One of my most recent projects with a client was to create an interactive that was a flippable fashion magazine style booklet that told a simple, but specific story about frustrated customers and the operators that had to deal with them.
Originally, the plan was to do realistic illustrations or use stock photography, but my boss hadn’t really considered that it might be difficult to find just the right photographs on the internet of someone doing exactly what he wanted to see them do picture by picture. I also pointed out, that to pay an artist (namely me) to do realistic illustrations could end up being VERY expensive and take a very long time. All of this allowed me to lead him to the area of interest that I’ve long been dabbling in and hope to really immerse myself in more soon (as if I’m not already); and that is “prosumer” photography. Not quite professional, but more than amateur/consumer.
I’ve spent my whole life looking at images. Analyzing them. Creating them. Working on them. Over the past couple of years, I’ve begun to see that photography is just as much an artistic endeavor of image making as painting or drawing. There are different tools and different aesthetics. Different attitudes about composition, depth of field, black and white contrasts, infrared, subject matter, central focal point, and just like paintings and sculpture, there are certain rules or ideas that universally make up good photographs.
I have started down the road of discovering what those criteria, rules, and ideas are, and am finding it very fascinating indeed. My respect for really good photographers of all walks of life has exponentially grown. Whether it is landscapes, portraits, sports, or inventive photography, there are many, many masters out there that I am trying to learn from.
In a very small way, this little project let me begin my journey.
These photos were taken in our apartment with just my small point and shoot camera (no special lens or lights and a tiny pocket sized camera I bought for under $200 that I’ve used for the past 4 years since my previous point and shoot finally died after 6 years of being brutally abused all across the planet in travels). I asked our flatmate, Dina Harrison, if she would model for me for the pics and she was happy to help out.
The photos below show before and after images in terms of photoshop software being used in retouch, focus, and color treatment, but are pretty much the same images that I started out with:
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Next is the finished interactive that I was hired to do with the photos included into the rest of the project.
For anyone even remotely interested in seeing some jaw dropping photography, I highly recommend going to http://flickr.com and checking out what it’s all about, or you can go to see some of my current favorite photographs on flickr HERE
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