These are the final images for my ‘Portraits’ brief. In the brief we were asked for portraits of ourselves, a family member or friend and a stranger.
This is my image I took for the stranger portion of my portraits brief. I will admit that this part of the brief was extremely difficult for me due to the fact that I have social anxiety and thus it makes it difficult for me to ask a stranger if I could take their photo however I knew that I needed to do it so I went for a walk through some of the local villages in my area and came across a garage. I knew this garage since my father goes their to repair his bikes and cars but I had never actually been inside or spoke to anyone therefore I went in and spoke to the owner explaining that I was my fathers daughter and that I had a university project which I needed to take a picture of a stranger for. The owner said I was welcome to go into the actual work area and take a picture of one of his mechanics, which is what I did. I didn’t want to ask this man to stop what he was doing since it could have been very important so I just took this image while he was still working and as it turned out, it became quite a nice image. I really like the way you can see the light from the window shining through the wheel of the car and the way it outlines some of the car parts underneath the bottom of the car. As you can see I focused a little more on the car than on the actual person simply because I felt the outline looked very attractive. I think from the picture you can tell that the man was a little uncomfortable by me taking pictures however I wanted to show this in my pictures as I wanted to keep the image ‘real’. I quite like this photo and in the end it wasn’t that difficult to ask a stranger to help me.
The next image I created for the family/friend portrait. It sounds silly but I consider my mother both my family and friend therefore I thought she would be the perfect candidate for this part of the brief. I wasn’t sure exactly how I wanted my mum to pose or where I would like to take the picture until I was walking through my house after taking some other pictures and I saw my mum making cards (a hobby of her’s) in her study and I asked her if I could take her picture which she said yes to. I focused in on her face while changing the depth of field so that the background would be blurred, however you can still see and identify the blurred items in the back. I really like the colours in this image as it created a nice contrast with the grey hoodie that my mother was wearing. I also really like the lighting in this piece because it brightens her face making it easier to see some of her distinctive features and it also shows that the room clearly has a window. Although this picture seems quite simple, I really like it as it shows my mother in natural way which is when she is her most beautiful from my point of view.
And finally this is my portrait of me for the self portrait portion of the brief. To start with I generally really don’t like having picture take due to me being so self conscious about my face and body but since it was necessary for this brief I had to do it despite being uncomfortable and in the end I didn’t really mind the picture that came out of it. I didn’t really know what to do with my hands for this picture so I leaned on them which is a nervous habit I have. There are a few things I really do like about this image though. The first is that I like the lighting in this picture, it was taken outside so all of the light was natural however I really like the way it brightened my skin and added shine to my hair, I also believe it made the greenery in the backs seem brighter as well. Speaking of the greenery in the back, that is another aspect of this picture that I like since it creates a nice contrast between my dark hair and it also looks nice against the grey hoodie I am wearing. As one can see depth of field and focus was played with to make me the main focus of the picture which yes made me feel awkward however it was a necessity. Due to me feeling uncomfortable, I didn’t really know where to look or what to do so I settled with just staring straight at the camera which in this case I think was a good idea since it showed of my eyes which is one of my few features that I actually like. All in all I may have been uncomfortable but I think the picture came out well.
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