2. Research
• What could have been better?
The research phase of the project was a struggle for me as I didn't really understand how to write about
existing products. This was because I didn't know how to analyse photographs as products and I wasn’t sure if I
should write about their techniques instead. I wrote a background study on the four photographers including:
Henri Cartier- Bresson, Joel Meyerowitz, Helen Levitt and Nick Turpin. However I also analyzed 5 images
throughout history: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Eddie Adams, Robert Frank, Vivian Maier and William Klein.
• What would you improve on?
If I had more time I would defiantly improve on this section by writing about more than just photographers. I
would also write about existing products like many of these photographer books and websites which I
should’ve done before however I forgot about that. I would also research their techniques as well as their
inspirations and why they photograph what the do.
3. Planning
• What could have been better?
The Planning was another part of the project that I could’ve done a lot better. It wasn’t as detailed as I
would’ve hoped and this caused a problem for me as I believe that if I did this better I would have more
photographs to show for my final concept instead of the few I managed to get. If I were to create a good
production schedule that I could’ve sticked too I would’ve taken more photos giving my a wider selection of
images to choose from and greatly improving the overall quality to many of the less good images that I had to
choose because of not having enough images to choose from.
• What would you improve on?
Like I said previously, I would create a better and higher quality production/shoot schedule to help get a good
amount of images. Another thing I would improve on would be the amount of locations I chose to shoot at. I
hoped to shoot at least three locations, Knaresborough, Whitby and York. However, I only managed to shoot at
two of them, those being Knaresborough and Whitby. If I had a better production schedule I could added more
local locations such as Ripon, Harrogate and other places however I didn’t do this and that one of the biggest
regrets of planning/production.
4. Problem Solving
Problem solving was probably the strongest part of this project other than the
production and final piece I created for my FMP. This was because it was the
most detailed and covered all the issues that could’ve and did happened during
production. From weather and location issues to other obscure issues, I
managed to find a way to get around them however due to other unavoidable
problems which will later be talked about in emotional I wasn’t able to also go
out and shoot.
If I could go back and improve this I would link all this information into a
production schedule making a smooth shooting times and locations and overall
increasing the amount of images I could’ve chosen from and edited for my final
Portfolio and website.
Because a lot of these issues didn’t happen except for the weather issues such
as rain which I wasn’t able to avoid I didn’t have to use many of these during my
shoots but I'm glad I did this as detailed as I did just in case something did
happen.
5. Primary and Secondary
Similar to Research I had a hard time writing about existing
photographers work and products as I didn’t know how to analyse
the images effectively. The primary research was defiantly the
weakest part of the PowerPoint however the secondary research
was a lot more developed and helpful when it came to production.
For my secondary research I decided to interview 2 people and used
their responses to create a portfolio and website. I think this was
one of the better ideas in the research as I found this most
interesting as not a lot of people who famous photographers and
their work with most of the images being seen on tv or social media.
It was helpful to know what they look for in a portfolio and if they’d
prefer black and white to colour. The most important question and
response to my interview was the question ‘how many pictures
would you expect to see in a portfolio?’ as thy answer to this in both
interviews was marginally larger that the other.
I would improve this next time by adding more interviews as I
would’ve like to have gathered more responses and maybe even
have done a survey to send out to people so I could find the medium
between all the responses and create a more powerful and detailed
portfolio and website. I would also improved this by writing more
photography studies which would help me in the long run to learn
how to take good images and how the manage to get the emotion
through to the audience.
6. Production
Production didn’t go as smoothly as I would’ve like it to however there’s nothing I can do about that
now. Like I mentioned frequently earlier in evaluation, I think production would’ve gone a lot more
smoothly if I had a good production schedule as well as a variety of shoot locations and more
images to choose from and edit. Event ought I managed to create a good website, social media page
and 10 beautiful framed images for my FMP there was a huge gap between the best of my images
and the less good images I selected to be framed. This was yet again my fault as I should’ve gone
out and took more photography shoots to gather more images to select the good ones from. This
was my biggest regret when it came to production.
I am pleased with the final outcome and out of the projects I've done this year this was defiantly my
favourite but its still a long way away from where I want to be as a photographer. I definitely learned
a lot about photography with this project and hopefully it will come in handy further down the line.
The main thing I learnt is that great photographers taken 1000’s of images not 100’s as if I want to
be better at photography that’s what I need to work on.
7. Management
• Undoubtedly my management of the project was very insufficiently and less superior to that I
would've hoped to achieve as this point but unfortunate its too late to chance that and I can only
learn from this project what not to do.
• Time management: my time management for this project was bad from the start due to mental
and physical health. My schedule was affected by this and I didn't’t manage to accomplish was I
would've liked to have. I planned to do more photoshoots around different locations such as
Leeds and York however I couldn't’t bring myself to do this and you can see this in the quality of
my images. Alongside the production schedule, the schedule I panned for the PowerPoints was
also disappointing as they were mostly incomplete and unfinished up until this point.
8. Emotional Problems
• Emotionally, this project was pretty draining on me. Due to prior mental and physical health issues coinciding
with the amount of work that had to go into this project I fell pretty behind schedule and suffered because
of this. It was like a cycle of depression from college work and home life, one affecting the other and so
forth. I had great support from tutors however I lost the passion that I started the year with and lost interest
in the project I was doing and the course I was on. Instead of quitting and with the distant hope of going to
university I tried my best to accomplish what I could and hopefully get at least a pass that I need for the
course at university. A lot of time from myself as well as my parents and college Its somewhat looking for
possible to actual succeed and get a final grand than it did a few weeks ago. I am somewhat feeling better
about the work I did.
• For the actual production of my project I intended to make a portfolio consisting of a number of
photographs however I only managed to come out with 10 mediocre images at best. This was due to lack of
effort from myself and the incapability to leave my room and go out to take more images. I should’ve
managed to get 100’s of photo from a variety of shoots however I only managed a few different shoots with
most of them taking place in the same location at different times. Looking back now I'm disappointed that I
couldn't push myself further and accomplish more shoots in a variety of locations.
• Overall I still pretty disappointed in myself with the overall outcome of the project but somewhat a little less
that I was a few weeks ago. The images I managed to take I do believe a few of them are good buy the
others compared to those good ones are lacking in quality and effectiveness.
9. Does you product meet your intentions?
• The final product for this project somewhat met my intentions. Those intentions being a black
and white street photography portfolio and that’s what I accomplished. However the standard
and quality of the finished project did not meet my intentions. The research and planning didn't
reach those intentions either. This doesn't mean that I don’t like what I produced and created
however it just didn’t meet my intentions. The outcome of the project were 10 black and white
images however I intended to have 100’s of images to look through with a range of good images
however I didn't’t reach that goal.
