As my final days at the yard we’re coming to an end, I took the opportunity to document the subject at work. I spent two days shadowing the subject and documenting her daily routine. I followed Chelsea around photographing her partaking in mundane tasks. I captured a mix of photographs and video. I wanted to capture a mixture of still and moving image because I want to incorporate both medias into my film.

I documented Chelseas day in chronological order, starting at 6:30am and ending the day at 5pm. I wanted to capture the regimented daily routine the subject has to do through. It was easier for me to follow the subject around for the whole day as I was able to capture Chelsea’s entire day. For my documentary I would like to incorporate the footage I captured in chronological order as this will make more sense to the audience.

Overall I was happy with the two days I spend documenting the subject. If I could redo the shoot I would have incorporated lighting and possibly a tripod. By including these elements would have given the video a professional feel. I was unable to include these elements because of the health and safety risks they would have caused. while documenting it was imperative that I kept my equipment to a minimum as they could spook the animals and cause risk to the staff. I am pleased with my results and I am looking forward to working on the video as my final piece.

Today I spent the day documenting the subject exercising and training her horses. I based myself in the school all day to capture Chelsea riding all of her lessons. I also had the opportunity to document Chelsea in one of her lessons with the team GB dressage coach. My focus for the day was to get both still and moving image of the subject training her horses. I wanted to get a range of shots looking at the the way the subject trained the different horses she was riding.

These are some of my favourite shots from the shoot. I love the head shots of the horses as the trees given a really nice background to the image. I experimented with a range of different angles, head shots, establishing shot, close ups and full body shots. By playing around with different camera angles gave me some versatility when came to photographing the same horse.

Because some of the horses I was the subject was riding were incredibly spooky and young I was unable to photograph all of the horses Chelsea was riding. I wanted to use a tripod the film the subject riding but I was unable because the tripod would have spooked the horses, so I had to do everything hand held.

I photographed Chelsea riding three different horses, I would have liked to photographed her riding more but however I was unable to photograph some of the horses she was riding because of them being prone to spooking. Overall I was happy with the results of this shoot, the still and moving image piece I created turned out well. The factor I would change if I could redo the shoot is the lighting conditions, the changing of the ambient light made if difficult to get a consistent lighting results in each of the photographs. I could solve this problem by setting up a studio style lighting set up, in which the riders rode the horses through the set up, in an ideal world this is the approach I would have taken however due to the lack of time I had this would have been unachievable.

Today I conducted a shoot looking at the daily goings on of the yard. I spend the day following the staff documenting their everyday surroundings. I wanted to capture images of the yard without the staff in them adding, creating a series of landscapes and documentary shots  of the subjects place of work.

I started the day waling around the yard and taking pictures of the inside areas of the yard such as; the tack room, the wash bay, stable and various work areas speed across the yard. I wanted to wait of the light to be right before I started taking outside shots of the subjects place of work. I spent most of my morning documenting the inside of the stables.

I wanted to give the audience an idea of the space and atmosphere the subject works in. The subject has described her place as work as boring and lifeless so I wanted to capture the subjects point of view.

As the light became more prominent, I began shooting the outside areas of the yard. I chose to shoot the outside areas in the morning just as the sun came up as I felt this gave the outside space the best light. The cold weather gave a really nice frosty effect to the images, one of my vavroute images is the frosted mirrors in the school. The image shows the audience the early starts the subject goes through everyday. I like the outside images because the sunlight give a really nice quality to the photographs.

I spend my first day of shooting the yard showing the surroundings. I wanted to get plenty of establishing shots, introducing the audience the  subjects place of work. My goal for this shoot was to capture the atmosphere of the yard. Looking back on my photographs I am happy with the quality of photograph I have achieved. Tomorrow I plan to shoot the subject at work, documenting her everyday routine. I want to take my time with each shoot assuring I get the result I want .

