I went to another work place for this shoot. I was taking photos of Jason who works as a chef in a pub. The kitchen was not that big but we found a lot of locations and angles to experiment with. He was quite busy as he had to keep working so I took photos as he worked. This meant a lot of images are of him not looking at the camera, but when there was an image that worked well, I asked him to look at the camera.
There was no windows in the kitchen so I relied completely on artificial light. From the last shoot I learnt that this could be just as effective. It worked well for this one as it made the kitchen well lit. Like previous shoots, I used a 24-70mm lens. This came in handy to quickly change from wide angle to closer up shots. He was doing a lot of different jobs around the kitchen which allowed me plenty of opportunities to take photos. Firstly, him making the potatoes. Not the most interesting photos but fun to watch! He was making food on mainline, the hot lights created some more intriguing lighting but the composition was not always good. He then was working on the carvery, It was really dark here as the main light was that above the food. This meant the main focus was on the food and the subject was left in the dark.
I really like these images as the steam makes them interesting. But unfortunately he was not able to look at the camera. In this one and my previous shoots, there has been images that are good but wouldn’t work in a series as they are looking away. This made me think though that if there was enough other images, I could look into making some kind of photo book to display these other, more candid photos.
These 2 below are the most successful. The first one is effective as he is central in the frame and you can easily see his surroundings. It could be improved if he didn’t have a hat on so his face would be slightly more lit. I did not ask him to pose the way he did, I just asked him to look at the camera. I think the way he has chosen to pose is interesting. He is stood straight with his arms crossed, when initially looking, this makes him look quite proud of his kitchen and what he does. Crossed arms can also indicate defensiveness, maybe he actually feels quite vulnerable.
The second photo has less things in the frame but I like that you can tell he is in the middle of working. You can also see his face more clearly which is more effective. Seeing him and his expression could be more interesting for the viewer.
Overall this shoot was successful. I have two strong photos from it, I will decide which to use once I have got the rest of my images and can see which one fits best with the series. Like in my previous shoot, I have not had opportunity to experiment with natural light but I am keeping my influences from Ida Kar’s work in mind for future shoots.
Lucy Davis 