Thursday 23rd August 2012

What an experience this has been!

DPP has taken me much longer to complete than expected at the beginning, although all the delays have been through personal issues, the last of these being made redundant.

I have enjoyed this module and I’m now in a better place, I believe that’s what people say?

Much more positive about the future and that future includes carrying on with my OCA courses.

Assignment 5 is now completed and uploaded.

Thursday 16th August 2012

I read through “Professional Image Maker” August to September edition, in particular an article on speedlite flash. Using the flash to fill in and change the lighting within an image is something I am looking to carry out more within my photography. Flash metering, hard and soft lights and using them within a studio set up.  I now just need to have my SB600 fixed or buy another flash!

Wednesday 8th August 2012

Today I have updated all my current assignments for DPP.
Just need to finish assignment 5 and submit this weekend...

Tuesday 7th August 2012

At last I have completed all the exercises for DPP, now to upload and complete Assignment 5 for my tutor...

I have a new focus for my degree course now and hope to move along at a faster pace!

Saturday 26th May 2012

A blog update.

Due to redundancy and starting up a new business, I have not completed any further work on my degree course. Today I will submit assignment 4.................the process starts again!

Saturday 4th February 2012

I have still not completed exercise 22 as the weather, work or both are stopping me. Assignment 4 has been completed now, although I can’t submit until the remaining exercises are complete............

Saturday 7th January 2012

I am very busy at work now due to hand over’s. These will carry on until around mid March 2012 and I now have a planned date for my redundancy, 6^th April 2012.

The weather has not been kind and I’m still trying to find the correct sky shot for exercise 22. This is holding everything else up, although I have been told before to complete the course in order. Very frustrating...............

Tuesday 27th December 2011

Read through a new book that I have been given as a present, ‘The Complete Photographer’ by Tom Ang. This is a very straight forward book that covers a wide range of topics and aims to inspire you to make the most of your equipment and skills.

Saturday 10th December 2011

Another day in London, although today was a social day with a few people I have met on a photography online forum. We had lunch, talked about equipment and the highlight for me was a visit to the ‘National Portrait Gallery’. We had decided to visit the ‘Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize’ gallery and had a great time viewing and talking about the photographs on display. The portrait work on display was varied and covered a number of themes, styles and approaches. I must say though, the winning photograph was not one of my favourites, but that’s why everything is open to interpretation.

Tuesday 6th December 2011

Read an interesting article on ‘Shahidul Alam’. Shahidul was born in Bangladesh in 1955 and his photojournalism career began covering the struggle for democracy in Bangladesh in the 1980’s.I very much like the feeling that the photographs convey a hope in the ability to rebuild after a disaster. Catching that moment and then helping in social change with a particular photograph or collection of photographs must be such a rewarding feeling. I have many of my own customers who are from Bangladesh and I know from their knowledge what some of these people went through.

Tuesday 29th November 2011

I watched a TV program I had recorded from Sky Arts called ‘James Ravilious: A World in Photographs’. This was an insightful program about one of Britain’s greatest post war photographers who dedicated his art to a rural English world in steady decline. The program was expertly narrated by Alan Bennett and I really enjoyed watching it. Initially I was not expecting to enjoy this program so much, but for almost 20 years of rural community life in North Devon, James Ravilious dedicated so much time to the people around him. James Ravilious trained as a painter and later on found that he preferred Black and White photography. One of his quotes was that ‘There is too much green in the English countryside’. The majority of his work is with the Beaford Arts Collection.

Tuesday 15th November 2011

The three day Wedding Photography Course went well and I enjoyed all aspects of the course. This included the actual photography on the day, setting up your business and the sales and marketing. It is funny how things plan out in life, I may be out of a job soon and this course was booked without that knowledge. Wedding photography is not something I want to do full time, but I may have to consider how I’m going to earn a living next year.

I received news that one of my DPP assignment 3 photographs has been selected by the OCA for selection to be printed in ‘The Big Issue in the North’ publication. This was my favourite photograph from the assignment and is a massive moral boost for me.

Saturday 12th November 2011

The next three days I’m attending a Wedding Photography Course with Jeff Turnbull. I’m photography my cousins wedding next May and I want to make sure I get it right.

Sunday 23rd October 2011

I have been away with work this week, so spending today catching up a little with general photography work and some reading. I’m now off for a week and intend on completing and submitting assignment 3 of DPP to my tutor before the week is out.

Read through ‘London Street Photography’ in preparation for assignment 5 of DPP and to give myself some ideas. I also spent some time today flicking through magazines, photography books and online checking out some ideas for assignment 4 of DPP. My tutor has given me some examples which have helped with my thought process!

Updated my web page slightly, changing the look a little and some of the fonts.

Friday 14th October 2011

Read through Black & White magazine for November 2011. Some articles of interest to me this month, in particular an article by ‘Jonathan Chritchley’ who based himself on the Shetlands Islands so he could photograph the Tall Ships Race. The photographs were very dramatic and all have a sense of mood about them. The angles and tones of the images were also very prominent and looked good in black and white.

