Brief 6 was our final submission for the photojournalism unit and we were tasked with taking an image to go alongside an article which discusses the negative effects light pollution has on the human population. When discussing in class we talked a lot about mobile phones and technology in general and how blue light negatively affects your sleep. Therefore, for my submission I wanted to take an image that showed someone up late at night on their phone.
I had planned a model for this however, they pulled out at the last minute and so I ended up using myself as a model. I organised my set up during the day; figuring out the best composition as well as having to move some furniture around in the bedroom. Once it got darker, I placed a small lamp in the far corner of the room (out of shot), and positioned myself in bed with my remote trigger, and after trying out a few different compositions this is the image that I submitted:
Once we got into class and started discussing each other’s work it became apparent that several people in the class, including myself, had misunderstood/misinterpreted the original brief. Graham explained that we were to focus on light pollution which we didn’t have control over i.e. if my image had had two people in it, with one being kept awake by the other’s use of false light, then it would have fit the brief. However, Graham said that it was a strong image regardless and he didn’t require anyone in class to reshoot since it was the final submission.
Now that we have finished the photojournalism unit I will have more time to focus on the other units we have left before completion of the course. At first I really didn’t like photojournalism at all; I felt that it was confusing and stressful and I wasn’t sure how much I would learn from it. However, now that I have completed it I can see the variety of benefits it had to improve not only my technical skills in photography, but also my creative and thinking skills for other projects and subjects.
Jade Taylor Photography 