Major Documentary Project Evaluation

Final Major Documentary Photography Project Statement

Do Red Squirrels need our help?

I have designed a KS2 Education Pack for schools, that looks to inform the next generation about red squirrel conservation efforts and its national importance. Following extensive research I have targeted my work for a specific age group (7-11) that is the most appropriate for the project and will have the biggest impact. The pack is designed to gain the children’s interest and engage their attention by asking questions and providing hands on activities, working both individually and in groups. This will develop the children’s confidence, speaking and listening skills and also help with developing opinions and explaining and reasoning techniques. My photographs are used in the pack to captivate the children and provide opportunities for them to link images with facts and information that they have learnt, widening their skill set. The images contribute to discussions and questions about what the children are seeing and allow for more in-depth insights whilst also appealing to their love of animals.

I have had to collate my extensive subject knowledge and channel it into one simple pack that children aged 7-11 can access and engage with but are also able to retain the information. I have not been able to simply relay facts to them but have had to find ways to include them in teaching each other and finding out facts for themselves. By always asking questions, I am making the children think about what their own opinions are and challenging their perceptions of the conservation world. Whilst my photographs are a contributing factor to the piece and an allure to teachers who can use them as classroom resources (along with my audio piece), the main focus is the subject. Photography is utilised here to inform and educate. I have a specific audience for my project who I have a responsibility to educate and engage;  the future of these native mammals in the UK is relying on this generation to understand the issue, connect with the conservation efforts and ultimately help save the British red squirrel.

Risk Assessment

Class Presentation

I’ve found it really hard starting my education pack. I feel very out of my depth and doubting if I can do this. However, after creating a powerpoint (baby steps towards the real thing in InDesign!) and receiving some encouraging feedback from my peers, I feel confident to carry on with a similar style for “the real thing”. I need to change my font from Comic Sans. I’ve done some research and have decided on Sassoon Primary – reassurance is in the name! I am going to stay in contact with the primary school I visited and Vic from Camp Wild to test certain pages on whilst sending the information I am using to red squirrel experts so that I know I am doing the right thing for all angles of this project. I need to be careful with my image selection and need to edit down about 4 hours of recordings into less than 5 minutes to have as accompanying audio for my work – the children voices and engagement with the activities are priceless and I feel compliment my images extremely well.

Future Prospects…

http://conservationphotographers.org

I feel like I am on track to becoming the type of photographer I want to be, or at least in the field I want to be in if not a photographer. I want to have a purpose for my images and make a difference on this planet to help the wildlife and environment. I believe that this red squirrel project is the start of something new and exciting in my life that I hadn’t ever foreseen or could have predicted. In the video they talk of NGO, photographer and scientist working together, I feel I am half way there as a photographer working with a charity and conservation experts on a project. Once I have developed my work I am confident that there are many platforms out there that I can use and promote this conservation issue through photography, there are many options for this project and various different audiences to direct it at, I can just change elements of it. The message is still the same. For now though, educating the next generation is the most important thing. I feel very positive about the future.

AOP Student Awards

http://www.the-aop.org/awards/aop-student-awards-2015/briefs

I also entered the AOP student awards with 3 images. I chose these 3 as I felt that for social media and web use, you could have the image on the left and have text on the right in the blurred backgrounds. As a cover photo on Facebook that would work perfectly. I entered the third image as after looking back at the middle picture, I wasn’t happy with the composition and so cropped it in tighter which I feel looks much better. The first image represents not turning your backs on the red squirrel conservation efforts and the other image touches on their hunger for survival. Again, even if my entries don’t come of anything it has been a really good habit to get into, entering lots of competitions and looking at previous winners so see what judges are looking for. Now that I am working on a project I am passionate about and want to continue with, I feel I can create a body of work that I can take around the world with me and keep developing and expanding on… it can be an archival documentation of the reintroduction of red squirrels back into Britain! I’m capturing history in the making and encouraging a positive future. As my subject knowledge develops, so will my images and my aim is to enter the 2016 wildlife photographer of the year competition with a stronger set of images than I have so far. This is just the beginning…

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/wpy/competition/adult-competition/categories/index.html

Documentary

14. Wildlife Photojournalist: Single Image Award
15. Wildlife Photojournalist: Photo Story Award

Investigate the complex relationships between humans and the natural world through the narrative power of photography. Challenging or uplifting, provocative or revelatory, submissions should remind us how our attitudes, decisions and actions impact the natural world.

TIP!
Enter photo stories of up to 10 images from which our jury will use its collective experience to select a maximum of six.

