Shoot Two Work Record

Plans for the Shoot

I will take my images using my Nikon D5300 DSLR Camera and will adjust the setting for each specific situation to suit the shot I am taking. The shoot will take place at Mutts in Distress in Little Hallingbury in Hertfordshire on 18th February, and I plan to take images in several locations at the centre including the kennels and runs, the kitchen and the reception area as well as the field outside.

My plan is to firstly try  to improve some of the images that I took during the first shoot by making some adjustments to the composition, lighting etc. These are:   

1.       The image of the worker scrubbing the floor in the corridor

2.       The image showing the feeding of the dogs through the hatch 

I was told that Daisy the cat has an appointment at the vet to get some of her stitches out so I will not be able to take any photos of her on this shoot as I had planned, so will hopefully be able to improve on them in my next again shoot.

In this shoot I want to capture more of the other routine tasks the workers do such as replacing wet/dirty bedding in the dogs’ baskets. This I had planned to capture in my first shoot but ran out of time. Other tasks I plan on capturing are the washing of the dog bowls as well as taking more detailed shots of the preparation of the dog’s meals. I also want to capture reception duties with the workers using various pieces of technical equipment.

There is an idea that I have that I plan on testing out during this shoot. I want to photograph a worker walking along an outside run, and capture their image from a distance away when they appear at a gap created between the trunk of an old tree and the ladder leading up to a tree house. This is a sort of decisive moment type of image that H C-B tries to capture, using lines and geometric shapes in the composition.  During this shoot I will test if the composition will look effective by placing a person in this position.

Due to the country-wide ban on keeping birds outdoors because of the risk of spreading a bird virus I will be unable to take any images of them at the moment. So will have to wait for the ban to be lifted, and will plan on leaving some time in later shoots to capture this.

What I Hope to Achieve

I want to compose my images so that the viewer’s attention is directed towards the subject and the task they are doing in my images. In the image showing the cleaning and disinfection of the floor I want to highlight the worker doing this using framing, and converging and leading lines. Having a clean and relatively sterile environment is very important in kennels as any dogs coming in could have infections or diseases that could quickly spread making all the dogs ill. The staff spend a lot of time doing this time consuming and physically tiring task. This image would therefore be important in showing the large amount of effort the workers do in caring for the dogs at the centre.

I want to capture a wider selection of tasks that the workers do, in addition to those shown in the first shoot. I want to show the variety of tasks they do as well as tasks involving skills such as dealing with the public or using technology. This should impress upon the viewer that kennel workers do a variety of skilled tasks too and should earn them more respect and be seen with a higher regard. These tasks include reception duties such as answering the phone, using the computer and printer, credit/debit card readers and the dog tag engraver.  By showing images of staff using these pieces of equipment it will highlight their technical skills as well as their ability to interact with the public in a positive way using their people skills. Lewis Hine in his images of workers captured their skill and knowledge in working with machinery and so illustrated his respect and even the heroic nature of their work such as with the workers on the Empire State Building. I hope that my images capture my respect for the Centre workers too. 

I also want to show the other routine duties the staff do but where possible show the scale of the work involved, such as:

·         Replacing dirty bedding in the kennels with clean ones

o   Show by capturing images of huge bundles of bedding

·         The laundry of dirty bedding

o   Show staff using the industrial size washing machine and tumble drier

·         The preparation of dog meals

o   Show towers of dog bowls stacked up high

·         Show the other animals there being fed e.g. sheep, donkeys, horse, cats to illustrate the variety of animals there that need caring for

For each of these I want to capture the huge amount of laundry and the large number of bowls to visually emphasise the volume of work involved. 

I also want to develop some of the images I took in the first shoot, these include:

·         the view of the worker scrubbing the floor in the corridor to see if I can improve the composition of the image

o   Try different locations of the worker along the corridor

o   Vary the angle a little to see if there is any improvement

·         the feeding of the dogs through the hatch images

o   Improve the lighting inside the kennel

o   Crop the frame more to focus on the hatch

For the majority of these shots I will be taking images of Carol the volunteer worker as this is least disruptive for the staff there, as she has more time to spare for me to try different things. In addition she will be doing the same tasks as before, so this gives me the opportunity to change things to try improve my images.

What I Achieved

I captured some good initial  images of work in the  reception area. Firstly with the working of the tagging engraving machine then sitting at the reception desk where they book in new dogs. This image shows that the staff at the Centre does not just do manual work but are also are skilful with using technology (computer, printers, tagging machine) and also have people skills as well to interact well with the public. Throughout taking these images a cat called Puzzle that lives at the Centre and spends a lot of her time in the reception area, followed us around looking for attention, so I included her in the shots. 

In this image Puzzle is sitting on the reception desk as if she is there to greet people herself. She is in the centre of the image in the foreground so is the dominant subject. Though I often avoid placing subjects in the centre of an image as this can be seen as boring, I think this works here. It’s as if Puzzle is a barrier blocking your entrance unless she is given attention first, its as if she is the receptionist. Puzzle is a beautiful fluffy cat with striking ginger/black and white colouring and I thought she looked perfectly at home with the curves of the reception desk giving the image a soft relaxed feel. This relaxed feeling is also conveyed in her posture within the curves of her back, head, chest and her tail that follows the desk around to the left. Her long fluffy hair adds to this soft feeling, as well as the way she is looking directly at the camera and therefore the viewers, making them feel she is personally welcoming them to Mutts.

