Update #10: More Edits

Here are a few more edits of my photos which I have continued to do. The first photos of each pair are the non-edited versions, whereas the second photos are the improvements.

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Update #9: Editing

Today I have started to edit my photos. I am doing this in order to boost the quality and colour of my images from my visit to the shelter a few days ago. This is the first edit I have done. As you can see, I have made the text on the sign the focal point and also cropped it so that the sign is more centered. I have also slightly straightened the sign so that it isn't at an angle, and that it is perfectly vertical.

Here is another edit which I have done in order to make the dog food the focal point, but also boosted the colour and quality of the image by adjusting the contrast and brightness.

I am aiming to edit majority of my images, especially the ones where they aren't of the best quality where they could have been. For example, in some photos there are some parts which do not need to be there, so I would need to crop them out.

Update #8: Visit to the Animal Shelter

So today I visited the animal shelter. It was an early start as I had to be there at 08.30. When I arrived I signed myself in and was introduced to a member of staff who was happy for me to shadow and take photos of throughout the morning.

Majority of my shots were of the dogs in their kennels, but I also took photos of the signs, posters and the staff cleaning the kennels and feeding the dogs.

Here are some of the shots from today, which I need to edit using Photoshop in order to make them better quality for my photostory.

I also need to put them in order of the day, so that the photos have a narrative structure.

Update #7: Ideas for Photos

So tomorrow is the day that I head down to the local dogs home in order to take photos for my photostory. I have written down some shots which would be a good idea to use in my photostory. Here are the ideas in which I aim to get 150 photos of.

• The sign that states that it is the dog home.
• The dogs in their kennels, getting the bars in so it shows they are locked away seperated from eachother to keep them safe.
• The staff changing the food and water in their kennels.
• The staff at reception answering phone calls and taking donations.
• The surroundings at reception - showing what awards they have won and what donations they have received.
• The surroundings inside the dogs home - taking establishing shots of the building inside so the viewers of my photostory can imagine being in the room.
• The building from the outside from an establishing shot.
• The field around where the dogs normally go for walks.
• A member of staff walking one of the dogs.

I feel like these ideas will help me successfully put together my photo story and be a good, structured narrative for my audience.

Update #6: My Idea

After researching my ideas, I have decided to scrap the street performer and travelling idea as I figure it would take a lot of time and a lot of thought., money and time.

However, my recent idea, which is the one I have made contact for and am going to pursue is going to be the local animal shelter in Cheltenham.

I have arranged to go and take photos in a week and follow the staff around in order to take photos of their daily activities. The story to my photos will be a day at the animal shelter.

I think this will be a good idea as it is a local organisation, therefore if I do not like some of the photos then I can always go back and retake them. 

I like animals and enjoy spending time with animals, which is why I have chosen this organisation, as I know I will enjoy it and it will be an interest to me. It would be a great way to reflect everything that the animal shelter do for the animals, and the owners who are no longer able to take care of their animals due to medical reasons etc. 

The website for the animal shelter which I will be visiting next week is http://gawa.org.uk/, however I have also been keeping in contact with them using the social media website, Twitter.

Update #5: Research and Ideas

So today I have been set an assigment to pick a topic of my choice and write a story about it, using photos rather than words. This sounds like quite a fun module to do, however I am already struggling with ideas on what to do.

Like I have said, the idea of the module is to produce a story using images of a certain topic, newstory, career or society. For example, I looked at three in my lecture today which included one about an arctic mountain, someone who spent the day with Gloucestershire hovercrafters which sounded interesting and one on poverty around Gloucestershire.

It is quite vague so there should be many ideas, however I am undecided as to what I am most interested in in order to start mine. My mum works for the police, and I have done work experience for them before, so I am considering applying for a day with a policeman. However, they can have their interesting days and their boring days. Some days are just sitting in police cars waiting for calls. 

Another idea I had would be to travel around certain cities with my dad, as he works around the UK, and take photos of the main tourism bits. However, I feel that would be extremely cliche and typical.

So they are the easy options as it involved me going through my parents instead of making my own connections, which I probably should do. Going back to visiting cities around the UK with my dad, I could do photos of street performers and their audiences and how they are different in different cities. This way, I will not be sticking to one place and I will also be focusing on a certain type of person.

Another option, is to find a local organisation, such as the fire, medical and police staff who would be willing to take me out and take photos of them. There are also options such as the dogs home, where I can take photos of the dogs and staff showing what they do on a daily basis or the airport, where I can photograph people going on holiday and planes leaving.

So these are my two main ideas for now, but I am sure as time goes on, more ideas will come to me as I do more research and hear more ideas.

Update #4: Ulcinj Podgorica

Another photographer whose work I enjoyed browsing was Ulcinj Podgorica, travel photographer who does photo stories from all the different countries, cities and continents he visits. He is from Poland but has said he doesn't spend much time there as his main aim is to travel to as many cities around the world as possible.

I was extremely impressed with the amount of countries he has visited, visiting every country in Europe. He made countries that don't seem that interesting to me, suddenly interesting, where I found myself browsing every gallery for a while.

He uses his time in order to capture the culture, the atmosphere and the surroundings of each place, which I think is important as it gives the place he is visiting a full visual description to his audience. For example, in this photostory of Switzerland, he captured different areas of Zurich at different times of the day and also from different angles in order to give the audience a sensation of being there.

Personally I think he is great because he has obviously chosen cities which would be unique. Most travel photographers when doing my research chose the obvious places such as New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. I think it's great that he gives other cities recognition and shows them in good light.