Lauren explored the theme of fantasy for her Unit 4 photography portfolio. She enjoyed this theme the most as it allowed her to be creative and have fun. Her favorite shoots were from her exam, including a "Little Mermaid" inspired shoot at the beach, which she felt rivaled the work of her inspiration Annie Leibovitz. Overall, Lauren found the unit rewarding but physically challenging as she made cardboard props and carefully set up shoots to realize her fantasy concepts.

1. Lauren
Barrett
A2
Photography
Unit
4
Project
Evaluation:
For
my
Unit
4
portfolio,
I
decided
to
explore
the
theme
of
Fantasy.
I
honestly
think
that
this
has
been
my
favourite
unit
out
of
all
of
the
projects
I
have
completed
over
the
last
2
years,
because
it
gave
me
the
biggest
opportunity
to
be
creative
and
have
more
fun
with
my
work.
I
was
immediately
drawn
to
the
theme
of
Fantasy
as
soon
as
the
Unit
4
paper
was
released,
as
the
idea
of
creating
mythical
characters
and
surreal
imagery
has
always
been
an
interesting
topic
for
me,
and
I
felt
that
I
was
ready
to
take
on
such
a
huge
photographic
challenge.
Unit
4
has
been
the
only
unit
where
I
have
had
most
of
my
shoots
planned
from
the
very
start,
which
allowed
me
to
complete
all
of
my
physical
work
early
enough
to
allow
me
extra
time
towards
the
end
of
the
project
to
dedicate
to
my
contextual
work
as
well
as
experimenting,
which
is
often
the
complete
opposite
of
how
I
have
had
to
work
on
previous
portfolios.
Whilst
I
enjoyed
designing
all
of
my
potential
shoots,
props,
characters
and
locations,
it
was
physically
very
challenging,
as
I
often
had
to
spend
the
previous
night
cutting
out
various
shapes
from
cardboard
and
then
painting
them
to
my
desired
effect.
Then
there
was
the
challenging
side
of
actually
setting
up
my
shoots,
which
often
involved
me
hanging
some
of
the
shapes
and
letters
I
had
created
the
night
before
using
fishing
wire,
which
often
took
up
a
lot
of
my
time
prior
to
the
actual
shoot
itself.
However,
I
somewhat
enjoyed
that
process
as
I
could
feel
myself
really
putting
effort
into
each
and
every
shoot,
whereas
I
might
not
have
cared
as
much
during
Units
1-­‐3,
and
it
was
nice
to
see
my
hard
work
build
up
to
create
my
final
pieces
at
the
end.
These
processes
of
creating
and
setting
up
cardboard
props
lead
to
me
following
a
sub-­‐topic
of
storybooks
and
fairytales,
hence
the
idea
of
pop-­‐up
characters
and
settings,
which
helped
to
influence
my
shoots
ahead
to
allow
a
strict
and
recurring
theme
throughout.
There
weren’t
many
shoots
that
I
didn’t
enjoy
this
year,
but
my
favourites
were
actually
my
shoots
from
my
exam.
I
surprisingly
enjoyed
the
exam,
and
felt
calm
about
conducting
the
three
separate
shoots
as
I
felt
I
had
enough
experience
and
knowledge
to
get
beautiful
results
without
any
official
help.
I
even
used
an
‘outside’
model
for
the
first
time
during
the
exam;
a
young
girl
called
Amy
whose
mum
responded
to
an
advert
I
posted
on
Facebook.
Although
I
was
nervous
about
working
with
someone
I
had
never
met
before,
it
actually
encouraged
me
to
provide
the
best
pictures
possible
and
I
actually
had
a
lot
of
fun.
My
favourite
from
the
week
was
my
‘Little
Mermaid’
inspired
shoot
with
my
friend
Jess.
She
was
able
to
drive
us
to
Clacton
at
the
time,
which
was
exciting
because
the
beach
was
the
perfect
setting
for
my
mermaid-­‐themed
shoot
and
added
a
greater
sense
of
realism
to
my
work.
I
enjoyed
working
somewhere
where
I
had
never
photographed
before,
and
I
think
the
colours
in
the
costume
that
I
had
also
created
worked
really

2. Lauren
Barrett
A2
Photography
Unit
4
well
in
the
surrounding
scenery,
which
really
made
my
final
pieces
stand
out.
The
shoot
was
inspired
by
Annie
Leibovitz,
one
of
my
favourite
photographers
of
all
time,
and
her
Disney
Dreams
series
where
she
photographs
celebrities
in
Disney
costume
and
setting
to
show
similarities
between
the
cartoon
itself.
I
wasn’t
particularly
impressed
by
her
‘Little
Mermaid’
shoot,
which
inspired
me
to
do
it
myself,
and
I
personally
feel
that
the
results
are
as
good
as
they
could
have
been
considering
I
was
working
on
a
dramatically
smaller
budget!
Other
than
my
exam
work,
my
other
favourite
shoot
is
the
one
inspired
by
magical
spells
and
potions,
such
as
those
seen
in
Fantasy
films
such
as
Harry
Potter.
I
did
two
like
this,
to
show
my
progression
and
experiments,
as
I
couldn’t
work
out
the
best
way
to
light
the
shots
to
get
a
‘glowing’
effect
from
the
food
colouring
as
I
placed
it
into
each
glass
of
water.
I
started
by
lighting
the
white
background
only,
and
placing
a
square
object
either
side
of
the
glasses
to
create
a
distinctive
black
line
around
the
edge
of
each
glass
to
make
it
stand
out
against
the
background.
Whilst
this
did
work,
the
food
colouring
that
I
used
was
quite
old,
and
so
they
didn’t
come
out
very
bright
in
the
images.
I
then
tried
a
different
technique
of
placing
the
glasses
on
top
of
a
light-­‐box,
and
with
the
use
of
some
brand
new
colours,
the
images
looked
like
they
were
glowing,
which
is
the
exact
effect
I
was
looking
for,
and
so
it
certainly
brought
a
more
magical
appearance
to
my
work.
This
shoot
also
allowed
me
to
create
an
animation,
where
I
made
the
colours
in
one
image
fade
throughout
the
entre
colour
spectrum
and
repeat,
which
I
would
say
is
one
of
the
strongest
and
most
aesthetically
beautiful
pieces
I
have
ever
created.
Overall,
I
would
say
I
haven’t
had
any
negative
thoughts
about
this
Unit.
I
certainly
learned
from
previous
topics
to
keep
on
top
of
my
contextual
work
so
that
it
doesn’t
seem
so
much,
which
I
did
do
and
it
really
helped
me
to
focus
on
my
physical
photography
more.
I
have
had
so
much
fun
conducting
all
of
my
shoots
and
experiments,
bringing
the
dreamlike
world
to
life,
and
I
only
hope
that
I
get
to
keep-­‐up
photography
as
one
of
my
hobbies
once
I
move
on
to
University
at
the
end
of
September.