Portraits: Shoot 2 (FINAL)

After the last shoot, I came into this one with a much stronger vision of what I wanted to create, I also have decided that I want to use myself as a model becuase this entire project is about my relationship and I feel the only way to convey the emotions that I want is if I'm the subject. because of this I've asked my two friends to help me out and be camera assistances. I started the shoot not very well and I was under the weather on this shooting day and actually lost my glasses. I then got a message from both my camera assistances saying they were going to be late, so a bit of a rocky start. I set up the studio and the camera up myself with all the same equipment I had last time because I feel like the set up I had was pretty good on the lighting on the skin. Although setting the camera up by myself lead to the main tragedy of the shoot and that's that the whole time the camera was ever so slightly out of focus becuase I focused the camera without my glasses on. I used a chair with my bag on as the temporary subject. When my friends arrived they helped me finish off the last few things like getting the large beauty dish on the light. I set the lights to be quite brite similar to my last shoot but didn't calculate that fact that the background will now be reflecting a lot more light so the raws were a little over exposed which i had to adjust in Lightroom after the shoot. For this shoot I had a very clear idea of what I needed to be shot rather than experimenting so I was able to speed through the shoot with easy knowing I'd got everything. I needed 2 types of pictures in my shoot, subject photos of myself that I was going to try a few different things on and then secondly I needed pictures of hands. This is because I had an epiphany about how I want my finally series to be curated. 

I started shooting the subject shots as they will be the bulk of the series. I first began with just shots by myself that I eventually realised weren't working. For this shoot I brought a lot of spare clothes as alternates that I thought I could use to create different effects. With this I just kind of had a snap idea, a Eureka moment you could say, to just throw the clothes in the air. so I did.

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

When looking back on the images of the falling clothes I realised that all but one of the tops falling are clothes that have been bought for me by previous boyfriends.  and are actually some of my favourite shirts. I really like the idea of this set of three images and am genuinely considering using them (after alight adjustments on Lightroom and Photoshop) to use these 3 images as my series. One reason I'm thinking of using this bunch is because I really like the name Love Laundry for them. I think they show a very similar message to the one I've planned as I has the calamity of a break up and I feel it links to the stereotypical idea of throwing your ex partners clothes out the window and I think that's a really interesting aspect of these images that I didnt think of while shooting, I just thought it would look cool. I also love the faceless aspect of these iamges and how it stripes my identity away, I think this is where these set of images have their power as the viewer is able to place themselves into the subjects spot easier and it creates a more personal experience with the art. 

After this small detour that during shooting I didn't realise was a very good idea I went back to what I was doing in the last two shoots where I draped on red wool and played with it while my friends took pictures. Only one of the images (the last one shown ) really took my eye which is why I didnt proceed with including any of these within the final series.

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

I think the main problem I have with this set of images Is because I haven't developed the use of wool any further from the previous shoot. I like to develop my ideas a lot into their purest form as this is a work ethic that was drilled into me when I did graphics in College. 

Next I was a little unsure what to do next so I played with the wool more and got alot more pictures have I've gotten from the past shoot, I then thought about using the throwing clothes I did previously but throw the wool instead to see what kind of images I could get from this. I was hoping that it would lead to images that would have the same connotations of entrapment and turmoil, joined with the connotations that came with the faceless images that were created in Love Laundry. 

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

I loveeee these images, they came out exactly how I wanted them the really fit the vision of what I was looking for in thee images; Ethereal, semi candid, clean and bright images with abstract visuals working as metaphors for the real meaning behind the work. I wanted this look for the final pictures as this whole process is about me creating work that is beautiful to combat the unfortunate circumstances of my life. I like the work to have juxtaposition in it as I feel it can create a more impactful meaning. 

This concluded the first half of the shoot, next I did hand shots that i'm going to be using a storytellers within the series. 

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of myself from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of my Housemate Holly from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of my Housemate Holly from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of my Housemate Holly  from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

Shot of my Housemate Holly  from Portraits Shoot 2 by Joe Palmer

These are the final Images I needed for the series and I feel like I got some good ones. As I said earlier I want to use these images as story tellers I want to use the 2 individual hand picture to act as almost bookends, acting as the 2 people within the relationship and then I had my housemates hand cutting the string to show the inevitable journey of the relationship.

Overall this shoot has been fantastic, I think Ive got alot of good material to work with. I think for this bunch of photos I've going to leave the editing to be purely cosmetic, such as cleaning edges, cropping out unwanted background images. This is mainly becuase the images already say what I want them too. Next I just have to work out my curation of these images.