Here, on the street where you live...

9 Photos:
3 People
3 Night Time
3 'Something and Nothing'
1 Street.

'Family Member' - My dad, his car is his pride and joy and so many people identify him by it. I was trying to get the refection of the water tower in the glass but failed miserably although the trees are a good contrast to the simple white of the car.

'Neighbour' - 'Uncle Tom and Aunty Pauline', I was trying to recreate a famous shot I've seen somewhere of a solemn couple, washed out and expressionless but trust the one time I need this couple's usual glumness to be one time they find their cheesy grins... I desaturated it slightly in Photoshop to get the effect I wanted.

'Unknown' - Walked to the garage in my road and intruded on the men on their break. There was only one woman working and wherever I asked them to stand the males would form a little group leaving the woman often standing alone but staying cheery, this photo I feel captured that. The lighting was bad in the dim garage and I used my shutter speeds to compensate.

I chose not to use my flash in these shots because it screams amature and I wanted practise with the shutter speeds. I seriously was in need of a tripod doing these but improvised with resting the camera on the floor or a tree..

I didn't have a clue what to do for 'Something and Nothing' so just took random snaps and picked three I liked, things that you may pass by and not really consider but think about them and they are actually something important to one or many people. I liked the layering of the second two with foreground and background objects and the different textures.

Avedon an experiment....!

Chipmunk

Gravesy

Belch

Guy

I looked at the works of Richard Avedon because he relys on expression rather than props or complicated compositions. I put people infront of the camera and simply asked them to be themselves, we chatted away and I snapped and chose photos which instinctively caught my eye, mostly because they've captured a moment. I wrote the focus' nicknames because I feel it added to the depth of the image: these are real people, not just images. I put them in the style of Avedon - and similar to that of Robery Mapplethorpe - with high contrast black and white. I touched them up so parts like their eyes and expressions were more the focus.