Contact Sheets - Portrait Series

Day 1 shoot

I went out and the first person I spoke to was very friendly and banterous, I simply asked if I could take his picture and his terms and conditions were that I was only to take a couple of pictures and that he didn't want to look like a crazy man. Fair enough. I sat with him for a while and spoke to him about his beliefs and how he became homeless. He showed me his tent but didn't want to be photographed with it.

Whilst taking these images I was considering many things, luckily the lighting was in my favor as it was sunny and he was very lively so I needed a fast shutter speed to capture his movements. I decided to overexpose my close up face shots as I wanted to be able to manipulate the highlights in post-production. I like the composition of the red highlighted image, though I would make him more central in the frame, I also think the colours are harmonious as the greys and blues go nicely together. The second highlighted image is a little more drawn back than I would have liked but again can be corrected in post, the smile and pose are interesting but I feel as though the first image is better suited to my idea because he is looking directly into the camera and at the viewer and you can see the kindness on his face.

Day 2 shoot 

I decided I would go and shoot the tents first and then hang about to see if I could chat with anyone, however, there was no one about and I decided against "knocking" on the door of the tents for a chat. Also after not being in Milton Keynes for so long all I had to go by was the news reports and articles images to have some kind of idea of what the place looked like full of tents and was kind of pleasantly surprised to see a lot of the tents which had been taken down or not there anymore.

The first image is very strong composition wise as the blue tent is centre frame and the way it is positioned creates a dynamic looking image. I also like that the light is on during the day it contrasts with the blue of the tent. 

The second highlighted image was taken a later in the day which is why the light is so orangey, the composition of the two tents is really interesting and the juxtaposition of light and dark of the tents creates a lot of symbolism. 

The third red highlighted image will work nicely as an end piece to my panoramic styled image as the light is coming in at the opposite side and goes into the underpass dingeyness.

Day 3 shoot  

On my third adventure out, I found a lot of people to talk to but a lot of them didn't want their pictures taken and I didn't want to go against what they believe. I spoke to the first bearded Scotsman and he allowed me to take one picture. I met another man who allowed me to photograph him and his dog. The last person I spoke to didn't want me to take a picture of him but allowed me to take a picture of his dog who was really friendly. 

The first red highlighted images composition is great, I worked with a slightly higher aperture which allowed me to see more of the background of the tent. I asked him to look towards and slightly up to the light and really liked the outcome of the lighting I think it creates a lot of drama to the image. 

The second highlighted image isn't as dynamic composition-wise as I would have preferred to have shot but I still think that I have captured his essence within the frame as I like that he is directly looking into the camera. 

Day 3 Reshoot 

I decided to go back out to shoot more of the tents as I wanted to create a street of tents in one image. I went out at a couple of different times during the day to see which lighting was more appealing. I feel as though the later in the day it got the softer and warmer the light was which I liked, however might not work with the style I am going for. 

Day 4 shoot 

I decided as I had some time free I would venture out one last time before I left MK to shoot the tents, I went out and shot three images and it started to snow. I decided the cold wasn't worth sticking around in. 

There were a few challenges that I faced with my shoots. One major challenge was the lack of tents, I only had a couple of local news reports to go by for what the "tent city" looked like that the time as when I was last there there was 4 or 5 tents under every underpass. Now there was only 2 or 3 under a couple of underpasses closest to the city. I decided that as I only realistically needed 3-4 tents for my "tent street" that I would revisit the existing tents as much as possible at different times to get different lighting, compositions and see who was about and if they wanted to talk.

A second challenge I faced was the amount of homeless people which I encountered. Luckily on the first day I met a really lovely man who pointed me in the right directions but that day I still only found one person. I decided the solution was to spread my shooting times throughout the days as this allowed more "coverage" to find the people I needed.

A third challenge which I faced was that the people I spoke to didn't want their photograph taken. I must have spoken to around 10 people but only 3 of them allowed me to take pictures of them and one person allowed me to take a picture of his dog as a replacement. I found the best solution for this was to disclaim first that I am not the media after a story and explain what I was doing.