Final Evaluation

This project has been tied into a real client brief as well as being a full college project. I had quite a clear idea of what I wanted to do for most of the elements within my project since the beginning but unfortunately it didn’t all go to plan. My plan for the project was to complete plenty of research into pollution (especially plastic) in marine areas so that I was aware of as much as possible. I wanted to research photographers who work with the subject as well as photographers who take advantage of these areas. I wanted to research artwork in both 3d and 4d circumstances to back up my images and tasks I have completed with 3d beach cleans and 4d video workshops. As a part of the project I wanted to explore the way conservation occurs at local beaches as well as the way they can look if looked after right. As a part of the project I needed to take part in a 3d problem – beach clean/photo documenting the items – and a 4d problem - time-lapse/short video/iMovie. The third main part of this is evaluating everything; a big part of this project is evaluating everything I had done including workshops, shoots and research work. I feel like I have completed a lot of which I had planned but unfortunately I have been unable to stretch myself as far as I had hoped in some areas.

The 2d section of this project was probably the easiest section of them all as it’s what we as photographers are used to working with. As I have included in my blog, I completed 3 shoots for this project including 2 beach cleans and 1 still life shoot including collected plastic from the beach shoots. For this evaluation I have included 3 of my final images – 1 from the still life shoots and 2 from the beach – and analysed them as photographs as well as the thoughts behind them. The shoots themselves were mixed within success level. The first shoot was pretty much a complete disaster as the weather took the worst turn and I was unable to get many shots. I managed to get a few shots but as the water was so choppy, the rain was heavily pouring and the wind was blowing the umbrella (which was protecting the camera) inside out I struggled for the majority of the time. The second shoot was luckily planned for a day where the weather was glorious. It was a beautiful sunny day so I mananged to take many more shots than the first shoot. This one was at Wembury beach and all in all I had a fun day as I spent many hours walking around and spending time on getting at least one perfect shot. The only downside to the first shoot was the lack in rubbish over the beach. Of course it's a good thing that there are people going there to try and tidy it and conserve it but at the same time on this day I wish I had gotten there earlier or them later so that I didn't have to miss the beach clean. The third and final shoot was just a small set up at my flat as I was running out of time for the project (one day before the deadline!). This was only a shoot because I needed a 3d element to my project as I had missed out on workshops. The shoot went as well as it could in such a small space with a small studio made out of paper. Thankfully I had some decent equipment which I had borrowed from my uncle (umbrellas, lighting and reflective panels) so I had everything I really needed in that respect. I struggled a little when it came to making the 3d creation as I had to place the dirty objects in a specific way to make the shot and the objects were taken from the beach over a week ago! (so were not very pleasant). The only other thing which made the shoot a little worse was my lack in a macro lens. I was unable to book out a macro lens when I had planned to as the equipment centre was shut. If I had this lens I would've got another few shots as it would've made my 3d still life much more interesting and detailed.

The photograph below is my favourite shot from the Wembury beach shoot. I had gone there with intentions of getting some shots of a polluted beach as well as an after shot of the clean beach but it had already been cleaned so I managed to get this shot of the beach in it’s pure, beautiful state. I like this image because I edited the image in a specific way to bring out the foreground and sort of cloud out the background. This was one of the only shots, which has a straight horizon line so I am proud of this piece the most.

The next image is of a small selection of the rubbish from the beach clean which happened at Wembury beach just before I arrived. It’s a very bright and colourful piece, which is why I like it. It points out that it’s not the sort of things you should find on a beach or in the sea as the plastics and objects are bright and abnormal colours for the surroundings. The image is clearly showing ocean and marine pollution instead of just a rubbish pile and you can tell as there a large fishing ropes and wire intertwined within the rubbish. I think this photograph is able to get a good response and it can make people more aware of what’s going on.

