Assignment Reports.

As I am preparing to submit my application for the formal assessment of TAOP I have been re-reading and re-editing some of the photos that I had submitted. This has been an interesting process. First of all there has been a gradual shift from paper to screen. By this I mean that at the start of my course I had tried to keep a paper learning log however I switched to a blog. The blog is much better and easier to keep. The other thing that has happened is that I submitted assignment 1 to 4 on paper and the final one by e-mail. I think this is similar to the recent times in photography.

Also I have to say that at the time, when I received the feedback I always read and reviewed them. I did not realise that it was advisable to re-shoot them as advised on the report. Now that I have done this I see the wisdom in this and in all future courses I will be allowing time for this. I have picked up a couple of things that I consistently fall down on.

In several of the example I had allowed distractions to creep into the frame. A lot of the times I could have removed them at the editing stage. This has included graphic elements and bright spots in the wrong areas.

Focus. Sometimes I have either focused on the wrong element in the frame. Either for instance by focusing on the nose instead of the eyes with the camera or with the lighting.

On the later assignments I was weak on the narrative linking of shots. I fell back onto taking nice aesthetic photos when this happened, too much detail.

Overall I need to take more time to critique my own submissions before they land on the tutors report. All of the above mistakes are easy to spot.

I need to take more time editing. I tend to spend a lot of time shooting and looking for shots and then feel under pressure, rush last and most important stage of the process to meet the deadline. I think editing as I go and printing off a contact sheet could help.

All in all I have enjoyed the course and have already signed up to P & P and DPP and I will take these lessons on board and imply them.

Assignment 5 Follow up.

I just ordered Magnum Stories, a book recommended by my tutor. it was expensive but what the hell. I have been reading Between the eyes by David Levi Strauss too and found an interesting essay on Aesthetics in photography and whether can be anesthetic. He says " that being politically correct (as in a photograph with a political message like the work of Sebastiao Salgado) doesn't signify much unless the work is also visually and conceptually compelling"

What this says to me is that the trouble that I go to get the composition, the lighting etc right is necessary because it all helps the viewer to see what you as the photographer want them to see.

I looked up the work of Cig Harvey as suggested. I really like it. She uses a lot of narrative in her work. The gallery on 350 main street is particularly narrative. I like also that each of the images go to make up the narrative but also could stand alone as individual photographs. All of them have an evidence of action/juxtaposition feel to them. They make me wonder what happens next or what has happened. Lots of colour used too. Also they have a labrador and so do we! This website has given me a lot of ideas, I have started to collect photos for an ongoing series called home.

I also checked out Duane Michals. In terms of narrative there is no arguing that the sequence titled "I build a pyramid" is narrative. In fact it is so simple that it makes me think why the hell didn't I think of that!

He also designed and did the art work for the Police Album Synchronicity which again is a narrative sequence. Again his narrative work is as my tutor suggested economical in linking themes together in his photos.