Today I started my first day of shooting at the subjects place of work. I spent the day in the school (the area used for riding) documenting the subject on a range of different horses. I wanted to spend a whole day in the school because the subject spends most of her time training and riding horses in the school. As Chelsea’s job is head rider for the establishment the major of her time is spent riding, so I felt it was important to document Chelsea riding her horses for an entire day.

The changing weather and lighting conditions did create some difficulties with creating consistent lighting in each photograph, however I like the look of the overcast sky which made the light really reflect off of the subjects. I focused on just capturing stills today, as I want to devote a whole day to capturing moving image. I am happy with the way this shoot went, I got some successful results considering the changing lighting conditions.

By devoting a day to each area of the subjects life I want to cover, will allow me a good amount of time to get the results I want, and will leave me plenty of time to re-shoot if necessary. I have given myself an extra day to capture some more footage of the subject riding as I felt it is such a big part of Chelsea’s life and most relevant in telling the subjects story.

Today I conducted a shoot at Addington equestrian centre in Buckinghamshire. I wanted to capture the subject in a competition environment. I managed to get permission from the event organisers to shoot at the event, so this was the perfect opportunity to capture the subject during a competition. I wanted to get a range of shots that would give the audience a clear idea of the subjects profession. Shooting this event gave me a good starting point for the project. This shoot is the first of many I plan to conduct over the next week.

I am currently saying with Chelsea (the subject) at her place of work of a week. By staying with the subject I have the opportunity to get a range of shots documenting her everyday life. So far I am happy with the shots I got at this first shoot. I managed to capture some good canid shots of the subject. The benefit to this kind of photography is that I always get canid and genuine photographs of the subject. The subject completely forgets the camera is there and just carries on with her day to day life.

If I could go back and redo this shoot I would like to capture some video footage of the subject competing. I think it would be a nice combination of photo and video to really give the audience an idea of the atmosphere and pressure competing creates. I would have also liked to get some photographs off the subject before and after she took part in the competition. Getting photographs of the subject before the event would have shown the build up and pressure of competing. However due to the limited of time I had I was unable to get the full content I wanted on the day.

Over the next week I pan to do a series of shoots involving the subject. These shoots will include; Chelsea at work doing everyday years duties, the subject schooling her horses and the environment she lives in, plus an interview. Capturing the subject doing these things will give the audience a clear indication of Chelsea’s story. I am looking forward to the shoot I have planned over the next week and hope they go as well as this shoot.

Today I had a work shop with Vivek, the assignment was to get four images of a musician for the front cover of a magazine. The assignment was studio based, I chose to shoot on a red backdrop as I liked the contrasting colours between the green trainers and red background, also the complementary colours between the supreme logo and background go well together. My approach to this task was to play around with position and level in relation to the model. Taking the model away from the mundane studio poses, and getting the subject to think of different ways to composes themselves.

This session was a useful exercise because it got me used to working with a client in a short space of time. Directing a subject in the right way is important when it comes to a shoot over a short space of time. Making the model feel comfortable and at ease is a big part of conducing a successful shoot. Building a relationship with your subject is also an important part of getting your desired results from a shoot. A technique I like to use is getting the subject to put on their favourite playlist to make them feel more at ease.

Overall I was happy with the results I got from this workshop. It was good practice in having a brief and only and few minutes to fill the brief. In the real world this would be an accurate representation of the time scale I would have shooting a musician in the real world of photography. I enjoyed this workshop because I felt it was good practice for any future jobs I may have.

These are some of the stills from my second test shoot. I wanted to get some photographs of the subject doing the activity he was talking about in the interview. I was unable to get access to the boxing gym on such short notice so I conducted the shoot in the garage were the subject often trains. I was happy with the results of the second shoot as I felt like I got more relevant content. I would have liked to get some footage of Ben in the boxing ring however the results from this shoot are effective enough for a test shoot. Overall I am happy with the results of this test shot. Next time I plan to spend some more time with the subject, so I can get more content on the subject I am photographing.