Education Packs

Looking on the internet for education packs (and not finding any specific to red squirrels available online) has proven there is definitely a gap in the market for what I want to produce. It has also shown me that there are many different ways of approaching education/resource packs. The colour/vibrant ones are the most engaging and the ones with actual photographs are the best visually – many are quite dull and unimaginative! I need to hook the children from the start with my mine and keep them engaged with images and activities right until the very end whilst following the national curriculum at all times. I need to remember to also include notes for teachers, else they are unlikely to want to use my pack!

http://ngkids.co.uk

http://www.wildwoodtrust.org/files/ks2-habitats.pdf

http://www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/biodiversity_teaching_pack.pdf

http://www.animalmosaic.org/Images/resources_FCAW_false_WSPA-AnimalHomes-English_tcm34-20601_tcm46-29122.pdf

http://www.bluecross.org.uk/files/Animal-wordsearch.pdf

http://www.animalmosaic.org/Images/Bear%20Facts%20booklet_tcm46-29368.pdf

http://www.animalmosaic.org/Images/Bear%20Factsheets_tcm46-29369.pdf

http://www.animalmosaic.org/Images/Bears%20of%20the%20world%20Poster_tcm46-29371.pdf

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/schools/livendeadly/livendeadly_teachers_pack.pdf

Example national curriculum resources sent to me from primary schools:

A visit to Sticklepath Primary School

http://www.sticklepath-primary.devon.sch.uk

After meeting and photographing the school group having a squirrel education day, I went to visit them at their school, to see how the subject was taught in the classroom rather than in the woods. I took in a taxidermist red and grey squirrel with me to show the children the difference in size as they (or the teachers or many people for that matter!) have never seen a grey and red squirrel together. I also took my camera in and voice recorder to gather more primary research for my education pack. I was spending time with my specific target audience and wanted to gather and hold as much information as possible to work with when creating my teaching resource. Whilst my images to come out of the day are nothing to be proud, the experience of visiting the school was invaluable. I actually met my audience in a real life situation and could see how my project would work and impact lives, what the children like to engage with and how much they take in at one time.

I also saw around the classroom walls the kind of phrases to include and what language was appropriate and that the use of colour was paramount to all of the resources on display. There was also a significant lack of photography and so I know my work is filling a gap in the market and that there is a definite audience ready for it when I am! An education pack is perfect for my work, I just need to get over my fear of the unknown and make a successful one now! The teachers at this school have very kindly said that I can email them with questions and are happy to look at versions I produce to see if it would legitimately work as an actual resource for teachers to use. I’m excited to continue with the project and bring all of my knowledge, passion and photography into one easily accessible and informative yet fun education pack for the adults of tomorrow.

British Wildlife Photography Competition

http://www.bwpawards.org/static/winner-2014.html?/galleries/Comp-2014

Seeing last years winners and entries, gave me confidence that my own images were relevant to enter into the “Documentary Series”. The conservation of red squirrels is an extremely important feat in British wildlife and so I hoped that showing images of educating the next generation of the efforts would be an unusual entry. I tried to pick colourful and vibrant images to compliment the education of children and avoided graphic images of the dissection. I made the bold decision to include one image of a skinned grey squirrel, if the children are willing to look at to then the general public need to stop ignoring the situation and try to understand as well. It may not be what the judges want to see but I would not be true to myself if I ignored the grey squirrels and only showed cute images of the reds. Avoiding the difficult subjects in life won’t ever fix them or make them easier, it will only amplify the problem. I’m not 100% sure I chose the right images, however I feel confident that I could develop my project over the next year and enter again for the 2016 competition with a stronger submission.

School Squirrel Day

Finally I have a purpose for my shooting!! I feel a new burst of energy and have a sense of purpose for my project. This new found direction has given me confidence and structure in my shooting, with each photo contributing to my vision of educating children on the red squirrel battle. With an education pack in mind for KS2 children, I finally had focus and clarity in what I was doing and it just ‘felt right’. My photography improved as I now knew what I was shooting for, I had felt a bit lost prior to this end goal project. I had ended up just taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures, now they had purpose.

With all that said, I should have taken a flash gun with me, a few of my shots just don’t quite have the right light or gleam of the eye, next time I’m shooting in a woods I will definitely take one with me! I just assumed as it was a beautiful sunny day that the light would be perfect for it, it was a complete oversight on my behalf. I also should have taken my longer 300 lens into the enclosure with me before the children arrived. I distorted the squirrels by being too close to them (I wasn’t expecting them to come and investigate me – I was just there to shoot the environment!) and I could have blurred out the background and got more detail when the squirrels were up in the higher canopy of the trees. Next time I photograph them I shall take all my lenses with me and not naively assume that I won’t need one or the other. I made sure I shot with a low ISO as I wanted the option to print these large if needed (I really should have taken a flash gun with me!).

I also had a hand held voice recorder with me all day and recorded the ambiance and interviewed people (be it teachers, parents, education rangers or the children) all day, as I intend to create a short audio clip to accompany my images. I want the voices of the next generation engaging with conservation and specifically red squirrel conservation, to be heard by the current generation. The more people my work can engage and educate the better – people may not listen to me hopefully they’ll listen their children.

Similarly to the grey trapping images, I won’t be able to use several of these images as ‘animal rights activists’  will most likely sabotage them, which is ironic as the children watching understood why this needed to be done to have a balanced ecosystem and were excited to learn about the reasons behind the culling of grey squirrels. Hopefully by creating an education pack for young children, the next generation will be able to differentiate between situations of necessity and barbarity. Again, I should have used my long lens at times and not been so physically close to the children, I should have stepped back and picked out expressions and detail in the scene. This would have stopped any distortions of shapes and sizes and created some entertaining pictures at that! I enjoy shooting the interaction of humans and animals and feel this is my strongest area, I still need more practice of photographing large groups of people though.

Overall the day was simply wonderful, it was just so encouraging seeing such young people engaging in such an important topic and generally interested and asking questions all day. Its given me hope for my project and above all, the future of red squirrels.