The second article was my favourite and was based on a photographer called ‘Alen MacWeeney’. This photographer had spent many years photographing the Irish Travellers and started the project in 1965, the paperback being produced in 2010. The photographs show the conditions of the travellers living space in the 1960’s to the group mentality of supporting each other through life.

Wednesday 7th September 2011

Visited Peterborough Cathedral today to take the photographs needed for Assignment 2 of DPP. The Cathedral was busier than expected and some of the photographs took longer than expected to compose. What a beautiful location though, it must be one of the top ten Cathedral’s in the UK and in my opinion is over looked as it’s in Peterborough. I used my 18-200mm lens and 50mm prime lens; although the 18-200mm lens seems to have a problem automatically focusing at times. It may need a service of some type very soon.

Saturday 3rd September 2011

This week for three nights I spent some time with the family in London. We all had a choice of venue to visit whilst we were there and mine was the ‘Museum of London’.

The museum is situated between The Barbican and St Paul’s in London and amongst many interesting facts, holds over 100,000 paintings, prints and photographs of London. The museum itself covers London’s history from 450,000 BC to the modern day and covers all historical events that have occurred in our Capital City. The museum also has various events and exhibitions throughout the year at both this venue and one in London’s Dockland.

During my visit I attended one of the museum’s major exhibitions, ‘London Street Photography’. This exhibition ran until 4^th September 2011 and I was determined to visit before it closed. The exhibition covered London street photography from around 1860 to the present day (2010), with the vast majority of the prints in black and white. It examined the relationship between the photographer, the people who live in London and its streets.

There were a couple of photographers that stood out for me on a personal basis. ‘Wolf Suschitzky’ had three of his photographs published of Charing Cross Road taken in 1937. These were all themed with people moving around on the street and with a common lighting associated with each. There were theatre signs in one, street lamps in another and advertising and trams in the third. They all really worked, although busy photographs, they made you want to look through them and pick up the detail as you did this.  ‘Jerome Liebling’ had one photograph published, taken in 1967 and called ‘Outside Claridge’s Hotel’. The facial expressions really do tell a thousand words on the workers face as he passes one of the staff at Claridge’s. I also liked a couple of modern day photograph’s in the exhibition, one by ‘Nils Jorgensen’ called ‘Card Fraud’ and one by ‘Matt Stuart’ called ‘Trafalgar Square’. Both this photographs have perfect timing and an element of fun.

Sunday 21st August 2011

We spent a couple of hours at Barnwell Country Park near Oundle. Whilst there I spotted a Kingfisher and managed to get my very first photographs of this beautiful bird whilst it was fishing. Read through my Black & White photography magazine and also spent some time reading the Magnum Achive, A year in Photography.  This time a particular photograph by ‘Donovan Wylie’ caught my eye. It’s seems to be a mother and daughter standing in front of the lens posing, but the mother is caught off guard making sure her hair is kept before she expects the photograph to be taken. I like the simple feel to this photo, with the proud un-expecting look on them others face as her daughter looks into the distance holding a balloon.

Saturday 6th August 2011

Well enough today to spend a few hours in stages completing exercise 13 of DPP. The exercise was on managing colour and again I used stock photographs that were already in my collection with a significant colour cast.

I watched a program based on the photographer Lorna Simpson called Art in Progress. This program covered a new display of photographs at the famous Whitney Museum of American Art. Lorna Simpson uses different media in the form of drawing, film and photography, although photograph is her main art form.

Wednesday 27th July 2011

A few weeks ago I recorded a program on Sky Arts called Rankin: Sky Arts Street Galleries. Today I watched this and the main purpose of the program was to follow Rankin whilst he tries to replace advertising with art in six UK cities. This project was undertaken in 2010 and the six cities were London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Edinburgh. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this program and liked the relaxed style Rankin uses with his models. I believe he was successful with portraying art using photography and replacing advertising with this art.

Over the last few weeks I have at times had the opportunity to read through some of my photography books. I decided not to read them from front to back, but to look for inspiration within the photograph and try to study certain images in more detail. One particular image in a book titled Photography Year 1978/79 caused me to look and reflect. It’s of a young rightist battering a lynched Communist student with a chair, a student that has already been hung. This image says more than a thousand words and portrays the evil within mankind. The hatred in the rightist’s face is plain to see, shocking but thought provoking. Hopefully one day I will take an image that will change mankind’s attitude to violence and hatred.

Saturday 2nd July 2011

I wrote up and completed exercise 10 of DPP, this was the last of the exercises in section 2. Whilst out today I purchased two new photographic books, ‘An Essential Guide to Photojournalism’ by David Herrod and ‘Architectural Photography’ by Jim Lowe.  I will look at these books in more detail over the next few months.

Thursday 30th June 2011

Today I visited Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire with Wild Arena Photographic Tours. This was a day’s photography I had booked at the beginning of the year. The majority of the day was spent with one of the Woburn Keepers in a Land Rover and this meant we could leave the confines of the marked roadways. I managed to photograph many of the larger animals and also spent some time feeding the Lemur’s. The group of attendee’s was very mixed, from pro photographers to complete novices, but all very friendly.

