Reflection Photography- Traces Experimental shoot 1 (Litter)

For this shoot I walked round the local area looking at litter to take photos of to represent the negative traces people can leave. Here is my contact sheet of all the photos I took:

This shoot was quite difficult because of the rain which was ruining a lot of things tat were left behind by people however I did manage to find some interesting things to take pictures of and here are my favourite edits:

Traces 1-
 Cigarettes are a very common item to see on the ground when it comes to littering because most people don't even consider it to be litter. This is why I tried to create this rather sad image out of this one cigarette to represent the negativity about it. I did this by having a very blue tone to the image which I enhanced in post production. I also thought about composition in terms of the rule of thirds to gain peoples attention.


Traces 2-

 This image was really hard to capture because I found this lipstick tissue under shelter outside a shop so there was not much light. I did the best I could with what I had and I even tried to enhance it in post production but this meant I just lost quality. I tried to zoom in through cropping slightly though so that the main focus would be on the red lipstick mark which is following the rule of thirds.


Traces 3-

 This one isn't of litter however it really interested me that as I was standing outside a shop you could see the wet footprints of the people who had walked in. I liked this because again it was only a temporary trace that I was going to immortalise. I photographed this image in a fairly simplistic way and I tried not to do anything to fancy in post production because I really wanted the audiences attention to just be on the meaning behind this image. I like how the lines of the cobble stones are really pleasing to the eye and this helps draw you in to the foot print.


Traces 4-

 I really like this image because I managed to get some really nice lighting on the coffee cup from a car that had pulled up with its lights on. it gave it a really nice orange glow and this also gave me the extra light I needed to capture a bright enough image anyway. I am however concerned that because the coffee cup is so dark it blends into the background and the wall meaning that it isn't the centre of attention in this photo. I may have needed to find a way to light up the coffee cup even further if I wanted to make this image more successful.


Traces 5-

 This abandoned basket in the car park made a really interesting subject matter for me because it was almost like because that person didn't need it any more they just dumped it there. I also really like the lines and patterns that are created by it and this image to me shows a nice opposition between natural and the man made. I think it really shows the negativity of human nature when it comes to littering and things like this.


Traces 6-

 I like this image and how lovely and bright it is. I even saturated the colours the same as a lot of photographer's I researched. I wanted to grab people attention by having it bright and then people once they observe will actually start to notice that it is a negative thing that I am photographing. I am not sure if this bottle is the best way to do this though as it is less a case of littering and more a case of lost property however it still fits the theme of traces nicely.


Traces 7-

This is probably my favourite image from this shoot just because I love the sadness of it but also it has a certain amount of beauty to it too through the rain drops forming on the bottle and the little white flowers surrounding it. I chose an image of the bottle that was a bit more of a close up because I wanted you to be able to see all these elements that I had liked when I was there looking at it. Also I find that glass is always something really precious to find because it is so fragile is usually ends up broken.

I feel like this shoot was much harder to do because it was outside in many different locations and I was struggling to keep trying to set up my camera and get a good image in the rain each time. I feel like if I continue with this idea I will need to maybe pick some days when the weather is a bit better.