Week Three Homework

I'm a bit behind the others on the course having only started during the 3rd week so I have some catching up to do. One thing I am doing at the same time, however, is the homework this week which is to create a five-shot photo narrative. I've come up with a few possibilities and in the end was going to go with a visit to the Waterlily House at Kew Gardens - I'd drawn up some possible pictures: 

However, I was having doubts and thinking the idea weak so when I got to Kew and heard music coming from the Temperate House I thought I'd check it out in case something else presented itself. Turns out the Gardens are having a Mexican themed October and as part of this not only are there some installations in the Temperate House but there are also some live music events and today I was lucky enough to see Mariachi Las Adelitas UK (I strongly recommend you check them out if you can - fun, lively and talented women with an antidote to the traditional machismo of mariachi music). They pretty quickly became the solution to the homework for me, the narrative I didn't know I'd find. 

I haven't narrowed down the photographs I took to just five yet, but here are some of Las Adelitas performing and other pictures from the Temperate House on a beautifully sunny autumn Sunday: 

The Temperate House, (above), re-opened by Sir David Attenborough after a multi-year, multi-million pound refit in 2018. 

One of the "rooms" of the Temperate House is given over to "An offering of Blossoms in their Memory", above. Below, Elizabeth II has her own offering.

Mariachi Las Adelitas on stage in the Temperate House for one of their three shows on Sunday (above), with, (below), their talented trumpeter taking a break during the set.

Even if you can't get to see them at Kew, (below), do check out their website at the link given previously - if you don't come alive during their performance then who knows, maybe you qualify for an offering of blossoms yourself? 

Adios!

UPDATE: 14/10/22

After discussion in class about my pictures (I showed about 8 or so), there was almost-consensus on the following running order for them: 

I've had enough of thinking about this particular set for the time being, but a quick couple of useful points from the exercise based on discussion of my pictures and of others in the class: 

1. As a general rule of thumb, the more changes there are between pictures, the more time is assumed by the viewer to have elapsed between their being taken. 

2. Visual links between the photographs vital in a narrative - many of my photographs were unusable in the narrative context because they were not visually tied together e.g. they were not recognisably taken inside the Temperate House or had no other visible link with the Mariachi band. 

3. Look for interplay between pictures - this has to be there for them to work as a narrative and in sequence. 

4. The hook shot (I'm not sure I have one in the above pictures) is generally speaking your advertisement, your book cover: it's what pulls people in. 

5. Certain aspects of a photographic sequence increase it's objectivity and seeming factual nature in the mind of the viewer: not too tricksy (not going overboard on post-processing or in-camera effects) and great depth of field being just two. Arguably, the pictures not being too perfect in terms of composition / framing heightens the feel that they are photojournalistic.