Reflection on Assignment Two

On the doorstep - the political activity of canvassing voters'. 

Back on 3 March I decided my objective for assignment  two :

'I am going to follow a team of canvassers out 'on the doorstep' as they meet and talk to local voters. The intention is to show what is happening and why; to capture the 'feel' of the session; the camaraderie  between the canvassers; their reactions to the responses they get and any interaction with the public'.


What worked well?

The concept of following a group of canvassers worked well. The activity absorbed the attention of people to the extent that they were not distracted by me.This allowed me to take shots close up,even taking a lead from Bruce Gilden and taking shots below the canvassers looking up at them. This particular approach produced some interesting images in terms of composition but nothing which really added to the 'explanation ' of what was happening...

There were enough different actions and activity including camaraderie within the group.
Variety of locations and continuity of canvassers also worked though carrying the work over a number of sessions did mean that people dressed differently in different shots.

And the fact that I knew what canvassing is all about and the kind of activity to expect  helped me plan the kind of compositions I was looking for - even the reality of the day didn't always deliver....

What worked less well?

The speed of canvassing presented problems in keeping up or ahead of the group and worked against changing camera settings to accommodate the changing shots in view. I realised  during the first session that adjusting settings was slowing me down and it wasn't always possible to anticipate what image would suddenly materialise. Changing to a street photography setting worked reasonably well but left some images with loss of definition in the far background. This didn't matter for some images but where the background was important to the composition it resulted in a less than expected final image. There was very little 'static ' action except around the board which sounds a contradiction in terms but those images sometimes came out as looking a little posed, lacking a certain dynamism ...and that dynamism was something that I wanted to get over....

Decision making re composition had to be done very quickly - the constant movement of group led to a number of blurred shots

I would have liked more shots of canvassers interacting with members of the public and carried permission forms with me every time but I had no luck apart from one shot. People on the doorstep and those who were out and about were very wary of me i.e. a photographer working with a political group...

Another difficulty were the lighting conditions on the street on the first outing which proved difficult to master quickly and resulted in over and underexposed shots.

I also underestimated how many sessions would be required to provide decent images covering the range of activities I wanted to show. Also some canvassers wore different coats and carried different carrier bags in different shots ..did this matter? Apart from making it obvious that the images came from different sessions, I wondered if this would be a distraction perhaps?

At the end of the day... 

I enjoyed this project. It gave me an opportunity to 'plan' and capture an activity which most people do not see in action and try out some street photography techniques. Frustrating at times, I think my time was well spent and I am happy with the range of images captured ..images that go a way to explaining what happens when political canvassers go out 'on the 'doorstep'