365 Day 298 - God only knows

365 Day 298 - God only knows

Yesterday I attended a workshop organised by the DVJ group of the RPS. The tutor was Alison Baskerville, a really inspiring photojournalist who has spent time photographing war zones in Bosnia and Afghanistan amongst other things and the theme of the day was to create a 'photo essay'. After an hour or so of the theory, we were sent out into the streets of Gloucester to find and shoot a story, or at least part of it. I found that really tough and came to the conclusion that I needed to have done some research first and gone out with the story already in my head before I could think about the pictures I needed.

Having settled on 'Saturday afternoon in Gloucester' as my theme, I set about taking pictures and I stopped this chap who regularly sells the Big Issue in the city centre. I was using a slow shutter speed to try and show the movement of people walking past him and as I clicked the shutter he looked up, I assume wondering if it was going to rain. It wasn't until later that I realised that the headline on the magazine was 'God only knows', so maybe it wasn't rain he was looking for!

One question I asked in the feedback session was whether or not I should crop or clone out the hand coming into the left of the shot. I was told not, cloning is taboo in photojournalism and if I cropped it out I would have to lose most of the woman's right leg. The more I think I know, the more I realise there is to learn!