The image below is the mound of rubbish which was left on the pathway which lead to Wembury beach after the clean they had that morning. The image itself is very drab and washed out, I chose to do this when editing as I feel it would point out the reality of it. It's not nice to have a large pile of rubbish on the pathway to the beach so I thought this tone would make a statement more than if it was bright and colourful. The composition of this piece

The 3d section of the project for me was by far the trickiest. It wasn't that I didn't know what to do but as I missed the workshops in college time I had to work on the 3d part on my own. I knew what to do but everytime I planned a shoot and a creating session, I often got called away for other things or the weather go in my way. Eventually when I did get around to completing the 3d element of this project I was looking at creating a fake parcel filled with rubbish I had collected from the beach. I managed to make it look as realistic as possible by placing the objects in a brown parcel box (with the top cut off) and wrap string around it like a typical parcel. My idea was to originally put the message of the image and the message I wanted to get across to the viewer on a parcel sticker/tag but I soon realised that unless the image was being viewed in a large size, the writing would be unreadable. As my plan was to use this image as my final client work, I decided to incororate the image within a poster so I could still raise the appropriate awareness. All in all I know I could've done something much more interesting and creative but I feel like within the short amount of time I had, I completed the task as well as I could. I think if I was to do it again I would find do a similar thing as I feel the concept for this piece could be quite new and unusual but I would make the 3d objects look more creative and realistic.

As for the 4d section of this project I originally wanted to create a short moving image/video or a time-lapse. Later on in the project we had an iMovie workshop, which made me change my 4d piece of work. In the end I created a final showreel for my 4d element as I could include all of the images I had taken across the project including the good, the bad and alright photographs. It is a way for me to show the entire project within a short amount of time. I feel like my showreel progressed pretty well once I went over it and the steps of making it.. The music in the background could’ve been selected better but I found that quite a challenging thing, as there were a lot of clips to choose from. As for title and informative slides I wish I had included more but at the same time I feel like you could do with more information but also if there was than I doubt people would really feel like reading it when going from image to writing. I think I could’ve incorporated more of my imagery if I had taken more time to edit them. (Link to video https://vimeo.com/158241012

The client briefing had to be fulfilled as a part of this project, we could create a photograph, advertising campaign, film/documentary, blog post or even a website. I decided that, as I feel quite confident with writing that a blog post would be good to go with a poster. I have managed to create 2 posters which both definitely have an advertisement feel and look to them as they're both in the style of many other campaign posters.

The first one is more successful when it comes to eyecatching as the text is easier to read and the photograph is better and more interesting. I think this fits the client brief as it does make you think about the marine environment and ocean pollution. You look at the image of the glorious beach and the text then refers back to the issues. The font is clear, easy and simple to read which was my main reasoning behind choosing it.

The next poster also gives you knowledge about the subject but instead of it being from mainly the text. The image also backs up the idea of ocean and beach pollution. The only thing which I would like to have done better would be the text. Its a bit hard to read as the background is very cluttered. When searching for an appropriate font, the best one I found to show up and look professional was the one below.

During this project I have learnt a few new skills. These skills have only really come up as we had to take part in and create 3d and 4d problem work and we had workshops on iMovie and HDR. I have learnt how to create an iMovie showreel of my photographs as well as how to add text, titles, music/sound, transitions and change the length of time each image is shown for. As well as this I’ve learnt how to create a HDR image in both photo-matix and Photoshop. I’ve learnt how to deal with outdoor lighting much more when taking images which is something I’ve never really looked into all that much before.

The project has overall been progressed very quickly. I feel like I had nothing to work with for the first few weeks of the project due to illness and other reasons but eventually I managed to pick it up. As it was all mainly done in the last week or two, it's been pretty intense with blogging, shooting and creating so if there's something I would change about the project, it would be the amount of time I spent on everything. I know I couldn't help being put back but I still wish I could've spent more time shooting as I was limited each time. I enjoyed the shoots and creating sessions I did do and take part in as I enjoy being hand on and trying to recreate pieces or creating thing with big inspirations. I always enjoy the blogging as I feel pretty confident with my writing online.