I am quite enjoying the exercises for the second part of the people and place course, I have never really done any street photography in terms of people before, or at least in a more organised way where this was the primary aim.

I still have yet to ask to take a photo of a stranger which is the next logical step from the exercises. At some point I would like to continue these exercises with work of my own, taking images to certain themes. I was thinking something along the lines of a monthly challenge (timing depending on how much time I have spare) like hats, redheads, people in car windows, suits where I go out and capture images along a certain theme for a week or something.

The other side is capturing gesture or 'something of that person'. I guess this can come into putting something of myself in a picture. To look for a way to convey what I see in an individual when I take a picture, what has attracted me to take a picture of that person in the first place.
In the recent short documentary of the Sartorialist he (Scott Schuman) described taking photos like falling in love a little. The question to pursue becomes how to identify what attracts us to a particular subject, and how to capture or convey that in a photograph.

Finished assignment 1 and had the feedback now. As always it is great to have more critical feedback on photos and particularly in this case in discussing the difference between portraying the subject and something about the subject described as the difference between a fashion shot and a portrait.

To summarise the aim of a portrait, to tell a story about someone.

In my own work I need to further develop this, and my experience with lighting. For the course exercises taking photos in a people unaware setting could go both ways. Having someone unawares provides the opportunity to capture something when they are not posing for the camera. On the other hand there is no interaction with the photographer to find something to capture.

To go with the portrait assignments I am reading/watching some stuff on lighting, particularly useful is portrait photography by Mark Cleghorn which has useful examples of photography under different lighting conditions.

One of the things highlighted was the fact that compared to film digital photography gives a lot more contrast and so lighting conditions are more important, with normally a preference for larger diffuse sources for portraiture.

I went through all of my old photos to start uploading better ones to Flickr, and then selected my favourite out of all of those [link]. I was quite surprised to find that a good proportion of my favourites were actually photos of people, as well as the fact that I used to take quite a lot of photos of people compared to how much I do now. Something that this course will rectify in part, but I'll also make more of an effort to capture photos of people generally. Though it would be nice if my better camera were more compact for that.

For the more structured bit of the course, I need people to photo specifically (as in specifically for a shoot). So, I've sent a message to everyone in my facebook contacts that are in Cambridge, asking if they were happy to pose for photos for the portraiture part of this module. I don't really have any idea what sort of response to expect. Also the time of the year is slightly annoying again, with the short days.

The hardest part of this course is obvious, finding the people to photograph. Although it says about starting with photographing people aware, I'd say I would find photographing people unaware the easiest, especially as you don't have to worry about poses and getting them to look natural etc.

Still this will be one of the most useful bits of all the modules, precisely for the fact that it will be difficult. The first assignment will be challenging for me, taking one person as a subject and creating between five and seven different portraits. I will specifically not use family members, because that would make it too easy.

I will also have to make an effort to photograph people that I currently do not know, as a general useful point of development. Though to make that sound easier, for now I'll describe it as at least one person.

Anyway, at least I already have one offer of someone I can photograph. Poses for pub rounds is a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The first exercise for this course is a face/head/torso/figure shoot, appreciating the different scales of portraiture.