P&P-Assignment Two; Feedback

Overall Comments A good decision to document ice skating for your project, which has provided a rich source of material for your images. Another thoughtful assignment Miriam, some well captured ‘telling moments’ and also some images that help to explain the activity. Your research is good and it is pleasing to see how this is informing your own work. The abstract moving image is excellent and clearly shows influence from your research, well done with this photograph.     You do not comment upon any ethical or privacy considerations with these images. When photographing in a public place in the UK it is generally OK to photograph other people that are also in the public place, as long as you are not harassing anybody. Different considerations need to made when photographing children, it is generally a good idea to obtain permission of a nearby parent otherwise wrong assumptions may be made. Last year my local Christmas ice rink in Leeds actually had a sign saying ‘no photography’. However on chatting to the security guard and explaining I was photographing a project with some students we were given permission to photograph. It is a good idea to have a copy of your OCA enrolment document with you so you can explain who you are and why you are taking photographs if you are challenged. See the link further down for more information but also do bear in mind that privacy laws vary depending where you are in the World. You should include some comments on your blog about this.      Assessment potential I understand your aim is to go for the Photography Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, providing you commit yourself to the course, I believe you have the potential to succeed at assessment.  In order to meet all the assessment criteria, there are certain areas you will need to focus on, which I will outline in my feedback.      Feedback on assignment Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity ‘Observing’ is a well framed image and really sets the scene for the activity, your framing is excellent and the child’s arm directs our attention into the image and activity. The father looks somewhat bored which I quite like as the little girl seems more excited than her dad! You may wish to comment in your blog about any privacy concerns? Were you in a public place?   ‘Round and around’ has captured a good moment and you have left space to the right for the skaters to skate into which helps with the momentum of the image. Your panning technique is effective, possibly a slightly longer exposure may have helped to blur the background some more. Did you look at cropping this at all? The seats at the top of the frame and some empty ice could be cropped, still keeping the aspect ratio but making a tighter composition, attached example / suggestion.   ‘Nearly’ has captured a great expression, I like your description of ‘happy panic’ as that really comes across. This is a good choice of image to include as it adds variety and gives us some clues as to the difficulties that ice skating presents. Appropriate camera settings and use of shallow depth of field.   ‘Couples’ is describing how couples react during this activity, a good image to include but your point of view is disguising how they hold hands which is an important detail that you mention. The dappled light is effective but did you have any other frames where perhaps the couples faces and hands were easier to see although the light may have not have been as nice? Good to include in your contact sheet if you did?   ‘Speeding’ is an excellent image, great use of zooming technique which has created an abstract image with a strong sense of motion that really helps to describe the action of ice skating. What I like especially is the blurred girl in the foreground, positioned well within thirds, and the fact that you have retained some sharp detail in the background which helps to explain what is happening. Your research has really helped to inspire you here, well done.   ‘Professional’ is well seen and you have captured the skaters concentration. From this static image we assume she is moving at speed but we cannot tell so it would have benefitted from some panning to blur the background and emphasise the speed and concentration from the skater. Her hands are cropped through, If included they may have helped to give clues about balance and speed? Balance being an important element of the sport.   ‘Whoops’ is excellent, a great moment, humorous and very descriptive of the sport. The square crop works well.   ‘Family’ captures a good descriptive moment and your description is very thoughtful. The fathers expression and posture are spot on in this image.   ‘Say cheese’ works well, you are describing the activity with the use of the penguin helper and also capturing a fun moment. Possibly a wider aperture would have to blur the background some more and isolate your subject.   ‘Blades’ is a good detail shot that has momentum, the central legs would have benefitted from being framed more to the left so they had some space to ‘skate into’. I also feel that ideally some separation between front and back legs would help as they are merged into one, although I do realise how difficult these moving shots are! You say you shot lots of these, this would have been good to show in your contact sheets. Remember that your blog is ‘evidence’ for the assessors to look at, by including contact type images / thumbnails and discussing why you chose your main image will provide evidence of your decision making and your ability to be discerning with your editing and image selection process. .A good image though that adds variety and helps with description.   One or two elements of the activity that may be missing are: Queuing for admission, spectators, people struggling putting skates on, skaters having a break and keeping warm with hot chocolate and nobody has fallen over?   Thank you for sending some prints, As you are on a degree course the art of printing is considered as an important element of your journey through the course. We encourage you to send some prints with each assignment for a couple of reasons;   1. It helps to highlight possible quality issues with photographs as a high resolution file is required rather than a low resolution screen image. This is useful for you and me.   2. To familiarise yourself with the printing process and to realise that printing is an art as well as a technical process. Choice of paper, use of borders, overall contrast of the image are all factors that need to be considered when printing. A well made and considered print will help to make your image look ‘precious’ and allow you further creative input into the final image. So photography does not stop at the taking stage it extends into printing technique.   Printing also allows you to use different aspect ratios within images yet maintain a coherent presentation of your images by the creative use of borders that will maintain a ‘standard’ look within a set of prints:   So your prints are fine for this assignment and a good start to this process but do consider larger prints and a better quality paper as the course progresses. If you struggle with printing at home then consider using a professional printing lab such as ProAm imaging or Photobox. You can still print using borders with these labs, let me know if you need any more information on how to do this.   Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays Context Your exercises are documented really well and your reflections are thoughtful and discuss some excellent points. Your enthusiasm for photography is very apparent within your images and you have achieved some lovely shots within the exercises, it is apparent that you are learning and achieving some good outcomes for this module, well done. Some general points: It is good to experiment with black and white but if you mix colour and black and white within a series (Wedding) you need to justify why you are doing this. It’s not really a problem for the exercises but would be for an assignment.   Your conclusion is good as you comment on each image, you should include an overall conclusion asking yourself ‘did I explain the activity fully?’ Take into account some possible missing images as mentioned above.   Suggested reading/viewing Context Excellent research so do carry on with this and letting your research inform your own practice. If possible try and attend some of the OCA study visits as this primary research is invaluable. Your book list is good, consider including a brief statement on how useful each book is to you.   Have a look at this website which keeps reasonably up to date concerning photographers rights in the UK. Note that privacy laws change considerably depending on which country you may be in, For example France has some very strict privacy laws concerning photographing people in public places. http://www.urban75.org/photos/photographers-rights-and-the-law.html