Decay #2 Work Diary

In this shoot I continued with the aspect of decay within a landscape, I mentioned in my previous work diary that I would shoot a cemetery, as I did not shoot it before and also because it links the aspect of decay. I think this shoot went well as I shot the graves from a lot of different angles, focussing on central reservation, low angle, etc. I felt a little bit awkward taking pictures of peoples graves as I felt like this was an invasion of their families privacy, however the shots that I got I think were very good. I was lucky with the weather as it was sunny and therefore the sun would stream the trees, onto the headstones, making it obvious that they were the focal point. The decay within this shoot was the headstones, some had fallen down and were leaning towards the floor, covered in remnants of moss. Also the decay in this shoot was the fact that I was shooting graves with bodies decaying beneath them.

In this image I turned the curves really down so it created a silhouette, I really like this effect because you can just see the tree and the headstone (both the aspect and the landscape) in a dark prominent colour, making it the focal point of the image. I like how this image is not straight and that it has been taken on a slant, not for any reason, I just think it makes the silhouette take up more of the image, enforcing what this picture is about more so.

In this image I used the camera placement of central reservation with the grave that has a cross (which is right in the middle). I turned the saturation down, however I left a light amount of colour in it so it made the image seem dingy, which is the mood that surrounds this landscape. Also I think dingy is a perfect description for decay therefore the colour of this image describes decay as a whole. I like how you can see more graves in the distance in this picture however I think to enforce the idea of mass decay it would have been better if I went to a cemetery where floor was literally covered in graves.

I am very happy with this shoot and I am happy with all 4 of my straight pieces from this shoot, I have learned that I like to slant the camera to create a different point of view shot, and it changes it up from just a straight image. I also have continued to like the use of close ups and again I think it is going to be key within my topic for aspects of the landscape.

Progression

In my next shoot I am going to go to an abandoned mental hospital (Severalls in Colchester) as the entire building has decayed. The building is covered in graffiti and the walls are eroding, also litter covers the area. I think this will be a really good shoot as no one has ever done it before, I think a wide angle lens will be appropriate for this shoot to show the whole landscape. I am also going to experiment   with close ups a bit more as the walls of the hospital have images of landscapes painted on them, this creates quite the contrast as it shows a destroyed landscape to what a landscape should look like in the heads of other people.