Overall
Comments
An excellent assignment
Miriam, very well researched and planned. Your varied choices of buildings and
spaces has allowed you to develop an approach which is starting to establish
both style and voice. Your reflective thoughts are insightful and along with
your research successfully underpin the assignment, demonstrating a sound
understanding of this part of the course, well done.
The prints are reasonable
in quality but are desperately seeking larger borders to be used, as I advised
in assignment 2 feedback! I note your concerns over printer calibration and
will point you to some information regarding monitor / printer accuracy in the
suggested reading section.
Once again your research has proved to be an excellent source of inspiration and it is quite plain to see how this is informing your own work, especially noticeable with the cottage interior photography. This is a really excellent approach to the assignments and is clearly helping you to develop ideas, confidence, style and a voice, well done.
Abandoned
Jam Factory.
Excellent research providing you with really useful and inspiring background
information. You have produced a poignant and emotion stirring set of images
here. Well composed images that utilise the available light really effectively,
technically good and using a tripod was the correct decision. Where your
framing includes evidence of past human activity such as the fridge, the frame
of a chair and weighing scales you present us with information that helps to
describe the activity within the space but also helps to stimulate an emotional
response from the narrative within the images. This is underpinned in your
research where you mention the past importance of the building in terms of
local employment. Really well seen opportunity in image 3 where you capture the
abandoned furniture instruction leaflet.
As I discussed UK privacy
laws with you in assignment 2 I feel you should have mentioned any concerns you
had over personal health and safety while photographing in an abandoned building,
this is especially important if you were alone? The factory will also be
private property so did you have permission? Ideally when photographing private
property you should obtain a ‘property release’ from the owner or owners agent,
Google this for more information. Most photographers will enter derelict
buildings at some stage with or without permission but it is good to be aware
of the implications as strictly speaking, without permission, you are
trespassing and your photographs then become evidence of your trespassing! The
very least Health and Safety requirements would be to let someone know where
you are, to have a fully charged mobile phone with you and check you have a
signal, many photographers will have a ‘hard hat’ in the car, have a working torch
and most importantly to be aware of the condition of the surroundings (dodgy
roof or floor!) and your own limitations. Having someone with you is also good
practice. Make some comments on your blog about this!
The
Shard. Excellent
contrast to the Jam Factory, Thoughtful and useful research once again that has
given you an insight into the buildings use, especially as a tourist vantage
point to view London. Your decision to shoot at dusk and utilise the ‘Golden
Hour’ was sound and has enabled you to record images that really illustrate and
enhance the breath-taking views over London.
I really like this set of
photographs, your framing, choice of viewpoint and use of people is really
excellent, well done. You present us with a sense of scale and describe the use
of this viewing area very effectively. You have great attention to detail
within these images, the reflection of the Christmas tree adds strong narrative
to the image and works so well with the twinkling lights over London, perhaps
The Shard is Father Christmas’s first port of call? Image 2 is very strong, your choice of time of day works so well
here, the silhouetted people with iPhones aloft really give a sense of scale
and purpose to this space. A slight criticism here – The group of people bottom
left are merging together due to the dark clothing tones – Do you have any
other frames where perhaps this is not as dominant? You have one on your
contact sheet? It maybe that by waiting for some time here the ‘decisive
moment’ may have improved, I do realise though that you maybe up against time
due to dusk rapidly disappearing. Image
3 is excellent capturing the scale and height of the building, your
composition which exploits the symmetry of the construction is excellent and
the strong lines and diagonals immediately directs our attention to the
tourists below. Now then after all that praise… Great to see and use the
tourists below but without you mentioning them in your annotation they would be
easily missed, could you afford more time to wait here for that ‘decisive
moment’ once again? With a few more tourists milling around on the floor as
well as at the windows? Image 4 is
another breath-taking image that makes me want to be there! I can see why this
is your favourite, it is a strong image that captures scale and the immensity
of space that is London and references the height of the building. I feel that
if a person had been looking out from the side (if possible?) then it would
have helped to describe the use of this part of the Shard, this is a detail
though as it still works as a lovely image. Technically you have done really
well here to balance the internal light with the outside dusk and sky.
