Shoot Thirteen- Skateboarding 2- Work Diary

Due to the success of my other shoot taken in the location of South Bank, I decided to go back there to experiment with further subjects in different angles, unlike the other shoot, I wanted to go into the skate-park and walk around rather than taken photos from the side lines. I found that due the date of me going on a bank holiday, I originally found no one in the skate-park which I was a little shocked about, but then I waited for around 10 minutes and then found two people walking into the park. I then thought that unlike my other shoot, I wanted to talk to these subjects, alongside asking them if I can these images to get to know them and about them skateboarding. As you can tell from the images they are the oldest subjects but they gave me the permission and told me how they do love skateboarding they just tend to use other skateboards and rarely this one because it is generally jammed packed- which is present in my other shoot. I found it really interesting talking to these boys because even though they looked "fitting of the stereotype" it was clear they weren't but without knowing any context, these images would appear stereotypical youth- which is obviously the aim yet I thought it would be interesting to include this context in this work diary. As a whole I am really happy that I decided to go back to South Bank skate-park because it meant I was able to experiment further in my research and as a whole I think it was definitely worth it especially because I chose a day were I was able to gain a rapport with my subjects as there wasn't many people there, yet when I decided to leave, more people did start to come yet they were much older so I thought it was better to just include a shoot with just these two subjects. 

Favourite image from this shoot:

As spoken about on my straight images, I find this one of my most successful images within this shoot because of the context. You can see on my straight images that I shot this subject before this shot, waiting at the top of the ramp watching his friend do the same. Yet I didn't include the one of the other subject because I found the continuation of the activity fitted better. I also find this one of my more successful images in this shoot because I was able to present Henri-Cartier Bresson's work of the decisive moment, capturing one point in time which if I had taken the image a fraction of a moment later, the frame would differ. Yet in this style I have been able to show my subject within the centre of my frame whilst also presenting the technique of blur in my subjects foot, it moving caused this effect. The reason I decided to create this shoot a series of black and white because I found this was most successful in showing my research of the photographer Dan Boulton because he is also a photographer who has done numerous shoots at the South Bank skate-park and due to the bold colour that graffiti is, and the amount of it, when it is made into black and white, it almost flattens an image which I find really interesting as this effect means the subjects merge into the graffiti which further complies with the stereotype of vandalism- implying that all youths do graffiti, displaying their emotions and thoughts in their art. 

Least favourite image from this shoot:

Personally I find this one of my weaker images from this shoot because of the main factor of being out of focus. In some of the shoots and images I found that being blurry helped me to create a more gritty atmosphere which I did like, however in the context of this image in particular, I do not think it worked as well because it takes away focus of my subjects. Also, as I am quite far away from my subjects, it is quite hard for the audience to actually see what my subjects are doing. Another aspect which I think makes this one of my weaker images for this shoot is that the framing of this image isn't done very well. For example, it would have looked better if I were closer and I positioned them in the left third like it is here but it would be closer, or if I were to have been on the opposite side of them to take an image of their face, however, I found this meant that rather than have a graffiti background like I do in all my images in this shoot, it would be of those passing by and the river Thames which I do not think would have the same effect.