production of the shoot

Production of the shoot

Armed with my camera and a bottle of sun

tan lotion i set out to find the right location for the shoot,

around where we were staying there was several places where we could have filmed,

me and Georgia (the person i was on Holiday with) walked around several beaches until we found the one that felt right for the video.

The Beach was located alongside a road of small cafes and bars,

the beach was rather wide and spacious and

offered a vast amount of panoramic vistas.

For a popular Holiday destination it was rather quite, we sat out at the beach , deciding what would be good and what wouldn't. i was looking for my perfect surfing scene this had to included the lighting the mood, the feeling and overall the perfect setting for a pop 'Colorado' music scene.

After the mid day sun had reached its peak, the beach became slightly busier on which included allot of surfers, body boarders and skimmers. (skimmers are guys in shorts skimming on small wooden boards on the waves break) a bit like throwing a pebble which just touches the surface skimming across to the other side.

I found the sunshine was too bright during the day to take photos, i needed the lighting to be slightly dim so that the pictures would not be over exposed, it was particular important to get the lighting correct as when placing the photographs together if the lighting was to bright all major detail would be outputted by the brightness of the sun, and so the photograph would flash with every second, (Not all all what i want.)

So i decided to take the photos around evening time, 6PM to be exact, at this time the sun was lowest but still light enough to shoot on a low ISO. (ISO being added light)- but of course with every time i up the ISO , the picture becomes grainier and so i kept it at its lowest of 100ISO.

The lighting at this time was amazing with hues of orange and yellow, the tones were brilliantly highlighted from the reflection of the waves.

I set the aperture to F6 to F8, this was so everything would be in focus and also with such a low depth of field, i was able to keep the lighting just right. Under exposing over exposed highlights. The shutter speed was set to 1/60 to a second and so fast enough to take photos without a tripod.

I used an SLR (single lens reflex) Nikon D60, with a basic kit lens of 35mm to 55mm lens, particularly although this lens is a basic kit lens it is equipped with a vibration reduction DX setting, reduction the chance of blur without the use of a tripod. Also i placed the camera on AF-C , auto focus continuous.

I started taking photographs at about 6pm and finished at around 9pm, this was due to arranging various settings and scenes, i decided to shoot towards the quieter end of the beach facing the direction of the sun, (as it was rather low it didn't really matter as the lighting was too low to over expose) for some shots i faced away from the sun to effectively capture shadow. Though i found only for some shots did i want to include shadow, as with each shot the shadow would change and so this is not very effective if i am to create a continuous video.

During the shooting i was constantly thinking about the composition and how i wanted the video to turn out, creatively thinking about shots and people, and how they would be effective in the video. Due to the song being called 'Colorado sunshine' i was constantly thinking about how Colorado would be reflected in the video and so i was making the video work for that particular setting, focusing on surfing, the sunshine, the waves, the beach and views.

I had basic planning of what i wanted in the video and lighting etc.

But for most i was going along with the scene, i feel this was effective as i was able to capture a moment, so the video is very much CANDID.

I am really happy i filmed this way as looking through the photos and when i put them together i feel as if i captured a particular time lock. locked into my camera and able to play back and fourth and various speeds.

Taking photos naturally had its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages included:

• natural setting
• natural lighting
• capturing a moment
• not made up
• capture the Essenes of surfing
• peoples reactions etc

Disadvantages included:

• Unpredictable
• people realising i was filming and possibly wanting to interrupt
• having to wait and get ready for a surfer catching a wave
• a lot of time
• lighting, waiting for the perfect lighting
• 
  

Candid/Natural setting.

I wanted to capture a moment, rather than creating a fake moment i thought why not capture an actual moment?

Of course i wasn't quite able to capture peoples attention for them to ask/question what i was fulfilling. I suppose because i was female i was able to get away with that "Omg pee do with a camera taking pictures of half naked people" stereotype, maybe that's a bit discrimination. I was merly a teenage girl taking "Holiday snaps" well that's what i think it looked like to the dozens of people walking past. Of course this would be different in the 'real world' , but for now i think i am to take advantage of my 'teenage kid image'. it's like trying to persuade the bus driver