Shoot in inspiration from Hugh Holland

Shoot plan-

I will be doing this shoot in inspiration from Hugh Holland and his effective black and white skate images which capture the essence and style of skating. For this shoot I will be shooting skate on 35mm film, this will include me shooting around the skatepark capturing the local skaters. I have decided to this because it links in my theme following surf and skate photography. My idea is to shoot stills using a vintage canon film camera around the skate park, I would like to experiment with shadows and natural lighting. I would also like to experiment with different lenses, a 75mm and 75mm fish eye with different filters so alter the colours of the shot. Using colour and black and white film will give me a variety of images. I am going to focus on capturing motion at the correct time and also composition of the photos, to use shadows on the curves of the skatepark and plain backgrounds like the sky to highlight the skater. I would like my photos to follow similar colour scheme as a set to work aesthetically together (do one shoot in colour and one in black and white). I would like to shoot in a bright sunny day to get lots of shadows and to also incorporate the bright blue of the sky against the grey concrete in the photos. I have not created a skate shoot before so it will be interesting to see how this goes. I am intending to use the rule of thirds to compose my photos and making sure the skater is the main focus of attention in the frame. I will be using the camera free hand as it is easier to move around the skatepark quickly without a tripod. This shoot should take 1 or 2 hours to shoot 1x roll of colour and 1x black and white. I will be shooting some friends who skate or anyone at the skatepark. My equipment list: Canon film camera, 1x colour film 400 iso, 1x b&w film, 75mm lens, 75mm fish eye lens and filters. The weather conditions are important as I would like to get direct shadows and if it rains they can't skate so I will plan this for the correct day. I chose to shoot at St Ives skate park as it is a brand new skatepark and has really goof flow and interesting shapes to it- for example, its main feature is a hole in one of the ramps in inspiration from Barbara Hepworth. This is a main feature I would like to get in my photo as it was be an interesting composition. 

Thumbnail sketches-

Contact sheet- (as this shoot was shot on film I cannot show a contact sheet)

Editing- 

As these images were taken on film I did not edit much for them as I like the natural grain and effect the film creates. However I did add a few touch ups but slightly changing the brightness and contrast to enhance some shadows and highlights. I didn't want to change the colour created in any way so I left that. 

Final images-

Evaluation- 

The starting point of this project is to experiment using black and white 35mm film in inspiration from Hugh Holland. However I did not have black and white film so I used colour and then edited it to black and white. I enjoyed shooting in inspiration from Hugh however only 3 photos came out of this shoot, it was very hard to time as the shutter is slower on a film camera so you have to press it before the skater does the trick however I didn't know that until after the shoot once I got the film developed. But I can learn from this and remember that next time. I am really pleased with how these images came out, I like how some of the film has overlapped which adds to the photo and makes it more interesting. I am pleased with the outcome, the subtle light has made the tones muted, next time I would like to shoot in bright sunshine so that I can get defined shadows and higher contrast. In this shoot I was inspired by Hugh Holland and his skills in capturing old school skating on film. This was my first skate shoot so it wa shard to know where to be in the skatepark to time the tricks, however after studying where and when the skaters would do the trick I positioned myself to capture it. I really enjoyed doing this shoot as it is something different for me, I would definitely like to do more shoots like this in the future. Using a film camera has been successful- the vintage look and grain added to the photo is really effective however I found I need to hold the camera very still as the shutter speed is slower to get a crisp image. Its really interesting shooting on film as you never know the outcome of the images- for example in this shoot the film has overlapped so it layered in some of the image which created a really unique and unexpected effect. I am really pleased with the outcome of these photos- the light and subtle mid tones are cool in this shoot. however I could definitely improve my skills shooting skating. Next time I would like to scan my film as for this shoot I got the film printed and then took photos of the prints so it doesn't capture the quality effectively. I would also like to explore developing my film at collage so I can see the process unfold.