Pictures for my Content Page

Since I decided I wanted my content page to be very picture oriented, I had to go take said pictures. I recruited a few friends, gathered a few make up products and props and then I got to work. I wanted a picture for each feature I had. According to my (very) rough planning the content page would look like this:

The boxes are spaces for pictures belonging to the featured articles which means I need 7-8 pictures for my content page.

Stand. Rise. Regroup.

Naturally I started off by choosing an image for my cover story. I had already shortlisted a few images from my photo shoot. Out of these I decided to use:

I decided to use this eye level mid close up because it did a good job of showcasing her expressions. Her being in focus while the background was blurred showing her significance. It also nicely captures her style and attitude.

Jessy Rayburn

I asked my friend Asphah to model for me for this particular feature. She possess quite a teen chic casual look, making her fit the appearance I was looking for. Though I took quite a few pictures, I decided on a charming mid shot, which did a good job of showing off her outfit. The symmetry and the lucky gentle breeze which happened to blow when I took the picture only improved it. That paired with her non sweater sweater paws created a soft but firm image of her. This paired with the slight low angle the picture was taken from, perfectly displayed her humility despite her album being on top.

Cafe Allegro

For this feature, I went to a local restaurant 'The Burning Giraffe' and photographed some of their amazing interior decor which I felt matched the mood of the feature. I took a few but the only one I liked and the one I wanted to use in my content page is an eye level image which does a good job at capturing the essence and ambience of the place.

Rejuvenile 

Rejuvenile was yet another indie artist I created for this magazine. As the name suggests, I wanted something playful and childish. The re part in the name, however, stresses how the innocence of youth is gone and now it's all a mask. I also didn't want all my feature images to include human faces. Taking inspiration by the likes of Marshmallow and the whole concept of pretending to be a certain way to escape reality, I decided to invent an artist by quite simply taking a pink balloon and drawing a ridiculously happy face on it which represents the playful side of childishness. I got a friend to hold it as she would hold here head when she's worried or distressed. The balloon covering her face is also a symbol for hiding behind the  re-assumed naivety of youth.

The picture I finalised was a eye level mid close up. I chose this shot because it focuses on the balloon the expression on it and how the head (balloon) is being held as if in distress, giving an almost manic energy to the image and perfectly inculcating all the themes and the distress over the artist of their fans loving them despite changes.

Make Upp

For this I decided to add one of the pictures I had taken earlier for my preparations blog. I chose the most aesthetically pleasing and matching one. The pink shade of the make up matched that of the flowers in the background. The top view did a good job of capturing it.

Guitar Galore

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with this picture. I asked one of my friends who's an instrumentalist to bring her guitar. The picture I chose was a zoomed in close up of the guitar's fret board and sound hole. 

Hamster

Yet another featured indie artist. The article is about how this particular indie artist thinks rap might be the genre for them so I wanted an exceptionally soft image to enunciate the irony of an airy indie vocalist wanting to do rap. For this, I asked my friend, Ayesham, to model for me. I handed her my ukulele (a very soft sounding instrument) and sat her in front of flowers and naturalistic elements. I even asked her to wear white and placed a matching white flower in her ear to portray this softness which contrasts with the roughness of the genre of rap.

I chose this low angle mid shot because it best captured an image of softness but also showed firm decisiveness in her gaze. Her looking up symbolises looking up to better/different things. 

Indie Fest

I decided to add some artistic elements to the content page. I didn't want all the pictures to look the same. That paired with the impracticality of getting a large mass of people to gather, I decided it's better to use a drawing of a stage and some usual paraphernalia instead like speakers and a mic. While the art style was kept simple, the interesting colouring, overlay of textures and background makes the picture unique and festy. 

Janae Hope

For this picture I got my friend Zainab to model for me. Despite this article being about her charity campaign, I wanted to give the audience a reminder that at the end of the day she is still an artist with her individual style. To do this I got Zainab to wear 'Anastasia' blue lipstick since it's quirky. 

I took a bunch of pictures but the one I finalised was a subtle low level mid shot in which she's smiling, making her appear more friendly and altruistic. The background was a painting, which added more colour to the picture compared to the rest of the pictures I took. The overlay of reflective surfaces also made the picture an interesting option. The low level was taken to represent the moral high ground she's on.

Experience

Despite having to do take all these in a short frame of 3 days and juggling it with working on my cover page, this was a fun experience. I felt since last time I had improved when it came to working out composition, technical elements, planning and management itself. Willing friends partnered with interesting ideas and concepts, this turned out to be quite enjoyable.