Provocative scenario.

Expectation, Love, Absence... There are many different meanings and interpretations for each
word, especially different in each culture and means something special for each individual.

I’ve been given a project, where I have to produce a final image for each word, but have also
been restricted to the Holloway Road as my location. Since I’ve decided for myself I would like to
be a location photographer, this project made the whole experience extremely enjoyable.

The first thing I did, was research,- I started sightseeing looking for a bit of nature. I find this the
best way to express my feelings and emotions,- with the connection between a human and
nature.

I’ve found a very special place on Holloway Road, called “St Mary Magdalene Church & Gardens”,
which is an Anglican Church since the 19 th century and church gardens, which are both open to
the public. I’ve also decided to link all three images and make a little story, where we can actually
see that there always can be a very different scenario in our lives no matter are our expectations.

Once I decided on all details of the final image I want to present, I went to Holloway Road looking
for a couple. I met a young couple on a street and asked if they would be happy to assist with my
project. Luckily they were very interested to help me and as a reward I promised to give them the
final image as a present.

The first image I made was for the word “Expectation”. My personal interpretation of this word
is: a condition when you are expecting an event which is about to happen. I chose an evening
session for all three images, so it could give a special atmosphere and very romantic lights and
colours. My idea was to represent the feeling you have when you are anxious, having high
expectations on meeting someone very special to you. Expectations might be very different and
tricky, as you never know what to expect. In my story there could be two provocatively different
futures, whatever are our expectations.

Finally I made an image where you can see a guy, sitting on a bench with a bunch of red roses and
watching the silhouette of an approaching girl. It might be her… Or it might not! He is expecting
her to come any minute; however she might be also very late… Or might not come at all! You
never know… I’m pretty sure everyone had this feeling inside at one time.

As we all know, there might be two absolutely different scenarios: that was her (she turns up)
and this to be followed by “Love” and a happy ending, or she is not coming, which leads us to
“Absence”.

Love… Probably a word with the strongest meaning in the world, which means to me a deep
emotion of very strong attachment to an object (not necessary a human being). Sometimes it’s
very easy to say, but very difficult to show. And especially difficult because you never know when
it may come, but there are certainly many ways to express this feeling.
I’ve decided to use this word as my second image, hoping this will always be the main and the
best scenario happening in our lives. There can nothing be more beautiful, that watching two
people loving each other, enjoying every single moment of their lives together. This couple I met
truly loved each other, so every shot I made was expressing loads of love and it was quite difficult
for me to choose only one image.

It was quite late evening, so all the streetlights in the square made the atmosphere even more
romantic. It was more about composition, as the couple managed to show their “love” very
easily, so I could concentrate on my work to make the image look complete and very balanced.

It was really very difficult for me to make the next image based on the word “Absence”. The first
reason was because this word brings some negative emotions, which I don’t really like and find it
very difficult to express and, moreover, to capture on my camera.

Another reason that it took so long for me to finish with the final image for the word “Absence”
was because I didn’t want to involve such a beautiful couple in expressing any kind of negative
emotions, especially after showing how much they loved each other!

Most of the time we think of “Absence” as the opposite of “presence”, but it can really refer to
anything that is actually missing or something that is lacking. That’s why I’ve decided to connect
this word to the second way of how the scenario might go after “Expectation”,- if she doesn’t
turn up. It’s pretty clear what happens then… Absence!

Since I’ve decided not to involve this couple into expressing or showing the “Absence”, it was
clear to me almost straight away what is going to be on the final image,- I will need to capture the
bunch of red roses left on the bench. I also knew I will present the final image in black and white
colours, so all three images will have a very different colour scheme,- natural colours in the first
image, reddish scheme in the second one and desaturated colours in the last image.

Generally speaking, I did really enjoy the whole experience of this photo shoot, as I really like
meeting new people, but even more important for me was to express myself and to manage to
achieve the result I wanted to. This time it was especially difficult for me, because I’ve always
used a Canon camera before, and it was the first time I’ve ever used a Nikon since I bought it.
Moreover, I was very stressed and nervous, because of knowing how big the competition is and
how much I want to achieve a very good result.

I will definitely need more training on using this camera, as I want to take full control of my
equipment and to make sure I know which setting exactly affects which result. It’s very important
when the photographer is confident with the equipment he uses to achieve the best result!