In the past, I had worked primarily on sports, specifically lacrosse for my basis of work. I felt I was making some progress, but some people beg to differ, they wanted to see more than just event photographs, which to me, isn't all that important. My original intent for my portfolio was to create photographs I could present to a client, etc, in hopes to get a job in the future, not make an underlying narrative or concept to a sport. The class is Senior Portfolio, not Conceptual Photography. Separate from my sports, I tried to photograph a different subject that I could get more of a photojournalist approach towards. I decided to try photographing the bike scene in Richmond. So far, its only been at two subjects, my cousin who's a vintage bmx bike collector, and Slaughterama, the single most important biking event in Richmond. Overall, I feel like I came out with some great photos, I'm still not sure I've captured exactly what I'm looking for, to create a narrative, but I am happy with the quality and variety of the photos, just not sure there is enough for a sequence of images to create what I'm looking for. This is more of a side project, not a school assignment, but I did want to share some of the stuff I've been doing. I just feel like this is more along the lines of what Paul is looking for out of me, rather than stock sports photography, which is what I'd prefer to do. If you could, give me feedback on these photos. I plan on posting more of my sports stuff probably tomorrow as well. I'm going to do some more shooting trying to capture the sport of lacrosse, I just haven't had any time to shoot lately, with the website and everything going in full swing, I should have more of those photos next week. Thanks.
P.S. Keep in mind, these photos are NOT edited, they need some adjustments.
6 comments:
Shawn,
i love that you went outside of your comfort zone to shoot slaughterama. it refreshing to see something a little but different from you. also, i think the images are great. there are so many pics from slaughterama out on the internet and most of them focus on drunk friends and pbr. good job!
ps. thats my boyfriend in the teal shirt jousting. he's an idiot.
Even though these images are not of lacrosse or any other organized sport, it is very evident that your sports photography has influenced your ability to successfully capture action shots.
To me, the stronger images are the ones where something is taking place - specifically the jousting image, and one with the BMX biker in the air. The other images seem a bit bland - I know they are not edited, but compositionally they are not interesting and do not supply any information about the event or what is going on in the photo.
I think your sports photography influence is evident in these images, but perhaps there needs to be attention paid to the supplementary photos that help create a narrative as oppose to that one single action shot.
the last three are my faves. the energy and composition are crucial to making them work and you got it. I would tweak the last image but its got some good potential and its really interesting to see this kind of stuff come from an even that like Rachel said is typically documented with a lot of point and shoot drunkeness. What are your personal faves? id say look at those and figure out what it is that makes them work... having some kind of formula to apply to chaotic scenes like this really helps to pump out some more consistent shots... good work dude.
Shawn,
I absolutely sympathise with you and your feelings towards making a useable portfolio. I feel that these images (the action ones) have been your best though that I have seen. They really are a great improvement from the sports images. I think this new atmosphere allowed for you to break free of you structure and rules you typically use for shooting sports. I think that you just get caught up in what you think makes a good sports photo from what you have previously seen and with these I don't think you had as much previous influence from others imagery. I can really see your style coming through.
I agree with the others about the action shots being better. The ones with the hands and the bike chain don't fit at all in the series to me. It is too formal, almost studio-like. Not saying it's a bad image, because by itself it's nice, but it definitely doesn't go along with the rest of the images.
I know nothing about the bike scene in Richmond, but it seems pretty intense! I didn't know people actually jousted on bikes which is pretty stupid/funny. I'd like to see more of the images you have from the slaughterama because I was definitely starting to get a feeling of how the whole event was; and from a journalistic standpoint I think you're doing your job.
I totally support you in continuing with your sports photography, but hey, this is almost sports photography! Some of the angles you used were great and you should try doing more of that in the lacrosse stuff. If you work at doing this side project stuff you could totally use that in your portfolio to get jobs as well! It's different and will make you stand out more. Keep up the good work!
Shawn,
Hey, I agree with what everyone has been saying. I really like these pics! Even though you aren't really into "fine art" I really think these lean in that direction. I really enjoy your sports photography and I feel like these just take it to another level. These images really show your ability to get in there and "get the shot." Great job, your work has grown so much, sports photography is definitely your thing!
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