Exam Shoot Two - Work Record

What I plan to do: Within this shoot I plan to progress on from my exam shoot number one, and my preparatory shoot number seven whereby my focus has been on pets. In this shoot I will photograph my young neighbour with his dog; the subject of this image is seven years old and I will be capturing his interactions with his dog, whilst also photographing different objects involved with the dog around the home. I believe the fact that the subject is young is extremely intriguing, due to the fact the other subjects in my other shoots are all older, therefore by photographing a younger child with his dog this will explore not only how different people live with their pets, but how different ages do also. 
Additionally, the dog which is the subject of this shoot is a pit-bull, these dogs are often considered violent, therefore by investigating the interactions this animal shares with it's young owner, this will allow exploration to occur surrounding their relationship and the dogs character/personality. 
Within this shoot I will use a tripod, in order to reduce any shake/blur within my images, as dogs and young children are commonly known for not sitting still, therefore by using a tripod I will minimise any movement that this may cause in the image. Moreover, a camera and lens will be needed in order to physically take, and store the images.
In this shoot I plan to progress on from my shoot number one by photographing with a wider angle, in order to allow the viewer to deduce whereabouts the dog's objects may be in the room, and not just focusing on the actual objects themselves. 
Inspiration: Sebastian Magnani is the inspiration behind this shoot, he face-swaps owners and their dogs to create humorous images; links are created in his photographs between owner's and their dogs being similar, this is something which has inspired me to explore this within my shoot, by photographing owner's and their dogs next to one another. Dogs and children can be considered to be very alike, as they're both playful and entertaining, therefore I would like to explore this link within my work. 

Best image:

This photograph is my best from this shoot as the owner and dog are simultaneously running in unison, this creates links in the viewer's mind of how similar both the owner and dog are, consequently linking my work to Sebastian Magnani. Both the owner and dog are carrying balls; however the difference in which they carry these balls is intriguing, as the dog carries it in her mouth, whereas the boy carries it in his hands- this explores the differences between how humans and dogs live. From this photograph the viewer can gage how active this owner and dog are together, in comparison to my previous exam shoot number one, whereby it was evident the owner and dog were not as active. 

However, the only aspect of this photograph which I dislike is the slight overexposure on the boys face, I attempted to darken this in photoshop by using the burn tool, and the curves tool which made the image have a more effective appearance than previous. 

The slight blur in this image demonstrates to the viewer how the dog and owner are in movement, normally this blur would be a negative aspect of the image, however in this case it allows the viewer to gain more information about the movement of the boy, and his dog. 

I photographed this image on the following camera settings: ISO 320, F 8, and a shutter speed of 1/250. My shutter speed of 1/250 is quick, consequently reducing the amount of blur in my photograph, compared to a quicker shutter speed of 1/80, which would cause more blur, and allow more light into the image. The high ISO would allow more light into the lens, subsequently lightening the image, this also combined with a low aperture setting of 8 would have both allowed more light into the image to contradict the little amount of light being let into the lens by the quick shutter speed. 

Worst image:

This photograph is my worst image from this shoot, due to the harsh blur on the subject's hands, and both dogs being in the way of one another. I would have preferred this image if it was photographed from another angle, in order to include both of the dog's full faces; moreover the blur in this image covers one of the dog's heads which makes this framing ineffective. If I was to reshoot this image I believe it would be more effective in the garden, with natural lighting, meaning that I could have had a quicker shutter speed as more light would have naturally been entering the lens. 

The camera settings which I photographed this image on are the following: ISO 1100, shutter speed 1/60 and an F 4.5. The slow shutter speed of 1/60 means that the shutter would have been open for longer, and subsequently capturing more blur (the subject's hand), a quicker shutter speed (e.g. 1/250) would have reduced this. Additionally, the low aperture setting of 4.5 and high ISO of 1100 means that the camera was trying to allow more light into the lens, due to the setting being dark, the slow shutter speed would have aided this also, however then this also caused the blur. 

What I have learned/will do next:  
Within this shoot I have expanded my knowledge of how to capture fast moving objects by using the correct camera settings (aperture, ISO and shutter speed.) Within my next shoot I will progress by focusing more on the way in which I edit my images, I would like to use some vignettes in my images, in order to focus in on the subject's in the frame.