Assignment 4 - the best of the rest

I decided to post these six photos first in order to show the 'strong selection' of photographs I had taken for the travel publication. These would be the supplement to the six photographs I would actually select for the travel publication. I still tried to provide variety within the selection of 'the best of the rest' though, with the intention of not selecting images similar to one another in this selection and with the final selection that I would post in the next post.

   The first of the photos (number 1) that didn't quite make it into the final selection was a photograph of a man and his dog as an accent in the middle of Greenwich Park. While it showed off the scale of the park well in comparison to the man and his dog, I felt there were more 'action-packed' shots to choose from. However the minimalist side of just one tiny focal point worked well, I thought. Because he was quite a small accent in the context of the scene I chose to employ a bit of dodging and burning - dodging the man and creating a vignette burn around the man to highlight him. This was to make him stand out more.

1.

   Second (number 2), was a photograph I had a hard time justifying to leave out of the final selection. It comprised of two young children, sitting in a cable car that went over the river Thames at North Greenwich, with the O2 Arena in the background. I thought it was well-composed with other cable cars visible as well as the O2 Arena and also managed to capture the moment - the expressions on the childrens' faces was telling.

2.

   The third (number 3) shot I chose to be in the final dozen photos (but not the selected six) was a shot that aimed to capitalise on what I felt was quite a success with a few of the exercises leading up to this fourth assignment for People and Place. This was the use of motion blur of people in a scene with the technique used primarily to show a sense of busyness. The technique worked well here too at a (very) busy Greenwich Market; helping to depict how crowded and full of activity the place appeared.

3.

   Fourth (number 4), was probably the photo I worked hardest to get and I was a bit disappointed to be leaving it out. I did leave it out in the end though because it was a bit similar to one of the photographs I was adamant about leaving in. Here was a night scene from the Royal Observatory overlooking Greenwich Park and then further away Canary Wharf. The reason I had to work hard to get it was simply due to the convenience of finding people overlooking the view at night (which I felt added to the photo) and getting the lighting right to illuminate them. In order to illuminate them I used flash lighting and it was difficult to get the angle right without creating harsh shadows but eventually I managed to succeed and I was satisfied with what I had achieved. That was the main reason not including this picture in the final selection was a bit hard for me.

4.

   The fifth photograph (number 5), I found interesting but not as strong as some of the others. It was taken inside the Maratime Museum. It was perhaps a fairly orthodox shot of a couple exploring the museum. The thing I liked about this photograph though was the framing - an (important) inclusion of a boat model combined with the couple with visible facial features and the backdrop of the museum. Incidentally, I also dodged the couple to make them more apparent (a technique I was finding very useful).

5.

6.

   Finally, and after much deliberation, I left out a theatre shot from the final selection (number 6). While I liked the shot because of its atmosphere I felt it lacked context a bit - it was difficult to set this Greenwich Theatre setting from a different theatre. I suppose it showed some of the local Greenwich people in the audience (albeit their backs) but I felt I had stronger images for the final selection.