Assignment 1: Initial Thoughts

Assignment 1 is my bete noir of this course, it was the main barrier to my enrollment and remains the sticking point.  "a day in the life of...".  I really do not see the point.  But then that is me, I like to work alone and not be dependent on others for my progress.  My job is tough, long hours and right now a great deal of stress.  I take photographs to wind down and switch my brain to another setting.  The thought of having to coral someone over a period of a day or several days just does not fit into my idea of fun.  Whilst I do appreciate that this course is designed to expand my horizons, it also must fit into my world view and from a practical standpoint my available time.

However, it must be done, so how?  Last night after our more than amorous neighbours woke me at 4am with a "Harry met Sally" moment of epic proportion I lay awake mulling over how to do this assignment - see, it keeps me awake at night.  Initial thoughts had been a day in the life of Mr. Niall McCorley, my best friend, next door neighbour (not that neighbour) and major mover  in the Munich Irish community.  A day in his life would be varied and could expose elements of Munich's ex-pat cultural scene.  The problem I have with this is that it is a little too obvious.  Another similar project would be to follow Heidi, my wife, on a Friday, when she balances swimming training with work and caring for her elderly mother, finishing off with a well deserved cocktail.  Interesting, but probably a well trodden path.  

I may do both of these, just for the sake of practice and getting used to this style of photography, although it is not very similar to the reportage style of wedding photography that I practice when asked:

I am also considering something related to place, a day in the life of a Munich street corner, there are some good ones, although some would get me either arrested or severely beaten.  My tutor suggested a shop, difficult in Munich unless you know the owner, it is otherwise pretty much illegal. An Irish pub could be a possibility, I get on very well with the owner of Molly Malone's and he would probably be OK with me helping out for a day in exchange for some photos.  Another possibility is simply the row of houses I live in where something is alwats going on.  This would be a chance to document the lives of ordinary (well not really) Germans as they go about their daily routine. I think too little attention is paid to the mundane in photography, we spend so much time looking for the unusual.

I will explore these ideas further.

In the mean time, another idea germinated in the dark of night, why not a day in my life, I am available and accessible.  My life is not terribly unusual, but it has it's moments.  This is also probably a cliche, but it is also a subject I have never tackled, I am not terribly fond of seeing myself in photos.  The advantage here is control, the disadvantage is that I still need to actually take the photographs.  This is possible but does bring with it a few challenges.  The first challenge, how to take the images is the easy one, I have a TC-80N3 remote control for my Canon DSLRs that effectively enables me to program the camera to take a shot on a periodic basis, I can set the interval.  The real issue is one of documentary versus portraiture,  some of the shots will need to be staged.  What I will need to do is to mount my DSLR on a tripod, place it somewhere and then carry on with my life in its vicinity.  At home, this is really not a problem, out doors, more of a challenge.  I will need an assistant to help carry the camera and then guard it from passers by.  Heidi has volunteered.

As an experiment I placed my 5D on a gorilla pod (small flexible tripod), set ISO to 3200; used my 24-105 f/4 zoom at f/4 and 24mm, and then set the timer to take an image every 30 seconds.  I placed the camera somewhere that would work with available light and just got on with my Saturday morning routine.  This essentially consists of checking for any urgent emails from my American boss and doing any work needed, making coffee (lots of it) and then working on my blog or log book.  I split Saturday into documentation and shooting, with Sunday as a backup if something does not work the way I want it.  My life is basically during the week, work 12 hours watch a movie, sleep and on the weekends OCA.

I left the camera running for nearly an hour capturing 120 frames, from which I have culled 6 for this blog to illustrate the possibilities.  I have processed the photos quite aggressively going for a gritty B&W, ISO 3200 more or less required this.   I am going to do a test print and see how they look at A4.  So this is me!

Did it work, actually much better than I expected.  I had to think carefully about the light and where to put the camera for best effect, but otherwise I just got on with my thing, which that morning was sticking stuff into my log book.  I did not switch the camera off and so got some odd shots as I carried the camera around, the 4th image is an example. The look on my face is horribly like a Cindy Sherman still...

But jeez, I need to lose some weight:)

So, next.  No commitment yet, this is and was an experiment, I will need to run it past my tutor together with some images before I actually go as far as using it as the assignment.  I like it, I like the accessibility and I also like the fact that it is forcing me to do something very new (for me) and develop a new approach to photography.  A day in the life of anyone else is going to become a wedding shoot, a day in my life, well lot's of potential for introspection and analysis of who and what I am, as well as taking some photographs.  Finally, Heidi loves the idea, she will finally get some photos of me.