Overall Evaluation

I think this unit was hard to start the work, I say this because of the tittle "Expanding Horizons" had confused me at first. I had got confused because I wanted to base my work of what I thought the phase "Expanding Horizons" mean to me. The first idea I had got from the tittle was about sun sets and sun rise, I don't want to do that idea because I don't want the work to be too obvious ro the tittle of the work. After some research and looking at some photos the tittle "Expanding Horizon" reminds me of mediation and martial arts. After getting a theme on what I want to do for my work I then have to do some research to construct an idea for my work.
After seeing other photographers work and some movies I got an idea on what I want in my photos. My main idea was having a lot of martial arts moves and weapons in the photo. The problem with that idea was I wasn't thinking about what I want in the photo I just focused my photos on the fighting and weapons. After doing some more research I then came up with the idea of one photo showing a soft side of martial arts and one photo showing a agressive side of martial arts. I wanted to do this because I want my photo to have a message in it that people who do any for of martial arts can relate to.
My main influence of my final work was Stefanie Jung and Clifton Li. Jung had gave me inspiration for my photo because of the way she overlay her photos, I think it was a great way to show two sides  next to each other to see what it looks like as one photo over each other.

Clifton Li had inspired me for my martial arts photo because of the was he looked at the motion and the impact of the move in the photos. His photos had inspired the pose and how to get a martial arts feeling from the photos. Before doing any photo shoot I have to write up a health and safety list to make sure it will be followed to prevent any accidents 

After some planning and some test photos I then saw that I needed to improve some of my ideas. My original idea was to have a sword pose in a urban landscape at night, the problem with that idea was the photo was hard to look at due to the overlay effects and the way the photo was taken. In the photo the background did not match the theme of the photo, I say this because it was really hard to see some areas of the subject and the photos was taken around dusk when it was starting to get dark. The way the photos turned out then was really hard to work with. My editing on the photo didn't really work but I had recorded the processe so I can use it to improve on.
My second idea was to have a photo of me doing a fighting style that dose not include any weapons in it but still in the urban theme. The photo worked because of the poses that was struck and the background was not noticed. The message of the photo was not clear because of the limited use of photos.
After my two failed ideas I had to stop with the photos and break my ideas down, this is what I came up with,

Martial arts is:

• Peaceful - shoalin monks use martial arts for meditating
• Chinese martial arts are more defensive the offensive
• Defensive martial arts has little weapons and have a strong pose.
• Agressive - Japanese warriors sue martial arts to fight in war
• Japanese martial arts are more offensive then defensive
• Offensive martial arts has more weapons and more agressive pose

After looking back at the list I have broken down I then know what type of photo I was after. I had to do some research on looking at the different martial arts to see which one would be used in my photo (Baji Quan - Chinese and Aikido - Japanese).
Before I take any photos I hade to look for a location that the photo will be legal to take due to the weapons and to make sure the weapons won't hurt anyone around. After finding a location I then start my photo shoot.

This time my photos work and I was ready to edit the photos. After a long think about how the photos will be edited I was then ready to present my final image.

What I like about this module was it was challenging and it pushed my mental skill in photography to the limit. I like how the module helped me find solutions around problems that I have encountered. I think after all the research I then have a strong final image, I say this because the message of the photo was clear, the way everything in the photo was though about and I had got a person who knows how to perform these moves to make the moves real not staged so the photo is more real to the viewers.

What I don't like about the module was it took so long to produce work, this is because of the understanding of the tittle; I also found the module very frustrating because of the constant change I ha done to my work.

If I was to do this module again I would pick one theme to begin with and stick with the idea and find research to back the idea up instead of constantly changing the idea. I would also consider picking a different theme then martial arts, I say this because this module was ment to be in friendly to younger viewers and some people have the impression that martial arts is not friendly to younger viewers. I would also experiment more with my work then just stick to one technique and use all the way.