In reflection of the first week, I not only thoroughly enjoyed the task but believe I made a good first attempt.

This module is a large part of why I took this course and photographic journalism is an industry that I would love to work in someday. Because of this reason, I went into our first seminar very excited and with an open mind.

I have always loved the creativity and emotion behind photography, and have long-admired photojournalists (to mention a few: Mihaela Noroc, Matt Karsten, Alice Aedy, and projects like Humans of New York and Atlas of Beauty). I also love meeting – and speaking to – new people, which suggests that this module will be my favourite this semester.

In reflection of the task, I am pleased with how I handled it considering it was only week one – however, if I were to do the task again there are a number of things I would have done differently.

Things I did well:

• I made sure to take as many photos as possible, and multiple shots of that same thing to ensure that I had a good shot amongst them all. I found this beneficial as some of the shots had better lighting than others, and it gave me a chance to do slight variations of certain shots to find the one that looked the best. I imagine when we start experimenting with aperture and shutter speed that doing multiple shots of the same thing will become second nature as we start to find out which style we prefer
• I always shot in landscape
• I spoke confidently and asked relevant questions. I didn’t know how the interview was going to pan out so I made sure to speak confidently and be friendly with him, as I have found from experience that people will obviously be more open and welcoming when you act confident – even if you’re not!

Things I would do differently next time:

• I would have gone independently from the beginning, to not waste as much time. I tend to work better on my own anyway, so in future weeks I will make note of that and go alone straight away. I am really looking forward to this module and it is something I am very passionate about – however not everyone in my group feels the same way and this can be very disheartening and unmotivational when you are working with people who are not as passionate or motivated as you. I will be doing this differently to avoid the frustration I felt on the day
• I also believe that I could have followed the brief more accurately, by representing a typical ‘day in the life’ rather than just photos of the shop and asking his questions about working in an independent shop. I was however, pushed for time meaning that I couldn’t have spent an entire day with him – which would have understandably got a better result. However, this is simply down to time and if I were to do a similar topic for my end project then I would have spent the entire day with him instead in order to create a more detailed end product that more accurately represented a ‘day in his life’

To see the pictures and quotes I got from the first week’s task, click here.

I look forward to next week’s session, and will be sure to take note of this reflection in order to improve my future work.