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I identified relationships and monogamy in particular as a topic that is rarely discussed let alone celebrated.

This was a realisation from many years of flicking through fashion magazines and in most part only really seeing sexually charged styling and directing, for me it has always given the message of finding a mate rather than celebrating being happily ‘settled’ instead promoting being on the prowl if you like, which often means spending more on how you look and going out to meet people, so in tern is better for the economy. Couple this with the effect that social media and internet dating has had on the current generation and the generation before, and how they approach relationships. For the shoot I chose my parents for several reasons, one being that they perfectly represented my target market for ID magazine. Secondly my idea was that photographing a real example of you’re actually trying to capture. Would be easier than any kind of styling. Hence why I have dean and Jenny 37 years marriage, as my models. In terms of term of technical choices, I  spoke to my photography tutor and decided that black and white film, would give a nice touch in enthasising the mood of the images, it was either to be black and white or pastel, to capture the romantic feel. I later bought a Box brownie camera for this, and some b&w film just in case but also took a digital out from the uni with me just in case as I had never used film before. Whilst at snoopers paradise where I picked up the camera, I picked up the main key styling items that I thought caught the mood. As I knew we were shooting in the country side, I went for a flat cap, brown and green silk scarf and some brooches. I only used the hat in the end though, fearing it would look ‘over styled’ or fake. However in hine sight, my only feedback to myself on my end result was that it could have done with a touch stronger styling, especially with how my mother was dressed.

Over all, choice of location I liked, choice of models, I don’t think I could have had better considering my topic, at least in terms of people I know.

However in terms of practical and technical skills, I feel as though I did let myself down slightly with direction, styling and angles.

As a whole, it was probably the biggest learning curve of any shoot that I have done so far, this could have been partly due to how passionate i became about the topic, it is certainly a topic I will have further studies into

Lydia Clark

At this stage I was finding it particularly difficult to intuitively know how to set up for my shoot as I knew that I definitely wanted to shoot inside and preferably in a kitchen, but this meant using only natural light as I had no flash units with me.

The other prominent challenge the I came up against would be actually setting up the shot in terms of styling as I did not feel confident in doing this at all but knew I was aiming for simplicity ultimately.

Started looking at the work of Timothy Lee, taking inspiration from his incredibly technical, pure and fragile work, the use of both intercutting and gauche paint.

Looking into Rob Ryan, I fell in love with his approach to intercutting, in incorporating stories and beautiful well wishes into his work, they are uplifting and exactly what I love in all artwork across the board.