Change of plans and going forward.....

I have today made the decision that I will not do the degree course I planned, with my kids being quite young, having a full time job and renovating a house, I think I may be taking off more than I can chew. Also, I feel I have so much information available to me to teach myself both online and from books that for now that will do and I will see how I get on. Maybe tomorrow I will change my mind, but for now....................

It has been a long time since my last post,so here is a little catch up on what has been going on for me. My ankle is still quite an issue and after 5 months I still do not have full movement, the pain is now only occasional though (so at least that has improved!).

As a family we moved house to a wonderful estate that has quite a village and community feel about it, , two month in and what was going to be a shortish term move (5 years) looks like it could be a lot longer :-)

I have now finished my second 365 project, which I am so pleased about. I feel I have come a long way since 2009 when I decided to embark on my first one, but the time constraints of the 365 meant that I took a lot of photos (my Mac hard drive is testament to this, especially as I always shoot in RAW, I will explain why in my next post). Now I am just doing a dailyish photo, so the pressure is clearly off. I have just joined a group on Flickr to try and push myself a little, which gives weekly PUSHES, this involves challenges being set by other group members, we shall see how I get on. I am also fairly involved in another fantastic group on Flickr also, that gives daily themes (although I am not doing this every day), but I have found it does push me to think a little out of the box to come up with ideas for a shot. The one below was my shot yesterday for the theme of "Star", let me know what you think.

Aim for the stars, a photo by k4♥wea on Flickr.

I also plan to look more on the assignments on the Digital Photography School website as again I feel this may enhance my skills further.

Until next time.....

A bit of light reading

I decided to go to the library and pick up a few landscape photography books to read at the end of March, so glad I did as on 2nd April I managed to sustain a bi-malleolar fracture to my left ankle (ouch to say the least!!!).

While in hospital I started reading The Photographer's Guide to Landscapes by John Freeman which I really enjoyed and would recommend to any beginner or intermediate photographer interested in landscape photography.

This is the third volume in John Freeman's photographic series which gives advice on capturing the beauty of the world. It provides information on an exhaustive range of topics, including guidance on creating interesting foregrounds, modifying backgrounds, developing panoramas, framing, working with multiple images, and utilizing black and white as an alternative to color. Over 200 images offer perspective on capturing specific types of landscapes, from skies and deserts to waterways and urban landscapes. For me I found the advice on equipment: filters, lenses and film really interesting; technique: exposure, shutter usage; and editing: cropping and retouching. 

The book raised a point to check out on my camera : how to set the white balance to a set figure (John mentions 5,200k for sunsets), can I do this?

Further techniques mentioned that I want to look into:
1. Creating multiple images
2. Building panoramas
3. Digital composites
4. Using filters (get some ND filters and a polorizer for my wider angled lens)
5. Infrared - I have a contact on Flickr who I have admired for a while, he does quite a few shots using this style.
6. Re-touching
7. Digital toning
8. Abstracts

Eek, I there is so much I want to learn............

What do you see around you?

I have been contemplating what the 365 has meant to me recently, I know that it has improved my "eye" no end and has made me "more creative" , giving me a much better eye for a photo. As with every single art form in the world, photography is practice, practice and a lot more practice., which is why a lot of people that commit to a 365 see an improvement during the year in their photos. So even if you think that you are good, try something new. As an example simply check the case of Chase Jarvis, an advertising american photographer, whose philosophy the best camera is the camera you have with you which gave rise to a book of quite artsy shots and a pretty large community of "iphone photographers".

Although I do use my iphone occasionally for a shot, I much prefer walking around with my 7D,  I realise it is much bigger, but I do like to have control in in aperture, shutter speed and exposure that it enables.

The Genius of Photography - Episode 6

Being off work with my daughter (I now know that she has Scarlett Fever, which is why she has felt so rough), I have had the chance to watch the whole series today :-)

This episode was entitled "Snap Judgments". This episode asks what a photograph is worth these days. One answer is 0.9m, the record-breaking price achieved by an Edward Steichen print auctioned at Sotheby's in February 2006. The other answer is around 1/29th billionth of that figure based on the calculation that some 29 billion photographs will be taken in 2006 by phone cameras alone. Photography has never been so valuable and so ubiquitous. From America to China and on to Africa, the programme examines how the business of being a photographer has been changed by the market's sudden interest in what was once the poor relation of the art world.

I have really enjoyed watching this, it has given me quite a few areas that I want to look further into and quite a lot of "food for thought".

The Genius of Photography - Episode 5

This episode did not catch my interest as much, mainly I think because this style of photography does not appeal to me personally as much, not that I cannot see the merit in it or the talent that these artist had, it is just not for me.

This episode was entitled "We are Family". We are Family is about what happens when photography translates personal relationships into photographic ones, when strangers, celebrities, lovers and children get fed to the camera. It's also about what happens when photographers turn their cameras on themselves—what they choose to reveal, and just what they try to conceal.

The chronological heartland of the programme is the 'me" decades of the 1970's and the 1980's. From  Diane Arbus' freaks (we meet Colin Wood, the manic boy clutching the hand grenade in Central Park) to Richard Avedon's confrontations with celebrities like Marylin Monroe, from the confessional diaries of Larry Clark and Araki, to the uncomfortably intimate family portraits of Sally Mann and Richard Billingham, the series takes a photographic journey into some of the most intriguing ideas of the photographic self, including an unforgettable encounter as Nan Golding photographs  Joey the transsexual.

