My photo essay focuses on the nightlife in Chinatown, London - specifically referring to restaurants, market stools, decoration, entertainment, and the locals which make up the community. I chose this as my subject because I wanted to have a range of shots that were so diverse from each other. There is a lot going on in one area all at once which allows room for creativity. 

One of the key elements I wanted to capture during production was Energy. This was something I wanted to show, as I walked in and around these streets of urban area. I noticed the sharpness and vibrance of the neon lights, which made other objects burst with colour. I thought the night sky would make a definitive contrast with the luminosity of the objects. It implies that there is as much activity going on during the evening as there would be during the day. 

I experimented with the camera angles so that I could show variety within the community, the low angle shots portray the buildings to be more elevated. Whereas the mid angle shots that I used were at eye level with everyone moving around the camera.

I decreased the shutter speed e.g. to 1/25 of a second to capture the movement within a split moment. In the bicycle image I panned the camera in the opposite way to the direction in which the subject was travelling to so the bicycle looks as though it is going into the light. The colours are being levitated in motion which brings across. 

To capture the detail within some of my images - I made one object in the foreground a focal point, to do this I altered the measurement of aperture e.g. f/4.5 creating a shallow depth of field making the background become out of focus. For my iron railings image I wanted to show the crowd of people as one blur to the imply integration, which refers to the variety cultures of coming together.

In post production I cropped certain images to improve the framing of the subject. I decided to raise the hue of the key colours in many of my images this made the  neon lights more prominent, gold coated trinkets shinier, white masks/ street signs more refined. The entertainer (img5) was stood in the middle of the street so was getting drowned out by passers by. I thought it was vital for him to stand out from everyone else in this image because he is representing his national colours which makes a great collaboration with the Chinese culture. In Images 10 and 11 the people are washed out where I've taken the orange levels of hue down to minus 100. I thought this was appropriate as they're passing through the urban, neon flooded streets but also in image 10 taking some colour away with them as they take exit Chinatown.

Eric Meola was one of my inspirations for focusing on colour as part of the key element within my images. The hue in some of his images are turned up high to make colours pop and give a sense of liveliness to the subject. 

Pete Turner's photographer - In his 'Discoveries' section of his website the images are flooded with vibrant colours which set the mood of the subject matter. His images are captured from an observational point of view which makes the images very spontaneous (candid photography). 

Mode of Photography - I thought the Observational mode worked best for my photo essay. I decided to take photos of people at any given moment to make it more natural. I also wanted to take photos of things people only take a glimpse at and not admire the true detail. Surrounded by people who who were tourists and the Chinese community I could observe how they inter mingle in one or more streets. The men in masks (img4) caused a commotion as they pranced around, leaning into peoples faces and posing for photographs.