign, the beach etc. I may like to take some inspiration from this photographers work in this project to help me create my own images, using this as inspiration, whilst putting my own style on it and shooting images relevant to my own project, I hope to create a range of successful images, developing along the way.

Joel Sternfeld (Landscape)

I particularly like the first image of Joel Sternfeld's that I have shown because although the sun is not visible, from the light it is giving off I can tell that there is mostly likely a sun set, which is an aspect that I like in this image and to me helps bring out a lot in the image. I also think it helps to make the image look more appealing and exciting. But there is a particular few of his landscapes that I don't particularly like, as I think they are too dull and boring, which are images such as the second image I have shown as an example, I think that it doesn't show much within the image and doesn't interest me personally. I think this photographer has chosen to shoot in this location because the open space helps to create good landscape images. Within his landscape work there is a lot of different styles included, some are bright and help aspects of the image to stand out as well as giving off a happy effect and a warm felling, whereas some of them are very dull, which give of a feeling that it was very cold when the image was taken. This photographer would have to take things into consideration such as the weather and if he is able to use his equipment in bad weather conditions such as being windy and raining. Also if there was people or cars etc about and whether he would want to capture them in the frame of the image, so he would have to think about timing and what time of day these locations would of been clear and free of people.

Stephen Gill - Hackney (Site Specific Work)

I don't specifically like the images of this project from Stephen Gill, what I do like is the way they have been created and the meaning of it. From researching I have found that his location is based on his east London surroundings. From what it looks like the objects that he has found in the different locations he has put them into his lens and then photographed the location, which produces these outcomes of these objects very bold within the location of them. This makes the objects stand out with the location looking very faded, which I think is very effective, as it makes something that usually wouldn't be noticeable, stand out compared to the aspects of the location that would usually stand out. I also like how the images look like they have been shot many years ago, they have that old vintage effect. I think that this photographer chose to shoot in these locations as it may be where he is from and he wanted to explore and show different locations within his east London surroundings, including different flowers etc within each of them. When shooting in these locations this photographer would have to consider things such as the time of day he will shoot at, whether he wanted it to be early in the morning, late at night or any time in-between. He would also have to consider whether he would be able to gain access to the different locations.

Richard Billingham - Rays a laugh (Domestic/Home)

I like this work because each image looks like it has a story behind it, they are interesting and effective and make me want to know what was happening when they was captured and why. When looking at them it makes me wonder why he threw the cat, whether it was staged or whether there was a reason for him doing that. From researching, using my own knowledge and looking at the images, such as the photographers dad always having a drink in his hand, as well as throwing up in the toilet, that he was an alcoholic and that their family had problems, which I think was Richard Billingham's plan to document this, which could be why he has chosen to shoot in this location. I think he wanted to document his home and family life and share it with other people. The practical considerations he would have to consider would be how his parents would feel about it, as well as his camera settings, as if he was to capture movement he would have to have fast shutter speeds. He would also have to consider things such as the time he would shoot and whether anything interesting would be happening with his family or not.