I also changed the image using Photo shop. I wanted to try to change the mood of the image from a relaxed calm one to an eye catching dramatic one that people will remember and will stop and take notice of. In this way they are more likely to remember the Mutts charity and so it will raise their profile.   I gave the image a hue, making it look purple and green and posterised the background with 17% opacity for subtlety. I felt that being greeted by a cat with purple ears would be memorable to the viewer. It also makes the image more surreal and I like this effect as I am a fan of the supernatural. It makes Puzzle appear to be more than just a cat and perhaps she has other hidden abilities such as speech.  

To try to improve the corridor image with the worker scrubbing/drying the floor I tried taking it at slightly different angles, as well as taking images of the worker at different positions along the corridor. The different angles didn’t work as this moved the worker out of the frame created by the back wall, so I dismissed this as an idea.

I managed to improve the lighting of the dog being fed its meal through the hatch so that now you can see the worker much more clearly. This definitely improves the viewers ability to understand what the image is showing them. I would have liked to get the dogs face just above the bowl about to eat his dinner but he was so excited about his dinner he was eating it before the bowl was on the floor.  I think the way the worker’s arm leads the viewer’s eye to the dog being fed is also good. I still think that inside the kennel could be a little lighter to be able to see the worker better, the black jacket the volunteer has on makes it a little difficult to see her but I do not want any bright colours as this will distract from the focus on the task of feeding the dog.

This is an image showing the rescued donkeys and some of the sheep that live at the Centre being given treats of slices of bread by a worker. There is a stable in the background as well as high green bushes and the sun is shining through behind the open space to the right of the stable. I used the rule of odds to compose this image, 1 person, two donkeys and two sheep, making 5 in total, in order to make sure the viewers focus was on one of the subjects and not on empty space. I think the image worked out very well as all four of the animals were looking directly at the worker, waiting their turn for some bread. This focuses the attention on them being fed and cared for. Additionally the sun was shining and this created a rectangle of light in the mud where the worker and the sheep on the left were standing and this further focused attention on them. The top of the head of the worker and
 the backs of the sheep and a donkey are also highlighted by the light from the setting sun. In my  research of photographers I noted how some use natural sunlight to frame their subjects. James Ravilious and Fan Ho have used this technique in several of their images with great effect. The condition of the field with its thick mud shows that the workers have to walk through it to reach the animals, and their willingness to do this show their dedication in caring for the animals. This worker looks relaxed so closely surrounded by the four large animals’ showing that she is used to interacting with them and them with her. She also does not appear to be aware that she is being photographed and this makes the image appear more natural. The long shadows show that the sun was getting low in the sky and this side lighting helps to create a sense of space and substance giving the image depth and making it appear more three dimensional. The difference between light and shadow reveal the form in the image and the highlighted areas draw the eye to the contours of the subjects and further focuses the viewer’s attention towards the centre of interest. I think that in order to improve this image I would change the depth of field to blur the background and reduce any distractions from the subject. 

This image is the test for a composition I am planning based on inspiration from HCB and his decisive moment as well as other photographers who use framing in their images such as Lee Friedlander, Fan Ho, Graeme Williams and  Raghubir Singh.  I planned this image in my head where I would capture a worker walking along the corridor at the back of the outdoor kennel runs.  I wanted to capture their image viewed from a distance away through a space created between the trunk of an old tree and the ladder up to a tree house.  I would then wait for the worker to walk along the corridor and reach this point where I would take their image. 

When viewing this image the viewer’s eye will naturally be drawn first to the horizontal lines of the roof and floor of the kennel block. But as these lines are slightly converging their eye will be drawn along these lines and will be stopped when the lines are intersected with vertical lines coming from the walls of the individual kennel blocks as well as the tree and the ladder. This interruption to the flow of the viewers eye along the horizontal block of kennels adds a little drama to the image. In the final image I will make sure the dogs will be in their runs so there will be dogs of various sizes and colours in different poses to attract attention at each stop and this will add interest to the image.  I also think that the texture of the old tree adds interest to the image as well as the perception of age and strength, which will then be associated with the work of the centre. Implying that the work the centre does is powerful and enduring. Although I think the large trunk of the tree is a bit too dominant in this image, so I may leave part of it out of frame the next time . This was just a quick test to see if it would work well as a composition and now that I see that it has promise it will require further development in my next shoot.

What I am going to do Next

Daisy the cat will be back from the vets so I will take more images of her. I will try to capture her scar and a worker in the same image to create an emotive image showing the care being taken of an injured animal.

I would like to capture some images inside the second block of kennels as they have kennels on both sides of the wall, not just one side. This may make for more interesting perspectives in my images which I can make use of.

I would like to get some images of workers interacting in a fun way with the animals. Most of the images I have taken so far have been of the work tasks so I should spend some time taking images of the fun aspect of working at Mutts too.

There is a dog at Mutts called Zoya who came from Romania. She contracted the virus distemper but recovered from this but was left very nervous and afraid of people. A volunteer at Mutts spends short periods of time sitting with her in her kennels giving her treats in order to get her more comfortable around people. I will try to capture this interaction to show the time staff spend rehabilitating dogs in need, in order to help them find a home.

I will need to further test my decisive moment image between the tree and the ladder. I will now try to capture a worker going along the corridor in the runs as they go about cleaning them. This will be slightly further away than what my first image captured, so they will be smaller. I will also like to see what the image looks like with dogs in their runs. If I am lucky they will be looking at the worker as she passes along and this will further direct the viewer’s attention.