Week 1 – In this session, I was introduced to the Photojournalism module and what would be expected of me over the next 12-weeks. I did have a rough idea of some of the things we would cover, as I already take up photography in my spare time… therefore have already learnt and self-taught ‘the basics of using a camera’ so to speak. I chose the Photojournalism module as previously mentioned I am already knowledgable about photography and it’s something I’m very passionate about and dedicate a lot of my time towards. The task for Week 1 was to go out and find a local story in Leeds, and take photos that would be appropriately fitting to tell the story. With this in mind, I went out with my mobile photo and started looking for some inspiration on what story I could tell. I had the initial idea of going to the Leeds Musuem as they were advertising their feature exhibition on the 70th year anniversary on Miffy. Unfortunately the museum is closed on Mondays so I had to think quickly about my next idea, I decided to head on down to the book shop (Waterstones) and ask if there was any newly released books. Luckily for me there was! I spoke to one of the shop managers about the book, and how the launch of the book brought a community of people from Leeds closer together, she also shared some of the events that had put on to celebrate the newly released book. After speaking to her, I captured some images for the story, I took pictures of the book stand, some people reading the book and also a view of the shop from the outside. I then wrote up in class a story about the book release, a bit about the book itself and weeved in some of the quotes I gathered. It was a slightly daunting experience as I’m not a confident person and to walk into a book shop and ask to speak to someone about a book, was a little overwhelming – but I did it and got the story!
Week 2 – In the second week of the module, we looked at all the different types of Photojournalism and photography styles and genres. As a photographer I was already aware of a few of these genre styles and have expiremented with a couple before – for example I have captured images of sports which would be reportage photography and street portraits on my camera, which would be documentary photography. I also learnt about the differences between all the different genres as I didn’t realise there was so many! I also learned about illustrative photography and what effect that can have on an image as well as the viewer of the image.
In week 2 I also had to start thinking about what story I could tell and what type of photography I would be using. I have done a lot of sports photography so I wanted to mix it up and try and photograph something else. My focus was on a local transport business, where my brother works. They are one of the longest serving businesses in the area so I thought it would be interesting to go and talk to them and see the workplace from their perspective. This type of photography would come under industrial as I would be taking photos of trucks and offices ands working conditions for example. Therefore for the Workshop Task I had to research about my chosen style and understand that type of photography a little better. There wasn’t much online about industrial photography but I did manage to find a photographer who specialised in taking landscapes of factories and industrial parks as well as powerstations and abandoned buildings.
Week 3 – I wasn’t in this class so I didn’t initially write a reflection, however upon on submission I had noticed I hadn’t done the workshop task or reflection for this paticular week. If I also remember correctly this was the week where Chris was covering. I had a look at the workshop sheet but was slightly unsure on what the task was, so I decided to use my own images. It might be wrong, but I have a lot more understanding and research behind these images and why I chose to frame them in that exact way for example. Therefore I’ve used them for the task.
Week 4 – In this week’s class I learned about aperture and how that can affect a photo. I wasn’t actually present in Week 4 so I had to the task at home which was more convenient for me as I had access to my camera and lens. My lens has a low aperture of F2.8 and a maximum of F32. The task was to take images using different apertures to see the kind of effects it has on a image, the first image I took of my dog was at F2.8 – with this aperture the background was blurred enabling my subject in this case my dog to be completely in focus. This setting is especially good for sports and fast-paced action as it helps to get the subject in focus. I then upped my aperture to a mid-range, this then brought my background into slight focus but still kept my subject heavily in focus, my final image I cranked up the aperture to the maximum. This made the entire image in focus, a high aperture is often good for landscape photography.
Week 5 – In this week’s class I learned about shutter-speed and what effect that has on taking an image using a camera or mobile phone. It wasn’t a new piece of information to myself as I already on my own camera and have been taking sports images at professional football matches for over a year now, so I already know how to use shutter-speed correctly and when using a fast/slow shutter-speed is appropriate to match the image style I’m trying to achieve. As I didn’t bring my camera with me to class, I opted to use my mobile phone’s built-in camera. Therefore I had to shoot in burst mode to emulate a fast shutter speed and then in live mode partnered with long-exposure to demonstrate the effect that slow shutter speed has on an image.
Week 6 – In this week’s class I learned about how to use Photoshop to colour correct images post-production. I had already used the Photoshop software before because of my exsisting photography role, however I don’t often use it to edit my photos. I tend to use Lightroom Classic to edit the RAW Images and make any modifications I need to do. Therefore I learned a bit on how to make simple adjustments using the elements already built into the software. I chose to use a dark photo that I had taken on my mobile phone up on the moors, this then allowed me to challenge myself using the features and see if I could bring out the colours I wanted to.
Week 7 – In week 7, I learned the importance of cropping images. When I edit the photos I take one of the first things I do after image selecting is straighten the image, then I will also go in with the crop tool. In class and for the Workshop Task we were instructed to use Photoshop, I rarely use photoshop in my editing process, I edit and colour grade using Lightroom Classic (or mobile) if I’m on the go. But for the purpose of the task I used photoshop and selected one of the sample images provided, I cropped the image from portrait to landscape as it was a group of runners in motion and the image looked better in landscape as it matched the direction they were running in. I then also used the perspective crop tool on the same image and lined up the image in line with the running track and lines that are marked out for the runners, this helped to crop and straighten and make the image a lot tighter for viewing.
Week 8 – PROJECT UPDATES. I will admit I’ve not been the best at keeping updated as I’ve been struggling to find ideas. However, I finally have an idea and I’ve carried out the interview and taken the relevant photos. I just now need to start writing up the article and edit the photos. I also need to do some additional research and see if there any secondary sources that are evidence based that I can into the article, to back up what the owner of the dog park was saying. My new idea is I spoke to a local business woman who has built her own dog park. I went down to the site and she was really interesting to speak too, she gave me a tour of her site. There was also a customer there at the same time, so I managed to get some photos of her dogs and a quote as well on her opinions of the dog park. When I went down there wasn’t many dogs onsite as it was mid-afternoon and not on a weekend, a not very popular time, so to help me get some photos – she let me take some photos of her four dogs as well as her in front of the business sign. The angle of the story I think I will take is from what the owner was repeating a lot, about how the dogs should be free and have freedom to exercise rather than been walked on the lead on the same street walks every day and also how it’s a good thing to have for the community.
Photographic Journalism 