People and Place Result
I got my result for my last first year course. Although it was a pass mark, I was a bit disappointed. I got 48 marks.
I’ll have to work harder next year!!!
Result
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End of course thoughts.
I have recently sent my course work and projects to the OCA for formal assessment. As I packaged the items together it was a great time to look at the images that I had taken and to examine the Assignments.
Over the year I took a number of interesting images and put together a number of assignments which tested me. Taking images of people, some knowing I was there and others not knowing was one of the highlights of the year.
My favourite images of the year were the ones of Liz for Assignment one. I had a great day with her, we both liked the images and so did my tutor.
I also liked the final desk diary that I produced for the last assignment. I put a great deal of work into it including two trips to London and research into what would be the best product to make.
The assessment of this last course completes my first year of studies. It has taken me over two years to complete the first three courses, not too bad as I’m working full-time and often sent abroad.
The first three courses have really pushed me, it’s a long time since I was at college. I hope that they have set the foundations for further studies.
Thank you to my tutors, Mr Taylor and Mr Alexander and thank you to the OCA for giving me the opportunity to work towards a photographic degree.
L.S. Lowry- A biography by Shelley Rhode
As this course comes to a close I am finishing a number of books that I had started to read over the last few months.
Over the weekend I finished an interesting book on L.S. Lowry. He is obviously a painter that needs no introduction to many and the creator of the “match stick man and dogs”images of the working class area of Salford.
It seems that for years he was not recognised as a true talent and even now there are people who do not think he is worthy of the attention that he receives.
In fact for the first time there is to be an exhibition of his work at the Tate Britain. From the Tate website
“The L. S. Lowry exhibition London event celebrates the much-loved British landscape artist, whose depictions of the industrial city have become truly iconic”
25 June 2013 –
20 October 2013
I read the book as I thought that it would be interesting to see how he was able to turn a landscape scene of an industrial part of Salford and turn it into an iconic image that would be enjoyed by millions.
I think that a series of images taken of similar areas as they are now and trying to match them to an image that he painted years ago would make for an interesting project.
Rockin’ The Rockabilly Scene
I have just finished reading the above book, Rockin’, the Rockabilly Scene by Andrew Shaylor.
The book contain some wonderful images taken by Andrew on a road trip to the southern states of the USA.
Rockin’-Andrew Shaylor
The images are in colour and black and white. It was an interesting subject to cover as one of the photographers previous book was about Hell’s Angels.
A great read
Visit to the Strand Gallery
After reading a review in Amateur Photographer I was lucky enough to get to the last day of the London Riots Revisited exhibition. I thought that this would be interesting on a few fronts.
I was involved in them, in a small way (Legally!!)
2. My Job
3. A chance to see how a photographer from the Press Association capture images in what can be very dangerous situations
4. With a view to my new courses next year.
The images were taken by Lewis WHYLD. (lewiswhyld.com). He is a press photographer, for the Press Association, based in London.
Image 1
A quick online search shows some great images. The above image is from his Twitter Account!!
The images on show were stunning. I know how difficult it can be in these situations having been in a number of riots myself over the last 26 years working in London.
The ability to capture images like this when all around you is, to use a police term “Kicking Off” is rather remarkable.
Copyrighted Mr WHYLD
A great exhibition and a great venue, right in the centre of London
Assignment 5- Review of New Product – Feedback
Today I received a short report from Mr Alexander in relation to my new product. His comments are below. He also comments on a question I raised about showing product to paying customers.
Hi Ged,
This is better. A shame there is still some repetition, but not to the same degree as before.
To respond to the question you posed on your blog: if there are shots that you really don’t like, then don’t show them to the client! Sometimes, there might be great shots that you know they won’t be interested in, so it may be prudent to keep hold of these yourself (particularly when they’ve bargained your copyright from you!)
But ultimately, when you are working commercially, you have to relinquish some control, and accept that you are just one creative in a chain of several. actually, I’ve generally been quite happy with how designers have edited and used my images.
They see things in your shots that you don’t because they can imagine how they will work with text, logos and particular layouts.
I will submit both calendars for assessment in July as it will be interesting to get another perspective. Although Mr Alexander always seems to hit the nail on the head!!
Assignment 5 – New Product Design
After reviewing my 5th assignment I decided that I would look for a new product using less images.
I also looked at the images that I had taken and I used a number of new images that had details of the companies in the shots, ie Eurostar, The Hotel including the wine bars and Network Rail.
Cover
The new design is simpler with a black cover and images on a white back-ground for each month.
Images
Images
This is one of the new images, it shows the iconic Eurostar train and passengers.
I like this calendar better than the first, a number of days in each month can have the contact number of the hotel/Eurostar added. This improves the advertising for each company.
Assignment 5 Feedback.
My feedback report has arrived for assignment 5.
Viewers will have seen that I decided to create a desk calendar with images from the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras station in London.
For the product that I chose you need 52 images , one per week. This in hindsight was an error, as I had to use images more than once.
Mr Alexander noted this as follows.
Your particular product is quite challenging: As it’s week-by-week calendar, so there a lot more pages to fill than a regular calendar. If I were receiving this – although it’s meant to be a free-be – I’d feel that the repetition of images is disappointing. So, choosing a different product would have certainly made life easier for you. With that said, the actual product is nice, and, with the right imagery, I think I’d be very happy to keep on my desk.
However you will see that he did say that he wouldn’t mind the item on his desk, which I thought was a good sign.
In view of the above comments I have looked at a different product which needs less images I will create a new desk calendar , in a different style which I hope will be more pleasing.
This was an interesting assignment as you had to take a number of images that you think that the client would like.
You can take as many images as you like but the customer may have a different view of what they want. What happens if they choose an image that they like but it’s not one that you like yourself ? Does this cause a problem for you?
I will review my next product when it arrives from the printers.
Assignment 4 feedback
My tutor , Mr Alexander has sent me his feedback report in relation to this assignment.
I had decided to take a series of images designed to attract people to visit Dorking in Surrey. The images would appear on a council website or in a handout.
The assignment was made up of a contact sheet, a number of images that were selected for final publication and a number of rejected images.
Here is a section of the feedback report.
I think you set a good, clear, and achievable brief for yourself (marketing images to attract tourism to Dorking). I suppose the real test of the success is whether it really makes the viewer –in this case, me – want to visit. And, for someone who’s never been to Dorking; I think your images probably would persuade me to pay a visit.
In relation to an image taken of a restaurant, with no people/diners shown the following comments were made
The shot looking in to the restaurant is nice, but it is missing the food! I don’t want to come to Dorking and go hungry! Obviously getting a shot like that would need some co-operation [people don’t like be photographed by a stranger whilst they are eating!] but as a visual strategy, I think this shot could have worked.
I was pleased with the report. I took the images over a number of days and wanted them to appeal to different types of people.
The comments made about having people eating in the shot were interesting. I think that if I was producing the images for a council then I would have had a couple of models in the shots having lunch!
A nice exercise that made me think outside the box. What does the client want? You have to take the right type of images that will stand the test of time and show the town in the best light possible.
After looking at my feedback for this assignment and looking at other images taken of buildings I spent an evening looking at my original images and doing a bit of work on the computer using photoshop , mainly using the crop tool and the straighten tool.
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Review of assignment will follow
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