Tutor Feedback for Assignment 1

Overall Comments
It was obvious you found this assignment difficult and that it took you considerably out of your comfort zone. In and of itself this should be considered a good thing –by learning to make photographs in situations you find uncomfortable you will be more confident when it comes to subjects that you find accessible and really inspiring. What I would suggest moving forward is that you identify subjects that you feel allow you to make the most of your existing interests, or areas you would like to become more interested in, and use these as the basis for the upcoming assignments.
Assessment potential (after Assignment 1)

You may want to get credit for your hard work and achievements with the OCA by formally submitting your work for assessment at the end of the module. More and more people are taking the idea of lifelong learning seriously by submitting their work for assessment but it is entirely up to you. We are just as keen to support you whether you study for pleasure or to gain qualifications. Please consider whether you want to put your work forward for assessment and let me know your decision when you submit Assignment 2. I can then give you feedback on how well your work meets the assessment requirements.

Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Looking at the images as a series that explores the place where you live, the submission comes across as more initial ideas than final outcome. This is not a problem at this stage, but you will need to start thinking about how you sequence your images and the message you wish to convey as you progress through later assignments.

• You mention a number of times in your self-appraisal that your estate is synonymous with crime but that you are attempting to show the pleasing aspect of the estate. There is something of a dichotomy here that is noticeable in many places –what can look idyllic and picturesque on the surface may not be like to everyone who calls the place ‘home’.
  
• I am not sure how well this comes through in the photography –perhaps this would be solved by captions or more focus on the sequencing of the images. It might be useful to think how an outsider views the place in the photographs, in this case myself. I have lived in Wales for a number of years (4 years in Newport at university) and my father is Welsh but I know little about Bridgend or specifically Brackla.
• Looking through the series I see a fairly pleasant and modern looking estate – the usual signs of graffiti are present here and there but nothing that suggests a deeper issue. The cars look fairly expensive and the houses well kept. The only signs of degradation are on an apparently closed pub –but then as pubs are closing across the land this doesn’t seem out of place. Overall this looks like a housing estate that could be pretty much anywhere in Britain –if it weren’t for the pictures of the road sign and the notice board you wouldn’t even realise this was Wales.
• What I did learn from the series was the positioning of the estate between town and country –this aspect of the place, being on the edge of the conurbation, is one that might be worth exploring in more depth later in the module.
  
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• This quick overview is intended to help you think about the relationship between what you know about the place and what impression a viewer with no more information than the photographs might gain.
  
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• On a technical note, you need to be carefgul to shoot enough photographs so that you can make confident editing choices when back in the studio. In this case you have had to include a couple of photographs that aren’t really usable due to overexposure (Neighbourhood11) or suffer from camera shake (Neighbourhood13). As this is a module with a certain amount of technical focus you should make every effort to use the time to perfect your technique before the next module.
  
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• I noticed in Neighbourhood20 that you seem to have erased the number plates of the cars in the photographs. Whilst you haven’t noted this in your Self-appraisal I can understand why you thought this might be wise from the overall tone of your text. I would caution against this, especially as it appears to have been done quite roughly. If you feel you must remove them then I would suggest you read up on professional retouching and use this module to perfect the necessary retouching skills. A word of caution –within photojournalistic work such changes are wholly unacceptable so you would have to be aware of this if shooting for a professional client. As this module does support the further development of your technical skills I have included a reading list geared towards these skills in the suggested reading.
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• Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays
• Context

There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of progress on your blog -1 introductory post and the assignment post. I would suggest you start thinking about photographers you have already encountered and admire and write some notes about them before the next assignment. I have added a few photographers to the suggested reading so that you have some material you can get started with that will be directly relevant to the work you have produced in this assignment. If you are keeping a physical log of your wider research then please include a few photographs of it with the next assignment.

Suggested reading/viewing
Context
Photoshop and Lightroom
Adobe TV – http://www.adobe.tv
George Jardine’s Lightroom Training Videos - http://mulita.com/blog/
Adobe Lightroom 5 Student Edition
EISMANN, K. 2004. Photoshop Masking Compositing. San Francisco, New Riders EVENING, M. 2012. Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers, Oxford, Focal Press. EVENING, M. 2013. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers, Berkley, CA, Adobe Press.
RODNEY, A. 2005. Color Management for Photographers, Burlington, MA & Oxford, UK, Focal Press.
Photographers
Simon Standing –Emblems of Civilisation -
http://www.simonstanding.co.uk/emblems-of-civilsation/4586449253
Dave Wyatt (yes, me...!) –Thames Town - http://davewyatt.co.uk/gallery/thames- town/
Steffi Klenz –Nonsuch - http://www.steffiklenz.co.uk/work/nonsuch/?lang=en Paul Graham –Troubled Land -
http://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/troubledland.html
John Davies –Pretty much everything he has shot - http://www.johndavies.uk.com/

Pointers for the next assignment

Next time I would like to see you use your main camera rather than your iphone. This will allow you more control over the images you are creating. I would also like to

see more documentation of your post-processing workflow so that I can help iron out any difficulties you are experiencing there. I would also like to see evidence of how you are thinking about the sequencing of your images –how does the order in which they are placed influence how a viewer might read the work? Finally I would like to see you shooting quite a bit more for each assignment. This will allow you to make the most appropriate choices in terms of conveying the narrative or concept that you are exploring. 


I don't really have much to comment on in regards to this feedback. It was considerably better than I expected and so I am happy with it. I have taken on board that I need to take a lot more photos while undertaking assignments such as this one and that I need to take more care to focus on each shot and how I approach it. Obviously I will use my main camera for the next assignment and it's not something that I would've normally done but as my tutor noticed, I was considerably anxious about undertaking this assignment and I was out of my comfort zone, which was clearly evident in my images. I will attempt to work on this feedback for the next assignment.