Below is a digital sketchbook for the development of my personal documentary photography project.
The brief is to create a minimum of 10 documentary photographs
Not taking into consideration Covid-19, I am thinking my favourite ideas would be:
Bus stops and people at them
Bin workers
Dad in wood worshop
AA meeting
The issue with all the ideas except photographing my Dad in his wood workshop / shed is mostly to do with Covid-19. Those three ideas would require me to be in public interacting with people not from my household. This is currently against advised lockdown rules so I don't want to commit to one of those ideas in the hopes of the rules changing before the deadline.
Inspiration Photographs
In order to help develop my ideas or possibly come up with new ones I have collected various inspirational photographs and projects. I have created a moodboard with more images here.
I like the grain to the photo, the colours and the fact it feels again like a natural moment captured in time. This is a photograph from Joris Hermans "Behind the Redwood Curtain". Link to the full project on his website here.
A collection of other inspiration photos.
From top left to right - Andrew Montgomery 'Boatbuilders', Andrew Montgomery link to page, Danny North 'As I Found Her', Sophie Gerrard 'Drawn to the Land', Elliot Caunce 'Off-Grid Scotland', Elliot Caunce 'Off-Grid Scotland'.
The photography project my lecturer shared was the style of imagery I was wanting to go for if I choose photographing my Dad in his shed - Sam Mcdiarmid Alistairs Sticks
The Shed
Dad is onboard with the idea so the plan is to go ahead with photographing him working and creating things in his shed. The shed isn't the biggest so I will be restricted by space so I will need to do test shots while I do the risk assessment and recce to figure out how to do interesting angles.
Practice
The plan is to get more practice with my camera, particularly to get used to adjusting the settings to suit the needs of the shot. During a break from another project I decided to practice with the different settings on my camera with close ups of different items.
No editing has been done to these pictures other than enhancements to the brightness and were for practice on settings rather than composition.
Plan for Project
The photographs will capture my Dad creating projects, the shed and the tools and to show progression of a project he is starting. The purpose is to document something that my dad enjoys and have photographs for my family to look back on.
The project is aimed at students in the Forth Valley Colleges and those viewing my online portfolio. Also, for my other family members and those interested in woodworking and crafts.
I will mainly take photos like a fly on the wall with some guidance because my Dad is not experienced with being on camera but otherwise I will just let him work and I will work around him. I will use a mix of wide shots and close ups. I will mostly use a wide depth of field but I will use a narrow depth of field on close ups.
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