Characteristics of location photography

What is involved with locational photography?

Throughout the location process you will be faced with many hurdles that may have a positive or negative impact on the day depending on whether or not something goes to plan as planned or not. The way around this is having a set plan for the location trip and deciding what you will need to take with you and what you will need to take into consideration when going on location. The following points briefly explain the characteristics of locational photography and the main aspects of it. 

• Where will you be going for location? Out of the country/different city? 
• Travel costs to get to the location/will you be walking? 
• Equipment you will take with you? lighting/additional camera/spare battery in case primary dies/extra SD card in case the first one gets full up/ tripod?/ Battery pack for the lighting if outside.
• Food & drink when out on location? Duration of the day and keep hydrated.
• Weather on the day going out for location? rain/sun? Which means you need the appropriate clothing for the weather.
• Insurance-For your camera/other equipment in case it gets damaged or stolen. Health insurance in case somebody or yourself gets injured and medical attention is required.
• Assistant to help you set up lighting or other equipment and can attend to your requests if something doesn't go to plan.
• Hire a car/van to get to the location if it is far away?
• Plan out the location shoot/s beforehand so you know what to do and what you will be photographing throughout the day. And have a backup plan just in case something else does not go to plan.

Location trip #5

Southsea holiday

For this self location trip, I decided to travel down to Southsea beach and Portsmouth in general to visit my sisters. Throughout the days I was down there I went out everyday to new places and photographed whatever I wanted and even if it didn't seem interesting to other people, I saw it as A different view to the area I was in at the time. I used a Nikon D3100 with 70-200mm telephoto lens because I wanted the ability to lower my aperture down to 2.8 to get a smaller depth of field when focusing on one main thing and a higher depth of field at f16 when photographing a landscape or scene. I shot in colour for the majority of the time but when it came to historical areas I used black and white format to add that sense of history behind the areas I was photographing.

These were the 5 photographs I selected out f the trip because I thought they stood out from the rest and explored different aspects of Portsmouth/ Southsea seafront. And each one explored the historical and present context of the city itself.

Location trip #4

Covered market- Oxford

For this location trip, we all set out to go to the covered market in the city centre. We was given a colour (mine being red) and went off separately to photograph any object with the specific colour that we was given at the start. I shot with my canon 350D with an 18-55 lens to get up close to the objects I was photographing. As I was indoors I had my aperture as low as possible at 4.5 to get a much brighter image without over exposing it at a slower shutter speed than 1/60 which gave me a crisp clean shot without blurring out any areas of the photo.

These were the 5 final photos I selected from the location album, because firstly each one was based around the colour red which I was given and they were all different and unique from one another. This locational trip turned out well because at the end of it I got many results that I set out to produce but only a few which I preferred from the rest.

Location trip #3

Urban neglect

This was my first ever locational trip when joining the course, It was a trip around the streets of Oxford, photographing what we see as urban neglect. When I say urban neglect, I mean what has been left without treatment or care and has just faded away into the history of Oxford itself and no longer a key part to the city itself. I shot with my Canon 350d and a 18-55 lens as I shot close up instead of from a distance. I shot in both colour and black & white format (colour for the nature & black and white for the structures). This gave me an advantage to shot the contrast between the two aspects of Oxford and the history behind them. 

These are the 5 final photographs I selected from the location and what I thought stood out from the rest and showed the true meaning of what Oxford is all about in It's most beautiful form. it shows both nature and man made forms and how much history they have behind them and contributed to the city. 

Location trip #2

Jericho walk

For this location trip, we set out to take a walk through Jericho and along the river side in Jericho and photograph what we see home as and home related aspects along the walk, such as a canal boat or even under a bridge. I used A Nikon D3100 with a 70-200 telephoto lens to capture these 5 final images because the lens gave me control over the contrast and brightness on the photo, and as it was a bright sunny day I needed to go down to a much lower aperture to counteract the ISO and shutter speed so it wouldn't over expose the photographs.

I selected these 5 photographs as they each symbolised different aspects of home to me. I shot in colour for I didn't want any mid tones or shades of black and white. I also wanted to show the true colour of entities around us and what everything looks like to the naked eye. This location trip went well because I produced the results that I set out to produce and achieved a sense of understanding towards different forms of home around us.