I had planned this visit to produce photographs for a later assignment and focused on shooting for black and white prints.

During this day I used my Sigma 150mm-500mm lens for the majority of shots, handheld and I was very pleased with the results. I also used my Nikon 18mm-200mm lens and my Nikon 50mm prime with the Lemur’s up close.

Saturday 18th June 2011

Spent a few hours reading today and looking at different photographs, mainly from a book called ‘20^th Century Photography’.  Having read in articles and listening to other photographers talk about Henri Cartier-Bresson, I concentrated on his photographs among others. He attended Cambridge University, a City where I spend a fair amount of time taking photographs and Cartier-Bresson travelled consistently during his career. He was one of the founder members of Magnum and his most often published photograph was ‘Sunday on the banks of the Marne’, epitomising the idylls of the Sunday picnic. My favourite from the book is ‘Rue Mouffetard, Paris’, a street scene showing a boy holding two bottles of wine, with a cheeky smile.

Thursday 16th June 2011

I am now in possession of ‘A Year in Photography’ Magnum Archive. I wanted this book for inspiration more than anything else. There is such a wide amount of subjects and styles, so I will comment more once I’ve had a chance to look through it properly at my own pace.

Monday 23rd May 2011

Read a book I had purchased a few months ago and ‘20th Century Photography’ has something new every time I look through it. This time I enjoyed the photographs of Hugo Schmolz, a German photographer from the early 20th Century. The majority of his work is of architectural photography and in particular I like the clean lines and varied tones of his work.

Sunday May 22nd 2011

Finished reading Black & White Photography May 2011 edition. I may even aim to enter their photography competition this year, if I can find that one perfect shot. Read another article on the ‘London Street Photography’ exhibition and had already seen a link via the OCA. I will be planning on attending this before it finishes. I enjoyed the article by Roderick Field about how he just got up and left one day for New York. The spontaneous decision is something I have thought of many times; perhaps I just need to do it.........................

Sunday 8th May 2011

It has been a while since my last post, but I have been away in the USA and got married!
Back to normality now.............................

Monday 4th April 2011

Read an article titled ‘Dreams of Childhood’ about a photographer from Norway called Roald Sundal. He took a series of photographs of his children over a period of time and these were displayed in Bergen during 2008. The overall feel could have been excellent family portraits, but they had an overall look of a dreamy quality. They would be not something I would be comfortable with experimenting with, although modern society dictates that as most photographers know.

Sunday 27th March 2011

Read an interesting article on ‘Portraits with bite’, the photography by Jay Mawson. I know this is one area of photography that I have avoided up to now, not for any particular reason other than my stupid idea that I need lots of expensive lighting, which I now know I do not! The photographs by Jay are all very punchy and some of the colours look fantastic. This would be the portrait images that I would love to try, colourful, vivid and they have an edge without having to be degrading.

I investigated some of the model agencies and how you go about building up a portfolio of work, but they all require a certain amount of work up front. There must be a way for me to build up some images before joining up?

Sunday 20th March 2011

After many months of starting conversations on the OCA forums, the big day finally arrived. I visited Cambridge today and met up with four fellow OCA students, two studying photography, one film and media and the other painting. We had a really good day together and visited ‘The Fitzwilliam’ museum and chatted about the difficulties with distant learning. We are hoping to meet up again towards the summer and visit the ‘Cambridge Botanical Gardens’, with hopefully a few more OCA students.

Sunday 27th February 2011

Visited Hammerton Zoo during the morning to complete the photographs needed for exercise 4 of DPP.  I signed up to the yearly season ticket. Weather turned cold and wet, not so many animals out due to this, but I hope this year to keep visiting when I get the chance.

Thursday 24th February 2011

Bought a new photography book, ‘20^th Century Photography – Museum Ludwig Cologne’. The book provides an insight into the works at the museum, with over 860 photographs and approximately 300 artists covered. I will use this for reference and inspiration.

Wednesday 2nd Feb 2011

Finished reading ‘Black & White’ photography for Feb 2011, in particular I was really interested in two articles. The first of these was an article called ‘The Storyteller’ by Bruce Gilden. Bruce is known for a tough approach to his photography and some uncompromising images. I found them all to be very interesting and individualistic, with a raw story to tell and hidden humour.  The second was an article by Tony Worobiec about ‘Fine Art Photography’ and finding the abstract elements within an image.

Friday 28th Jan 2011

The journey continues....................signed up for the ‘Digital Photographic Practice’ course with the OCA earlier in the week, my second P1 course. I dropped off my ‘Art of Photography’ assessment work at the OCA offices in Barnsley on the same day, very apprehensive regarding the quality of my work and am I really good enough?        

The course material was delivered today for DPP, read through this straight away and was surprised regarding the content and how much more professional it looks. The original course material for TAOP was fairly dated and there was a huge amount of projects to complete!