The Genius of Photography - Episode 4

This episode was entitled "Paper Movies". The American photographer Garry Winogrand said that he took photographs to "see what the world looked like photographed". Photographers have always had this as their mission statement, but the three decades from the late 1950's onwards was the real golden age of the photographic journey. The Genius of Photography - Paper Movies relives the journeys that produced some of the most acclaimed paper movies. The programme takes a fascinating look at Robert Frank's odyssey through 50s America, William Klein's one-man assault on the sidewalks of New York, Gary Winogrand's charting of the human comedy in Central Park Zoo, Tony Ray Jones' dissection eccentricity at the English seaside, and finally, William Eggleston's guide to Memphis and the American South. Episode four of the series also examines the arrival of colour as a credible medium for serious photographers, as controversial at the time as Bob Dylan going electric.

This is on genre of photography that I would love to have a go at as I love the candid shots I see on social networking photo sites such a Flickr, I just do not 'yet' have the confidence to take the shots.

The Genius of Photography - Episode 3

Another good episode in m opinion, the episode was entitled "Right time, Right place". It was all about being in the right place at the right time, the decisive moment, getting in close — in the popular imagination this is photography at its best, a medium that makes us eyewitnesses to the moments when history is made. But just how good is photography at making sense of what it records? Is getting in close always better than standing back, and just how decisive are the moments that photographers risk their necks to capture? Set against the backdrop of the Second World War and its aftermath, The Genius of Photography - Right Place, Right Time examines how photographers dealt with dramatic and tragic events like D-Day, the Holocaust and Hiroshima, and the questions their often extraordinary pictures raise about history as seen through the viewfinder. It discussed the fact that although there were many photos of the atrocities in Europe, but where there was total devastation in Hiroshima far less were taken.

I found this episode very moving, mainly because of the fabulous images showing the scenes from this time. Although I have seen many photos, it seems to hit me every time, such haunting images, raw with emotion.

The Genius of Photography - Episode 2

I am home with my daughter at the moment as she is off school sick so I have made the most of the opportunity and watched another episode while she sleeps.

This episode was entitled documents for artists and the write up is as follows:
"By the end of World War One photography had become the central medium of the age. Photographers began to turn their lenses to the plight of rural victims of the American Depression and minority communities. Alexander Rodchenko and August Sander found their artistic skills put to another use by the state – as propaganda. Documents for Artists focuses on the first few decades after World War One when the potential of photography attracted the attention of artists and governments alike."

Documents for Artists examines in detail the work of some of most influential modern photographers: Alexander Rodchenko, August Sander, Man Ray, Eugene Atget, Walker Evans and Bill Brandt.  It also discusses the precise, objective, rational and apparently machine-like photography that took place during this period.

I found the episode very interesting to watch and yet again I now feel I want to look a little further into the work of some of the mentioned artists.

The Genius of Photography - Episode 1

Until I can get to the library to get a few books to read, I thought I would watch this BBC series that viewed in 2007, I cannot remember seeing it the first time round, but thought that it sounded like an interesting series that I may benefit from seeing. 

The first episode was entitled "Fixing the Shadows" and covered the history of photography from Ancient Rome to The Great War (1914), although I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, I did find it skipped backwards and forwards a little. It highlighted the challenge facing the photography pioneers, was not in fact how to capture an image, but how to stop it from over-developing, or to “fix the shadows”. I found the types of photos very interesting, I had come across the term daguerreotype processing previously as another of my hobbies is family history and when searching for photographs of relatives from that period of time this came up. It was nice though to learn more about it :-)

I now have a couple of photographers that I really like their style of work and want to look into a bit more, namely André Kertész and Jacques Henri Lartigue, once I have finished watching this series that is!

Over the past few years, I have had  a tendency to flit between things when I find something that interests me, which although good to broaden my knowledge, it does mean that it can take me longer to get the simple things done. I have decided that I will try and change this for this course. I know I am able to do it as when I did my first degree many years ago, I was very focused, it is only now that I have found subjects that I am "really" interested in that I find myself wondering off in tangents to learn more.

Contemplating a new course

Well both my previous endeavors at writing a blog have failed, so I am hoping that this one does not suffer the same fate (hitting the big delete button!). As this one is for a learning log I think it might actually stand a chance.

I have been contemplating doing the OCA Photography degree course for several months now. I completed the Open University course T189 in May 2010 (doing really well), which I thoroughly enjoyed, I just found it too short and it has left me wanting to learn more.  I needed to find a course that was challenging and interesting, something that would take me out of my comfort zone again and get me out there with my camera. I am currently doing a 365 Project (my second year), in which I take a photo a day. I know that my photography has improved since doing this, but I know there is just so much more to learn, hence looking at this course.

I am hoping to start the course at the start of July 2011, after I move house, and closer to the end of my 365 (which I do not want to give up on). I'm quite nervous but also really looking forward to it, I just hope I will not be "biting off more than I can chew"when I have two young kids and work full time in a pretty stressful job :-o