Photo by Holly Webb

 

Today I went to another one of the indoor climbing gyms in Sheffield to take more photos for my project. I was meeting a friend who agreed to answer some questions as well, so I was interviewing and photographing today. I was excited to take more photos, and also have a face-to-face interview since all my sources so far were contacted over the phone and via email.

Although I liked a lot of the photos from my first shoot (see here), I think I did significantly better this time.

Today I borrowed a different lens from my friend so that I could experiment more with these shots. It was a 1.2f which meant I could get amazing portraits using the lower f-stop. I loved this lens and I think it definitely improved my photography compared to last week.

Last week I decided that now I was actually going to have all of my images in colour rather than black and white – as was previously planned. This is because upon going to the climbing walls and taking photos, I think they look so much better in colour as it looks bright and playful which is what I’m trying to portray in my article – a playground for adults.

This is a shame as I would have loved to include at least some black and white photography, however I think for this particular piece it will work better all in colour.

I have also edited the images already, which I did much faster than the past few times I’ve practised the post-production process. I think I’m getting used to Photoshop and Lightroom and feel confident using the manual settings on my camera too, which is why I think these photos turned out better than the last few.

These are some of my favourite edited shots from today:

 

It was a really fun day today – and I am so proud of the photos that came out of it. I took around 200 photographs and have obviously narrowed it down to these few favourites, however it was really hard to narrow it down. I already know that I am really going to struggle narrowing all of my pictures down to only 12!

As well as the photos, I spoke to the subject of the photos for an interview – Dan Pledge is a climber in Sheffield. I thought it would be interesting to hear his thoughts on the climbing community. Part of our interview is transcribed below:

 

 

H: What is your name and how old are you?

D: Dan Pledge, and I’m 21 years old.

H: So how long have you been climbing?

D: I’d say that I’ve been climbing close to about 3 years now.

H: Why did you start in the first place?

D: It was just something that my mates were doing so I decided to just tag along. I always enjoyed that, joining them and stuff but it was only really when I came to university that I started to really enjoy it. I got more into it because it was a lot easier to access here.

H: What’s your favourite thing about being in the climbing community?

D: I’d say the range of people.

H: The range of people?

D: There’s old and young, big and small, girls and boys and it’s always the same.

H: Why do you think that is? Why is it a good sport for a variety of people?

D: Because you can do different grades and no one is judgemental in climbing. There’s different difficulties for everyone and people often like to help each other too. Even if you’re really good you can help beginners. At the climbing wall I usually go to they have a lot of opportunities for newcomers. They have courses designed for newcomers and the more experienced people get involved too to help. They host things called ‘socials’ where they have like ten or fifteen people walking round just helping others. It’s almost more than just a sport, people who get into climbing they change their f*****g wardrobe, they go on trips with other climbers, they meet people all over the world and make friends with other climbers. You don’t just half-arse it, it sounds super cringey but it’s a lifestyle totally. You don’t just go for 90 minutes like you would with a football game. You get absorbed and I know a lot of people who have become obsessed with it. I say this, but you can still just do a little if you want to – it’s just that not a lot of people I know do. I came once a week or so for like two years, and it’s only in the last year or so that I became unemployed and I spent a lot of my free time at the wall.

 

 

 

Reflection:

Overall I am really proud of my images I took this week, and it has got me very excited to continue the work on my project. I think the photos turned out a lot better – not only because I am more comfortable shooting in manual, but also because I was DEFINITELY more confident in getting closer with some of the shots.

These shots are both better technically and compositionally, as you can see people’s faces and you feel like you’re really part of the narrative more.

I am excited to go to another climbing wall again to speak to some more people and take some more photos.

 

 

Aims for this week:

• do a vox-pop at a climbing wall
• shoot some more photos
• continue looking for relevant secondary source material to include