the end is nigh !

At our first meeting I assumed I would feel intimidated by the fact that there were two photography students and I was the only Fashion Promotion with Styling student. However, I did not feel this way and felt relaxed at the first meeting. Once we had decided on concepts and a story for this Education based photo shoot I began researching and sourcing for the styling. Due to the fact we had decided to have a large production photo shoot which included numerous extras and a large number of models, I felt like the task of styling all the models was daunting and a large task to successfully achieve on my own. So the group decided it would be in our best interest to get another Styling student involved. Luckily we were able to invite another Styling student into our group and I felt less pressure on my shoulders to complete the styling on my own. The second styling student and I split the models and the styling in half. It was agreed that the two Photography students would organise the Location and Models for the shoot.

The group regularly met up however it felt that for the number of times we met up, not a lot was planned and the project didn’t seem like it was moving at the rate it should be. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend several lectures, seminars and group meetings for this project as I sustained a foot injury. During this time that I was absent I felt that the group thought I was using this as an excuse to not carry out my duties for this project and that I had a negative attitude towards them and the project. This became evident when I received a message off them expressing how they felt. This was shocking to me as I have never come across this sort of behaviour whilst working with other groups. Instead of aggravating the situation I decided to speak to the other members of the group in attempt to change their opinions of me and my attitude towards this project and to prove that their opinions and behaviour was wrong. After this harmony in the group was restored as we had learnt how each other works and dealt with certain situations.

We encountered another crisis when we discovered that another group had used the same concept as us. So quite late into the project we had to change our concept which caused disarray when it came to certain aspects of the photo shoot including styling and models. On the day of our fashion shoot a number of models didn’t turn up, and we had technical difficulties with the lighting kit which added to the pressure and stress of the day, which we thought would result in rescheduling the whole photo shoot.

In my opinion a lack of communication and understanding contributed towards negativity in the group which was unnecessary. Overall there was immaturity within the group and I believe people acted unprofessionally at times. I didn't appreciat at times that I was left in the lurch about different aspects of the project. In my opinion it felt like members of the group wanted to be in control of all aspects of the project so the final photographs became their concept and their photographs and therefore take all the credit, but when things didn't go to plan members of the group were quick to blame and pass judgement. 

However, this didn’t affect the quality of the photographs and our final images are highly successful. On the other hand I believe the photographs would of been stronger if they were black and white as I think the colour of the chair and the array of books is distracting. I didn't have a part to play in the post editing as i was agreed that the photographs would be more successful if one person carried out the post editing. On the other hand it would of been nice to have a say in the post editing which I didn't get a chance to do.