Exercise: A narrative picture essay

For this exercise I had to compose my own narrative picture essay.  I chose to keep this simple and straightforward which turned out to be a little more challenging than expected.  


Making a cup of coffee.  This is something that we do everyday and so almost without thinking.  This meant that I had to think and plan the process for shooting and also draft an outline for the narrative.  


Before I got all the objects required for the shoot  - kettle, ingredients, model - I drafted an outline for the series of pictures that would be required.  

1. All the essentials for making the coffee
2. Filling the kettle
3. Turning the kettle on
4. Putting the coffee in the cup
5. Adding the boiling 
6. Stirring the coffee
7. The finished product

To make the coffee you need kettle, cup, spoon and coffee

Fill the kettle with water

Turn the switch on.  The blue light indicates the kettle is on.

Put a spoonful of coffee and powdered milk into the cup

Pour the boiling water into the cup

Stir till dissolved

The cup of coffee!

I think looking back we did things like this at national school, where we had to draw a picture narrative for something like my journey to school or maybe an event like my holy communion.  It was strange to be trying this again although the camera helped a lot as I'm sure than my sketching skills are a bit rusty these days.  

I am glad that I chose something simple for this exercise because it demonstrates that a plan and a little bit of research and preparation are required to do even the simplest of shoots.  Using a visual narrative rather than text almost makes this every day event more interesting and different.  

I did a little sketch in Publisher of how I would like it to look or how it could look in a leaflet or brochure on how to make a cup of coffee.