AMY WALKER - Play
TOYS (SECOND ATTEMPT)
Following on from my first toys photo shoot, I have taken another set of images. For this shoot I took the photographs at home so that they would be a more natural setting where a child would normally play with their toys. I used different camera angles to portray a child's point of view. I conducted this shoot firstly in black and white in reponse to my photographer research of Alberlado Morrell, as his images are all in black and white. Within his work he focuses on photography from a child's perspective and so mainly takes images of toys and so I chose this photographer to inspire my own initial ideas for this shoot.
I also conducted part of the shoot with the camera on a 'vivid' colour setting to capture the bright vibrant colours that a child would be drawn too. I chose contrasting colour settings to vary my images in the shoot and to see which style would be the most successful.
Taking inspiration from Alberlado Morell, I changed the camera settings so that these images were shot in black and white. I did this so that the images needed little editing to convert them to black and white, which therefore makes the final image a better quality. I used the manual camera settings so that the focus is only on a certain part of the image and the rest of the image is out of focus.
The image to the left is of a board game that I took at home. For this image I tried to capture it from a child's point of view using a lower camera angle and setting the camera closer to the board itself. I tried to make the playing pieces seem bigger and more intriguing looking as if a child was looking at them. I also wanted to capture the image as though a child was lying down playing the game.
For this image to the right, I also used a black and white setting on the camera. For the staging of this image I set up used a train/car set in my house and captured images from a child's point of view.
I laid down on the floor to portray how a child would see the toy set and made the cars and figures in the image appear bigger than they are. I focused on the middle section of the image so that the rest of the image was out of focus.
I decided that black and white images were not how I wanted to portray these images. Because I was looking at a child's point of view, I wanted to show these images in vivid vibrant colours that a child would be drawn to and so I continued this shoot in colour.
The idea behind these images was to portray how a child would interact with toys. A child would imagine itself immersed in the game and creates stories and scenarios in their head.
The image to the left is taken through the window of the toys house, as though the child is imagining that they are 'in the game'. I ensured that the majority of inside the house was in focus and what you can see through the window was out of focus. The colours are slightly exaggerated in the editing of the image and wouldn't normally be seen this vibrant to an adult, but to a child the colours are inviting and are what a child is drawn too.
Because of the way this image is shot, it also seems as though the house is bigger than it seems, and thus more life-like. I am pleased with the outcome of this image.
The image to the right is another image that I have taken from inside the toy shop. I wanted to portray the same idea as the image above, as if it was though you were inside the shop, as if a child was imagining that they were in the scenario that they had created in their head.
I used the same focusing technique that I used on the previous image and ensured that the majority of the inside of the shop was in focus and what you can see out of the window was out of focus. The colours are vibrant and would attract a child's attention.
To progress in my project I am now going to look at how a child views the world around them and how they interpret the outside world.
What do they focus on? Do they notice things an adult perhaps wouldn't?
I am going to conduct a photo shoot firstly at a park, focusing on the climbing frames and making them look bigger than they are, as a child would see them.
