When it came to photographing other people I started off in the interchange and saw a woman with her child and they were rushing to go somewhere I started to photograph them because they seemed interesting, I managed to get a few good shots before I lost them. I kept walking on even though I'd lost them and soon found an elderly man with carrier bags and started to photograph him. As he was walking quite slow I had enough time to take many photographs but it wasn't until after 5 minutes I realised he was with his family which made the photographs even better. Even though he was with company my focus was still him not them. They stopped for something to eat and I was stood behind them pretending that I was looking at the menu. I then photographed them as they sat down on a bench and started eating at this point I had walked around them and still took photographs which they didn't notice. I don't think they knew I was photographing them but after they went into a shop I decided to move onto another person as I felt I had enough photographs and had followed them for a while.
My next subject was another elderly man and I had seen him shortly after the first elderly man with his family. I didn't feel any danger photographing him because he seemed like a sweet old man and whilst I was following him he went into a shopping centre which I followed. I was right behind him and I took a photograph of him I was worried he might turn around because he might have heard my camera's shutter but he didn't he just carried on walking. After we left the shopping centre he went into lots of charity shops zig zagging across the street always looking never buying. I decided to stop photographing him and head home at this point.
The cold didn't bother me and neither did people staring at me because I had something to do and I knew I had to so I took my mind off the cold and focused on people I also had my grandma with me because I didn't want to be alone whilst following people incase any trouble occurred. There was probably many other interesting people I could have photographed but I didn't really want to photograph young people especially girls in case they did get angry which is a terrifying thought. Some people don't like to be photographed and I respect that and that is why I tried to not photograph their face and if I did accidently then that photograph would not have used in my final images.
Going back to my proposal I wanted people to take me in different directions of the square mile which I don't think happened I think I started off in one place and it took me to another place on a little walk. Which I did mention in my proposal saying ''After much thought I had another idea to photograph different people but instead of having all the same photographs documenting their journey on a bus to their house I would take for example 4 sets of photographs including one person (one set) walking to the bus station and another person (seconds set) to be inside the bus station walking to their bus stand and getting on their bus then another person (third set) being on the bus then getting off at a bus stop, finally one last person (fourth set) to be getting off the bus and then walking to their home.'' Even though the order of my photographs haven't turned out like that they are similar which was unintentional even though I wanted to do it. My photographs go in the order of being in one part of Bradford town, going inside the shopping centre, going to charity shops, going inside another shopping centre and then ending up in the interchange. That could be someone's shopping trip in a day that I have managed to capture by different people.
I think my photographs have managed to communicate a square mile not just in people's activities and interests but also the shops that are in Bradford. I didn't get all the shops in Bradford but I showed the shops that my subjects go to.
I admit when I was first handed the project I was dreading it because I had absolutely no clue what to do and I tried not to rush myself into thinking of an idea so I could stop worrying and instead my idea came to me. I am very pleased with my work because I have learnt I can take quick photographs in the moment which when I was reviewing the street photography lesson I said it was difficult because it was so quick. I think that lesson was difficult for me because I hadn't had that much practice on it because I'm shy when it comes to photographing strangers. But when it came to taking my photographs it came naturally and easily to me instead of panicking.
I didn't realise when I was taking my photographs but after when looking at them that I had used leading lines in many of the photographs which I was pleased with, it adds to my composition which follows the rule of thirds but also adding more focus to the subjects. From my photographers research they took their photographs in black and white which was something I wanted to replicate on all my images as well not in camera but in post production. I decided that I didn't want to have my images fully black and white because it makes photographs look flat and uninteresting. So I experimented with the saturation and found that when I had my images on -75% they had a dull black and white tone to them but there was still some colour coming through which made my images seem 3D, they looked like they were alive instead of looking flat and dead if they were fully black and white.
I wouldn't do anything differently if I had to because there was nothing that I disliked. It was a very good project.
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