Final Image Evaluation

From my research I have taken inspiration from many self portrait artists. For example, Frida Khalo used symbolic props in her images to convey meaning. I have chosen to do this in my image. I wanted to show my shed as it is one place which I can truly use as my own and feel the most myself in this space. Therefore, it felt uncomfortable revealing the inside of my shed as it would be like exposing myself to strangers. Instead, I chose to present the outside of my shed, the same way I present myself to others, revealing very little. I chose to have my speaker in my image as this is something which holds much value to me; as I am constantly listening to music, my speaker allows me to bring music where ever I go and brings me comfort in doing so. I wanted to represent my Scottish roots somehow and decided my love for whisky would be a perfect representation of this, I nestled it in the snow and stood it up right to show that this is something which I am proud of. I lay my bong down on its side next to the bottle of whisky as this is something which I tend to hide but I wanted to include this in my image as it is, somewhat shamefully, a big part of myself. The umbrella is a prevalent feature in my life. I keep it in the shed to block out the sun. However I used it in this weather as it juxtaposes with the snow, which adds humour. Moreover, the bold contrast alludes to my personality constantly being happy or sad. There is no grey area. I chose to spread my blanket on my sofa as it is something which represents my need for comfort. 

I wanted my composition to have me central as I am essentially the main focus of this image. I also chose a low angle to shoot at as I wanted to make everything around me appear bigger and more intriguing as this is the way in which I view the world. Choosing to grip my hands tightly together is something which I do when I am uncomfortable and I hold a lot of tension in my hands which is something that I wanted to show. I thought a lot about how I wanted to position myself and how I wanted to pose and decided that this was the pose which best represents me; as it is a little uncomfortable looking as I am not sitting straight and this is something which I would like to try and work on in the future. Towards the end of the shoot I felt slightly more comfortable in front of the camera rather than behind it and through practice, hopefully, I will one day feel comfortable enough to be okay with my picture being taken. 

Overall, I am pleased with my image. I would have liked it to have been snowing at the time that the image was taken as I feel this would have added more drama to the image itself. The shadow of the bush in front of the light is distracting, though this is something which I couldn't really have controlled as I couldn't move the bush, if I were to reshoot this again I would consider using more than one external light. The light in the reflection of the window is slightly off putting too as your eyes automatically are drawn to the brightest part of the image. Also the hotspot of blown out light on the door handle is drawing focus too which I didn't really like but in future I would avoid this by bracketing my image so I would have more to work with to alter this.