thinking about the second assignment

The second assignment is coming up soon and this time the focus is on shutter speed. I still want to continue to explore my 'work vs play' concept so I have come up with an idea to shoot a set of narrative pictures (in a similar style to the first assignment) but to get much more personal and in depth with it and include my family in the images. This is more where the concept hits me in the heart as I often feel torn away from my family to do work.

My original narrative idea is to have my husband working on one of the many jobs that need doing on the weekend for the upkeep of our large property. One of our children will then interrupt him and beg for a moment of play and attention. This beautiful moment of interaction happens and for that brief time they are totally connected and it is touching and beautiful and how life should be. The narrative will then resolve with the work needing to be resumed and the child having to leave, along with the emotion and disappointment attached with that. 

I'm hoping that by highlighting the contrast between this brief moment of play and happiness between father and child and the consistent persistence of work and everyday life, it will hopefully evoke some thought about what's more important in life? What is important to us in our family life and the balance we all choose to keep? I find myself struggling with this thought and trying to get the balance right all the time.

So......one of the things my hubby loves to do with the kids is to give them a thrill by spinning them around really fast and high (gulp!). They always beg him to keep going and call out 'one more time daddy' even though they look like they are about to throw up! I thought this action would provide an excellent movement across the frame to try and photograph for this assignment.

So I have decided to do some test shots first to see what it would look like. Originally I thought of standing on the shed roof and shooting looking down on top of them but decided I would miss the gleeful look on their face as they spin. So I've settled on lying down on the ground looking upwards with my hubby swinging them over the top of me.

I then tried this with Otto using both a fast shutter speed......

And a slower shutter speed .....

I think the slower shutter speed certainly captures the movement and sense of spinning much better than the stop motion speed. I had keep trying different shutter speeds to finally get one that still allowed me to see the look of happiness on his face and not blur it too much.  I do think though that the fast shutter speed shots look wonderful, slightly strange and beautiful all on their own as well.

I plan to shoot both options on the day to give myself the best range of choice and perhaps some fantastic accidents.

So now I have my 'moment of play' shot,  I decided to sit down and storyboard the other shots around it to support my narrative. I visualised the story and images in my head first and then drew each image and wrote notes for each shot about settings and angles to refer to on the day of the shoot. 

I then thought about how I could improve each individual shot to make it slightly more abstract or more interesting. What items could I place into the photo or what depth of field could I use to support the narrative and provoke thought in the viewer? How could I best represent the main objective of using shutter speed and capturing movement, as well as supporting the concept and narrative.

Lots to think about now!!! I have seven images planned but hope to be able to leave out 1 or 2 out to condense it a bit. I also need to see what the shooting day brings me and be prepared to change or follow another direction if I get something good.

I have a rough plan. It's time to go shoot and see what comes of it all........