The Second Shoot
The Second Shoot
The activities that horse owners have to go through are not always glorious. This was a not so glorious day; 'poo picking day'. I didn't mind this as it turned out to be a rather social activity; talking is a way to fight through the boredom and helps jut get on with it, which allowed me to understand them and the horses better. I learnt that 'Beans', their newest horse is too young to ride, and how everybody loves her so much that Lisa and Martin rarely get to actually look after her because their friends and guests always want to care for her.
I started shooting at sunset, around 5pm and stayed for around an hour. While I didn't continuously take pictures for a full hour, I spent a lot of time talking and making myself familiar with the couple. This helps me gain trust between me and the subjects, which I feel is needed as i'm going to be with them a lot, and I aim to get closer to them and their work as the weeks progress, once they get more and more comfortable with me I would like to do their portraits with them looking into the camera.
Admittedly, the images from this roll of film aren't my favourite. My preferred ones from this contact sheet are actually ever so slightly out of focus which in some cases can be seen as artistic choice, however to me it's just irritating as these images would be more atmospheric without motion blur. an example of this is (4) and (6); I love the light coming in, and how 4 shows them together, a pair, a team, however I found it hard to focus on them while we were all walking, and so the image is far from perfect. With (6) I found it difficult to see when the eye was in focus and got it wrong slightly, which you can see when it's blown up, however I now know that I'd like to reshoot something very similar.
I do quite like (17) and (20) however. (17) is rather simplistic, with Martin being the disruption between perfect lines and scenery, and so the attention is drawn directly to him. You can tell by his stance that he puts effort into his role, he gets on with it and doesn't grump around. He appears to be rather content and focused. I quite like that he isn't central to the image but slightly to the right, whereas the wheelbarrow is more central, which highlights the importance of the equipment he uses to go about his tasks.
(20) shows the trust and companionship that Libby (the horse) and Lisa have together as Libby has her head turned and is letting her owner get on with what she has to do, as if she knows. Equipment and reigns hang from Lisa's arm as her hands fiddle with the reigns currently on the equine friend. We then understand that Lisa knows what she's doing, that she has knowledge of what needs doing and how to do it, which is true. Lisa smiles at Libby, however I suspect this was for the camera. In the future I'd like to capture her and Martin's true emotions, whether that be happy, bored, miserable, or grateful, or perhaps Lisa was genuinely just smiling at her horse.
This shoot was partly inspired by Lewis Hine; as the pair were poo picking anyway I felt that this would be a good chance to show them with their equipment as Hine did with the images of the children. While our images are completely different in terms of subjects and composure, they similarly hide away identities. Hine didn't always do this, but in some of the images I am most interest in, he does (see research on Lewis Hine), and within my favourite images of this roll of film we don't see the faces of Lisa or Martin.
I started shooting at sunset, around 5pm and stayed for around an hour. While I didn't continuously take pictures for a full hour, I spent a lot of time talking and making myself familiar with the couple. This helps me gain trust between me and the subjects, which I feel is needed as i'm going to be with them a lot, and I aim to get closer to them and their work as the weeks progress, once they get more and more comfortable with me I would like to do their portraits with them looking into the camera.
Admittedly, the images from this roll of film aren't my favourite. My preferred ones from this contact sheet are actually ever so slightly out of focus which in some cases can be seen as artistic choice, however to me it's just irritating as these images would be more atmospheric without motion blur. an example of this is (4) and (6); I love the light coming in, and how 4 shows them together, a pair, a team, however I found it hard to focus on them while we were all walking, and so the image is far from perfect. With (6) I found it difficult to see when the eye was in focus and got it wrong slightly, which you can see when it's blown up, however I now know that I'd like to reshoot something very similar.
I do quite like (17) and (20) however. (17) is rather simplistic, with Martin being the disruption between perfect lines and scenery, and so the attention is drawn directly to him. You can tell by his stance that he puts effort into his role, he gets on with it and doesn't grump around. He appears to be rather content and focused. I quite like that he isn't central to the image but slightly to the right, whereas the wheelbarrow is more central, which highlights the importance of the equipment he uses to go about his tasks.
(20) shows the trust and companionship that Libby (the horse) and Lisa have together as Libby has her head turned and is letting her owner get on with what she has to do, as if she knows. Equipment and reigns hang from Lisa's arm as her hands fiddle with the reigns currently on the equine friend. We then understand that Lisa knows what she's doing, that she has knowledge of what needs doing and how to do it, which is true. Lisa smiles at Libby, however I suspect this was for the camera. In the future I'd like to capture her and Martin's true emotions, whether that be happy, bored, miserable, or grateful, or perhaps Lisa was genuinely just smiling at her horse.
This shoot was partly inspired by Lewis Hine; as the pair were poo picking anyway I felt that this would be a good chance to show them with their equipment as Hine did with the images of the children. While our images are completely different in terms of subjects and composure, they similarly hide away identities. Hine didn't always do this, but in some of the images I am most interest in, he does (see research on Lewis Hine), and within my favourite images of this roll of film we don't see the faces of Lisa or Martin.
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