Evaluation

I enjoyed this module as I felt that it challenged me a little more in terms of photography and the subject I chose to capture. I find wildlife photography really interesting, so when I learned that I could incorporate it into my course I became more engaged with my work and spent more leisure time over the holidays doing work that I might otherwise have not done if I didn't find the subject so interesting. Although, I think that I could have started shooting some imaged sooner, rather than waiting until week 5, as this would have meant that I had more photos in my portfolio, and a possible wider range of images and subjects to choose from.

Although I had most of my images, I waited until I had just a week left to begin posting them, thinking that if I posted 3-4 images a day rather than 1, then my project may stay in circulation via social media platforms for longer. This may be a good idea, but I should have begun posting images earlier to avoid a mad rush with my last few photographs. Also, if I had begun earlier, I would maybe have needed a few more images to begin posting so many and so frequently.

I could have researched more into how best to circulate and distribute my images via social media, such as which outlets/apps to use and how many hashtags is the best amount to use. But I think that the project went quite successfully, with quite a few people viewing and liking my images and posts, as well as reading my blog documenting my ongoing project.

I did begin this project by stating that I was going to focus mainly on marine wildlife conservation, but also included some images of the Exmoor ponies that were recently introduced into the Forest of Dean to prevent the overgrowth of pasture areas. This is because I thought that these images had a good response on social media, and since they were related to my project through wildlife conservation I included them. This also meant that I could compare the response I got to marine wildlife conservation, and just the broad range of wildlife conservation, as well as seeing if the locality and news presence of the story had anything to do with its popularity, especially on Facebook. Also, since I find this subject particularly fascinating, I felt that if I began with a broader range of wildlife conservation then that would give me the option to continue posting after the module had finished, depending on the interest it garners on social media.

Obviously capturing the images was my favourite and most enjoyable part of the module, and by researching other wildlife photographers and their techniques, it helped me when taking my own photos. I honed my camera skills during this project, especially when using a 300mm with manual focus, just stood around waiting for the perfect moment for hours, so it's just as well I have quite a bit of patience. But not only has this project taught me new techniques, but it may have also helped me decide what kind of photographer I would like to be when I eventually graduate from university. When I first came to university for an interview for my course, one of the questions I was asked was "what sort of photography do you like and what sort of photographer would you like to be" and I was stuck on what to answer. Well, I think I may finally know.

Wetlands Reserve, Social Media Evaluation

My photos from the Wetland Reserve in Cardiff Bay did quite well on Instagram, and were shared by some people, as well as being liked.

Another few conservation projects followed me, such as theopenatlas and oceanic.global.

On Twitter, my posts were also retweeted and liked, and this may be due to the subject matter being more local to Cardiff, as my sea lions posts were not. Also I tagged wearecardiff in them, and they are one of the accounts that retweeted some of my posts, sharing my images with a wider audience.

Jon McCormack

Jon McCormack is one of the photographers who liked some of my images of the Californian sea lions on Instagram, so I decided to look him up.

He is an award winning photographer who is based in California, and who photographs a variety of different subjects, such as wildlife photography, street photography, landscape photography and portrait photography.

These two images I found on his site I chose as they are related to the subject that I focused my project on.

 Image from http://jonmccormack.com/

Image from http://jonmccormack.com/

I like his use of a black and white filter in these images, as it shows a greater contrast between the shadows and the light. the close-up of the seal in the first image is unique due to the facial expression of the animal, yet I really like the composition of the second image as it seems natural and almost chaotic. Both have great focus and detail showing.

Image from http://jonmccormack.com/

The composition in this image is brilliant, as thought has obviously been put into where the best place to take the image would be, and at what angle. The entire scene is in the shot, and although the foreground and background are related, they could easily be two separate photographs.

Image from http://jonmccormack.com/

I like this portrait as it is simple yet captivating. The use of singular primary colours draws the viewers attention to the man straight away, as the image isn't too busy with distractions of other object and colours. The foreground is slightly out of focus, adding perspective and a sense of distance, but not enough to remove the attention from the subject of the photo.

Sea Lions, Social Media Evaluation

My posts of the sea lions were a lot more popular on Instagram, with some professional photographers and some conservation movements and companies following me and liking my images.

I didn't have as much success on Twitter, although I did have a few likes of some of my posts. I retweeted every post a few hours after I had originally posted it, to keep it in circulation, but I seemed to have the most success on Instagram.

I didn't use Facebook to post these images, as I thought that the message would be become lost if I uploaded the images altogether, and that if I posted them individually then people would soon become annoyed with my images constantly on their timelines. Instead I shared my website and account names on both Twitter and Instagram so that people could look at them if they were interested. That post did get a few likes, and my website viewer ratings spiked a short time after that but whether or not it was because of that post I suppose I will never know.

Exmoor Ponies: Social Media Evaluation

It seems that my posts about the Exmoor Ponies were received the best on Facebook. This may be due to me being connected with a lot of local people from my home, and due to this story being local, they were more interested in it.

I only got a couple of likes on my Instagram posts:

I had the same results with my Twitter posts:

This may be because I forgot to put hashtags on the posts both on Instagram and Twitter.

I had a bigger response on Facebook, with people wanting to know where the ponies could be found:

This may also be because I tagged another person in my post, and so my photos reached a wider audience.

Wetlands Reserve, Final Images

There is a moat running the entire length of the reserve, which separates the public from the wildlife-orientated area of the reserve. This means that the birds can live in peace from the general public and any dogs that are walked through the reserve. I included this image to show a vista shot of the reserve, as well as to show the moat that separates the different parts of the wetlands reserve.

The reserve has attracted birds such as swans for breeding and nesting. I used the technique used previously, where I blurred the background and the foreground to create an emphasis on the subject of the image.

This is a robin at the Wetlands Reserve at Cardiff Bay. Although the image is technically correct, it could be better if it was a close-up of the robin. This particular robin was taunting me for about 45 minutes, as whenever I got close, or put my camera up to my eye it would fly to another branch, and I could never get quite close enough.

I did use Photoshop to brighten these images as they were a little dull and underexposed, and I think that they look a lot better after they have been altered.

Wetlands Reserve, Cardiff Bay

For some extra images I decided to go to the Wetlands Reserve at Cardiff Bay. I only got a few that were useable as there wasn't much wildlife around when I went there. But I did manage to get some shots of swans and robins. These are my contact sheets.