27) Photoshoot 2 for 'Steps to Happiness' Manifesto - 16/11/17

As Jim said in a previous tutorial, he thought I should shoot the other 5 happiness manifesto steps in another format, so I decided to shoot them on my 35mm point and shoot. I decided this because the remaining 5 happiness steps out of the 10 didn't really fit into a studio setting, so I wanted to depict them out and about in daily life.

The remaining steps were:

- Count your blessings (5 things you're thankful for)

- Uninterrupted talk time with a friend

- Say hello to a stranger

- Random act of kindness

- Have a good laugh at least once a day.

Below are my finished images for each step, all captioned for the specific manifesto they're depicting.

Count your blessings (5 things you're thankful for):

Blessing 1 - a roof over your head. I took this as one of the images because I was trying to keep my blessings to things that are seen as basic needs in life, and a place to live is one of them. I like the blue sky and fluffy clouds coming into the composition, because I think this adds to the happiness due to people finding joy in nice weather.

Blessing 2 - shoes on your feet. This was another basic need I thought of, and something that people mention a lot when talking about blessings. Also pictured are a pair of my favourite shoes, which make me happy.

Blessing 3 - seeing clearly with my glasses. Although this picture does not depict this literally, I thought this glasses sign was a good way of showing this blessing in a more interesting way.

Blessing 4 - a good meal. Another classic blessing people mention, and another basic need I feel everyone needs to be happy. Pictured is one of my favourite meals - a roast dinner. I feel it has a lot of connotations of community and family, as roasts to me are usually associated with Sundays with the family or Christmas time. Meals are always a great way to spend time with people, which therefore makes me happy.

Blessing 5 - love. I thought these declarations of love on this tree were a good way to show my final blessing, love. This could be from many different sources, friends, family, relationships. Everyone needs love in their life to be happy.

Uninterrupted talk time with a friend:

When thinking of how I wanted to depict talk time with a friend, the first thing I thought of was eye contact, because you keep eye contact with the person you're talking to. I thought this piece in a gallery in Paris fit perfectly, because the piece only shows the eyes, which are looking straight into the camera.

Say hello to a stranger:

This image was taken in Weston, and after saying hello to the ladies I asked them if I could take a photo. This was firstly because of this kindness step but also because I found it so juxtapositional that they're eating ice creams while being wrapped up in coats and hats. I didn't ask them to smile for the photo but it makes me happy that they did.

Random act of kindness:

This image depicts a random act of kindness of me taking a McDonalds to my friends house, as well as the act of kindness making me happy, McDonalds also makes me really happy.

Have a good laugh at least once a day:

This final image was also taken in Paris, displaying a close up of a smile in an advert, which I think represents laughing quite well. I also think its interesting how the smile is from an advert, which gives connotations of quite fake and materialistic ideas of happiness, and I hope this makes people think about the origins of happiness and the sincereity of them.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the images, and they're a accumulation of photographs taken in Bristol, Weston and Paris. I really like this mix of different places because it shows you can find happiness anywhere you go, and I think this also shows that you mainly find happiness from yourself, it doesn't have to be based on your environment.

#photoshoot #obsessions