Vampire Diaries photo shoot AND process

My final photography task. Originally based on the Vampire diaries, however i mostly drew inspiration from the "vampire" part and there isn't a real connection to the show, apart from the one image. It was more of a cinematic exploration, telling a story with still images; evoking emotions (primarily fear lol).
I did a few double exposures by "sandwiching" two negatives in the enlargers in the dark room. Took a lot of test prints, lots of dodging in, but i'm happy with how they came out. For the two scream images i took inspiration from russian surrealism in the 1930s. I had no particular photographer in mind, but my concept seemed adaptable to that style of photography, so when i was photographing it was in the back of my mind. I mean, vampires are surreal anyway.

Something i learnt from this task and photoshoot...
Planning a shoot is important - finding a location and already having an idea of where you'll place people and how is helpful before the shoot. Doing visual research, drawing on other photographers work for inspiration makes a huge difference.
Write it down - note some of the shots you want, because between interacting with the models, the camera and the scene, it's easy to forget and you get into panic mode. It also makes you seem organised.
Bring extra lighting - I used a windshield protector as a reflector which made a significant difference. A huge emergency light can work as well or a torch.
Explore the area - keep an eye out for things that are already there that you didn't picture in your head, such as the clouds and such, don't over look these things!
 Go with your gut - behind the view finder things appear changed so just explore do some things organically, intuitively. Some of my stronger photos were last minute after thoughts, the last shot on a roll where i took more of a risk, noticed and took advantage of some nice lighting, or adopted another persons perspective.

Mostly that was a small reminder for myself, i hope it helps someone. I learnt something, feels good man. lol

Alcoholism

just an extra i liked

For our second task in photography, we were asked to explore night photography, and concentrate on showing what goes on at night secretly. This had a lot to do with darkness being evocative of mystery. I quite liked this task since i'm comfortable with dark and mysterious photos lol. We also needed to produce one partial portrait and one absent portrait. I wanted focused mine on alcoholism, not the teen binge drinking, but serious a serious take. My first roll was terrible, in two ways : 1. i didn't know how to use 3200 iso film properly, i didn't keep in mind the aesthetic differences ( large grain and little midtones ) and so i messed up my exposure times, producing very dark images i couldn't work with. 2. i did very cliche and uninspired shots of beer bottles with large shadows. nothing special. it was just documentary.

My second roll, luckily, was a lot better and i explored being in that state of mind, which comes through in my 2 final prints - seeing only the alcohol and being trapped in that way of living. The first image is more documentary, a simple shot of an alcoholics space. The 2nd image is my first double exposure :) 

i think my photography has developed quite a bit since this series: experience you like

lol always embarrassing to look at work in retrospect

Bare and Clean

So for task one of photography 2 : documentation, we picked out of a hat, two "action" words to inspire a roll of photographs, otherwise we wouldn't know what to shoot. It didn't really matter particularly whether your word is communicated through the photographs, however my words were 'bare' and 'clean'.
My approach to bare was to link it with privacy, we bare or reveal something hidden - reveal one's true self - in private. Visually i expressed that through nakedness, however i also used the door way to reveal something hidden with a voyeuristic feel. The doorway also suggests that we may only catch a glimpse of someone in

My interpretation to clean negative and clinical, expressed with the