The
Cottage. Another
complete contrast to the Shard and quite challenging for you due to the
intimate spaces to work in. A small amount of research here but it is quite
evocative and has provided you with a framework to exploit from the personal
and human perspective. Photograph 1 is a lovely image and
really captures the essence of the room, your decision to include Mark is
excellent giving the photograph scale, intimacy and purpose. The room clutter
also helps to describe the function and limitations of the limited space. Image 2 describes the function of the
workshop really well, the diminishing perspective of the motorbike helps to
draw us into the frame and also provides a strong sense of scale to this
intimate workshop, Mark is well positioned and your ‘fly on the wall’ approach
is really sound here, I love the cigarette! With this type of image where it
contains a wealth of detail I would like to see everything in the room to be
sharp, so ideally a smaller aperture would have been appropriate, you do not
mention what ISO you used? Could you have used a higher ISO and smaller
aperture without ‘noise. becoming an issue? Image 3 is very relevant to the set but is let down slightly by the
use of flash, all the other images in this set have a warmth to them which
helps to describe the cottage and creates a coherent look. The daylight colour
of the flash has produced a cold look and feel which does not ‘sit’ well with
the others in the set. Perhaps a longer time exposure using the available light
along with just a hint of flash (possibly with a subtle amber gel over). If you
use flash off camera then consider having it outside the room and firing
through the door, again with amber gel to work with the available light. Image 4 the bathroom is really
effective and well seen, the reflection is a strong and important part of your
descriptive narrative for this set of images.
Borough
Market. Some
appropriate research that has helped you to understand the history and purpose
of this building and the space within. What a great decision to deliberately
challenge yourself and return to this venue and confront the issues you had
first time round. You have captured a strong set of images that demonstrate a
relaxed and confident approach. Your annotation describes some of the problems
you had and you reflect well on your selection process. Again watch out for
solid ‘clumps’ of people, Image 4 bottom left, maybe by waiting here for that
‘decisive moment’ to occur, someone in slightly lighter clothing, possibly
using a tripod with a longer exposure to create some movement blur from the
people?
The
O2 Arena. You capture
a sense of scale and some functionality, I like your use of portrait and
landscape formats for this set as it is helping to document the scale, your use
of colour is very effective, overall a limited colour palate of warm fairly
neutral colours with a strong use of colour accent such as the balloons,
escalator and red display object. Your framing is very good with strong
diagonals and use of symmetry. Consider using longer exposures and a tripod if
possible where you have people milling around or walking through spaces to
produce a sense of movement and flow, See my suggested links later on for some
examples. While these are a robust set of images they are not describing the
true functionality and use of this space, you succeed in describing some of the
peripheral activities and in giving a sense of scale but no images of the main
event area or perhaps an event needs to be been included. As mentioned
previously it may be possible to gain access to ‘all areas’ by contacting the
relevant people in advance of your visit and mentioning you are a student on an
OCA degree course. The O2 PR department may be helpful?
Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays
Context Some strong images within your exercises Miriam, well done. The ‘exploring function’ image reminds me slightly of Salgado’s image of Mumbai Station (see the link below). The sense of flow captured in the station image may have worked well in your Natural History Museum image as the flow helps to describe the function.
Thoughtful
and relevant research that is obviously informing your own work, Good to
include the strengths and weaknesses section. Expand your ‘books used’ section
to include a brief indication if you feel the books are helping you and are
worth reading. Think about renaming this as ‘Bibliography’. Include a section
concerning visits to exhibitions, galleries and photography seminars etc. This
comes under the heading of ‘primary research’ where books, the web and
magazines / journals are ‘secondary research’. Try and attend some of the OCA
study visits if possible.
Excellent to include contact sheets,
it would be good to see a few more of your rejected images within the contact
sheet, you may like to listen to this audio feedback regarding contact sheets
just published in ‘We are OCA’
http://www.weareoca.com/photography/contact-sheets-catherine-banks/ Then
click on the ‘audio’ link.
When using images in your
research expand the reference that you use, For example: You reference Craig
Hannah for the O2 image which is good but ideally you should use the full
Harvard style Reference for the image. If found on the internet then this would
include the author, the URL and the date you accessed the website. If found in
a Journal or book then a different style of reference would be required. Check
the referencing document I sent you along with the guide to Harvard referencing
in the resources section of the OCA website.
Suggested reading/viewing
Context Using time exposures to create blur and record flow:
Sebastião
Salgado’s image of Mumbai station:
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/engaged_observers/salgado_zm.html
Alexey
Titarenko – City of Shadows and others:
http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/port_cityshadows.html
David Beckerman:
http://www.beckermanphoto.com/page/3?s=media%3A+medium+large+format (Scroll down to New York Subway Turnstiles)
http://dpbestflow.org/node/266
http://dpbestflow.org/color/desktop-printer-profiling
Free
Tutorials that explain the process:
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/profiles/how-to-use-icc-color-printer-profiles.html
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/profiles.htm
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.htm
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