Evaluating

Throughout this project I have learnt a lot, about lighting, cameras, and about the production of each shoot.  I feel like my ideas developed a lot from the beginning, and ultimately I feel as though I have achieved what I aimed for with my photography.  I learnt a fair bit about lighting and the what type of lighting works best in what surroundings.  For example with available light it can be tricky if the sun goes in as it meant I had to keep doing light meter readings, which got rather tedious at times however I like the effect of available light I feel more so than artificial.  I also learnt a lot about DSLR cameras and just how useful it is if you know how to adjust the ISO, aperture and shutter speed in 'manual' mode rather than just having it on 'auto',  as well as knowing how to spot focus on an object and how to change lenses correctly, as well as getting the best use of a tripod. Depth of field was also something I learnt a lot about because I had a lot of trouble with it but trough that it helped me to learn what to do to fix it, I did not count this as a bad thing however.   The effect of using an older model really helped my work to develop and move forward, the older hands were more suited to my aims and I'm glad that I looked more into it.  From referencing back to 'Earnestly Yours' throughout my project I feel like it helped me to stick to what I wanted to photograph but then also looking at photographers such as John Coplans and Bill Brandt helped to push me to vary my work much more.
If I were to do this project again I don't think I would change anything.  What I did wrong or didn't know too much about I learnt about and researched ways of developing my work so that I could fix the problem and change my work for the better.  Although maybe I could photograph men as well if I did it again just so I have more variety.  I believe my images engage my target audience because I feel that they will provoke their opinions and understanding more so than younger children for example.  Overall I am happy with my images and I believe they capture my intentions of portraying that you don't have to be young to be beautiful and interesting, through the use of macro photography I feel as though I was able to achieve this because the images are rather ambiguous when it comes to the age of the subject.