2. Camera
The camera I will be using is a canon 60D which is my own personal camera. Using a personal camera removes
the problem of all the colleges cameras being booked out by other students. This will be one of the biggest
problems as many of the film students as well as the first year media students will be trying to use them. Other
problems with the camera still may occur such as mine breaking or running out of battery whilst out on a
shoot. To avoid these problems there are many things I can do. For example, if the battery were to die whilst I
was out on a shoot, luckily I have a spare battery as well as a charger which I can easily take out with me and sit
somewhere with access to a wall socket such as a café or libraries. If my camera were to break however that’s
more of a serious problem as I wouldn’t be able to get it fixed for a while and it could cost a lot of money. One
option if this were to occur would be to use my film camera which is a 35mm film Yashica camera. Many shops
such as Max Spielman's and Jessops do colour film printing within 2 hours for a small fee however since this is
going to be a black and white portfolio I would have to send the Monochrome film away which could take up
to 2 weeks. However, a way around this would be to use Ilford XP2 film which is a black and white film which
can be processed in colour, removing the 2 week wait time.
3. Equipment
As for equipment I shall be
using:
• 2 Canon 60D batteries
• An 8GB SD card
• A tripod
• Lens hood
A lot of the equipment isn’t necessary for my street photographer portfolio such as a
tripod this is because as I will be constantly walking around and moving trying to get
the perfect shot and I wouldn’t have time to set a tripod up all the time. A way to
use the tripod would be to set it and wait for the subject to walk into shot however
this would be a lot less effective and inefficient as I could be waiting a long time for
someone to appear. A problem with the tripod would be if it were to break however
I find that extremely unlikely as I probably wont be using one a lot. The more
important equipment that I will be using a lot will the 2 Canon batteries, the SD card and the lens hood. The
batteries will be useful for when one runs out of power or breaks. If this were to happen I also have 2 chargers
which will allow me to have a break in a café or library to charge for 30 minuets or so which will give me enough
power to continue. One of the bigger problems I could run into would be if the SD card was to break or get
corrupted, this could effectively lose all my work and photos I have taken. To try to minimalise the possibility of this
happening I shall be backing up my photos in many different location after each photoshoot such as my personal
computer, college computer, USB and the SD card. This will effectively save my work if anything were to go wrong
with the original SD card. The lens hood is used to stop glare from the sun on the output in the images. There really
isn’t any problems that could occur from this.
4. Software/Hardware
The software is somewhat of a problem hazard as many things can occur that can causes issues. Firstly lets
start with the software at college. For example, the college computers are macs and may use a different
version of photoshop or PowerPoint which could make it difficult to work outside of college at home or even in
a different classroom to mine as not all college computers are macs. The compatibility issues are the most
troubling as it could cause my work to become corrupted or just not run at all. To solve and avoid these issues, I
will firstly be backing and saving my work regularly to avoid corruption or loss of work. I shall be saving it in a
similar was to my photographs, such as my personal computer, college computer and USB. The least likely of
these scenarios is for the versions of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft PowerPoint to not be compatible
between my college computer and my person computer. However that doesn't mean it wont happen, so to
make sure I shall be checking the version of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft PowerPoint on my personal
computer as well as the college and library computers.
Alongside Software, Hardware is also an issue which I will be including here. For example, my college computer
or home computer may break for an unknown reason rendering it useless. It could also even be in use by
another student at the time I need. However since I have multiple saves on my USB and computers this pretty
much makes this issue obsolete.
5. Location
Location isn’t much of an issue for me as my main subject is Street photography so I could just wonder out into
the street and photography anything I see as interesting. I wont we doing this however I has selected a few
prime locations suitable for the purpose of my project. These locations being Knaresborough, York, Leeds and
Whitby. Some problems may occur such as I wont be able to get to Whitby as easily as my hometown of
Knaresborough. This is the main reason I have chosen Knaresborough as its always a safe bet to go out and take
photographs. There’s always something interesting happening in Knaresborough such as the market on
Wednesday’s, Knaresborough Castle which is a prime location for tourists and always crawling with activity.
Knaresborough train station is also a good location for tourists and activity. The Problems are more likely to
occur in Leeds and York. For example, there could be a problem with the train to and from Leeds/York and I
wouldn’t be able to make it till a later train or even another day. This isn’t much of a problem as it seems
because my project doesn’t depend on time or models that I’ve booked out or asked to use. Street
photography is a pretty wide variety of themes so I could do night photography if needed but like I said I've
always got Knaresborough as a fall-back option. Whitby is also a prime location for shooting tourists and as
they’re always doing something with the family such as crab catching or having a nice ice-cream.
6. Weather Conditions
The weather is probably the biggest issue for me as this time of year its extremely unpredictable. As you’re
aware, the UK isn’t a prime location for sunshine and I’m expecting to run into many rainy days which is a huge
problem for me. A way around this would be to get a camera umbrella which I don’t have or can afford to buy.
This would allow me to be able to continue to take photographs even when its raining and protecting the
camera from rain damage. However another problem with the rain is that there probably wont be a lot of
interesting things happening and I doubt any tourists or locals will be out in such weather.
If it were sunny this could also cause problems with my project as the light could effect the output of the
photographs dramatically but to avoid this problem from happening I luckily already have a lens hood to stop
the glare and I could also stop and evaluate the setting on the camera and adjust to the correct specifications.
Furthermore if the weather is extremely nice this could also cause problems such as overcrowding and making
it difficult to manoeuvre all my gear through the crowds and even find an interesting shot without someone
disrupting the target or walking into shot unexpectedly.
