Photo Shoots & Editing

25thMarch2014

These are the final images produced from the overlapping inspired photo shoot. I feel that I have achieved exactly what I intended to, the imagery really speaks for itself, the concept of boxing, movement and elegance is all portrayed through one composition. In order to produce these final images I had to take about 100 photographs of a single movement e.g. skipping or punching… As simple as this may sound - clicking away while my model skips/punches - it certainly was not. I used a pop up studio for this shoot, which consisted of a flash and a soft box, so repeatedly clicking away at the shutter button will only deactivate the flash producing pitch black photos. Potentially I wanted capture the rope at different positions as it moved, but it seemed to be getting it at the same position every time.  Embarrassingly, to resolve this problem I had to ask my model to slowly do one skip at a time and I would then calculate by eye when I would have to release the shutter button. This was an extremely slow process but the results produced were definitely worth it. Once I had collected all the photos I needed, I transferred my images into one document on Adobe Photoshop and simply altered the opacity of each layer until I was satisfied.

(Authors Own, Experimenting with photoshop skills - Skipping&Boxing)

27thMarch2014

(Authors Own, Experimenting with photoshop skills - Masculine vs. Feminine)

Unlike the previous shoot this one proved to be much simpler due to the movements required. As I previously mentioned, dance is becoming a new inspiration for my project. Before the shoot I researched ballet poses by watching clips on youtube and googling images. I converted these ideas into a visual mood board to show my model and then I let him move freely while I photographed him. The casting for this particular model was easy, this is a friend of mine who previously attended gymnastic classes, his physique is slim but muscly, not too big and not too small. The poses that he was performing accentuated his muscles greatly which worked really well when creating the double exposure. The only difference concerning editing this shoot was that I felt the images needed more contrast, so that the shadows created by his muscles were accentuated. The positioning of the overlapping muscles reminded me of wings which motivated the next idea [see below]. I decided to really play on the idea of masculinity and femininity. So I then styled my model in all white boxing gear; white hand wraps, white boxing gloves and white shorts with a pair of handmade angel wings. The angel wings really exaggerate the feminine aspect of my idea, so to counter balance this I decided to super impose tattoos all over my models back and arms. I shot with and without wings. I am really happy with the results produced from this shoot, it spurted from a random creative visual and its transpired into another interesting visual. If I were to reproduce these images at any stage and build upon them, I think I'd give a lot more thought into tattoo design and placement, but for this idea I think its worked well.

2ndApril2014

(Authors Own, Experimenting with photoshop skills - Boxing vs. Ballet)

Test Film

17thMarch2014

Following on from the previous post, this is the short film I produced in conjunction with the documentary style photography. Unfortunately the short film wasn't finished in time for the group crit, so I didn't have time to listen to my peers views and opinions on what I had achieved, nor did I have time to add in the ideas I was given. I am not entirely satisfied with the final outcome of this film, for example some of the clips run for too long and can be repetitive or boring, but the main focus when producing this film was to obtain skills to use equipment needed to produce a film e.g. Camera skills and practicing with editing software. The film hasn't been completely  useless due to the footage I have collected and the fact I have gained useful and transferable skills. As well as this I feel like the downfalls will help me choose what will work well together and what wont, and how long to preview certain clips for to keep my audience engaged. The film is not conceptual enough for a final piece but I think it would work really well for an Adidas [logo mostly present throughout] or a promotional boxing advertisement. Something perfect I can make use of from this film is the soundtrack I have chosen. It has a close connection to the boxing world as it has been used for many fighters 'big entrances' and used in many short boxing films. I think this part of my project has taught me the biggest lesson so far, and I am really happy that I have seen this process to the end this early on in

(Authors Own, Experimentation film - Learning how to use software and equipment)                             my project, because now I feel fully prepared and extremely excited to tackle the final film piece.

(Authors Own, Documenting Street-wise gym in Loughton)

First Photo Shoot at Street Wise Gym, Loughton

15thMarch2014

(Authors Own, Portraits of Boxers)

(Authors Own, Documenting Street-wise gym in Loughton)

This particular page demonstrates the images I produced on my visit to Street-Wise gym in Loughton. On arrival I aimed to only capture footage for a short film, but when I had finished up with the filming a member of the gym asked me to take a picture of him posing with a fellow fighter "Phillip Bowes" [who I filmed]. I was initially determined to produce my documentary style images in an old fahsioned, vintage gym e.g. Repton Boxing Gym in Bethnal Green, so that my compositions echoed character and history that is often associated with boxing. When I was actually there, in the thick of all the testosterone, sweat and grunts, the atmosphere alone created a perfect environment for me to shoot. This sparked a spontaneous idea so I had to think fast about the sort of outcomes I had planed, combined with having to adapt my initial ideas to suit the new location. Unprepared and not very confident I continued to take these "typical" after fight shots of some of the guys. Following on from this I asked a few more members if it would be ok for me to take some simple portraits of them. Some were confident and happy to help, while others were not so sure, but with a bit of persuasion I managed to capture some really beautiful high contrast, black and white images. The compositions are simple head shots with complementing backgrounds, which have been edited in Adobe Photoshop so that the focus is on the individual with a subtle hint of boxing in the background to confirm the meaning of the shoot. The other images have the same impression as the portraits, but unlike the portraits, these images are less contrived with no posing at all. I just observed some of the things going on in the gym, such as training, sparing, resting, equipment etc and documented it as everything was happening around me. I am really happy with both sets of imagery I have produced. Although it wasn't what I had originally set out to do, I feel that I have exceeded my first idea by creating an atmosphere of adventure, experience and history purely through the use of photography, and carefully selected compositions.  

Following on from this photo shoot was another peer crit session. This time there were different people in my group which meant I acquired different and unique responses and ideas, this is always useful to me because I think I learn best when I analyse other peoples work and vise-verse. I raised the point based upon my own work that I wasn't entirely happy about the way in which my project was moving in. I thought it was too sport based and there weren't enough conceptual, interesting, thought provoking ideas incorporated within in the work. I proposed the visualization of contrasting the conflicting practice of Dance with Boxing. Not everyone was keen on the idea, but I was given loads of great ideas that I could use in my work. For example someone suggested comparing and contrasting the different between street fighting / judo with boxing, another suggestion was child boxing / women's boxing with male boxing. I personally thought that contrasting another fight based sport or opposite sex boxing was still too sport based and this isn't what I was really aiming for. I still considered some of the ideas I was given, but im also interesting to explore the idea of dance.

(Authors Own, Documenting Street-wise gym in Loughton)

(Authors Own, Documenting Street-wise gym in Loughton)