Assignment Two - Reflections

I was significantly better prepared for Assignment Two than I had been for the first Assignment, having taken my tutor's previous advice to think about what really inspires me and where I wanted to shoot photos.  I may also have overplanned this exercise though too.  I also set out to take "complete" photos that stand alone, rather than simply focussing on the element in question.

Although the final selection was fairly easy as I had managed to take a lot of the shots that I originally wanted, I also fell into the trap making an emotive judgement rather than objective.  

The image of the seals ("two points") is not in focus when blown up - the focus point picked up the water rather than the seals, so I know that this will be no competition winner, but I included it anyway, not only because I was pleased to have had one image of the seals that from a composition point of view was what I'd wanted, but also because I was really pleased with capturing the leopard pattern on the seal's fur.  I have since found out how to reduce the chances of this happening going forward (use AF-C mode to keep the focus on a moving object - although I would have thought "sport" mode would also use this?).

Although I had a good idea of the images I wanted to include from the start, I later struggled with limiting my choice to 15 images max.  Had I been able to include just one more image, I would also have included this view of Blakeney shot during the evening light showing the curved shoreline.  Perhaps this is one of the pitfalls of overplanning - leaving too little room for the spontaneous shots.

I also had a difficult choice in my image for "horizontals and verticals".  Although I think the image I chose is better in many ways, including fulfilling my personal brief of represtenting Norfolk, I briefly considered including this shot of an old phone box with the flowers growing around it.  In the end I didn't because the feature of the horizontals and verticals in the phone box is ready made, and the ground isn't particularly attractive.  I do like the traditional Norfolk wall though.

The element I found difficult to fulfil was finding several points in a deliberate shape.  Although I am pleased with the final choice (I really like the colour scheme in this one), most of the shots I could make a choice from were either points which were too attached to each other, providing a ready-made composition (which I was previously warned against), or lots of triangles - particularly with flowers.  I didn't want to include triangles, as these were asked for separately, however, if I had included one more triangle, I would have used this image with the triangle being formed by the two flowers and the poppy seed case.

Moving to the assessment criteria:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

I think my compositional skills have improved since the last assignment, both in the original framing and in processing (and excluding unwanted elements).  For instance, in most images the horizon is not in the centre of the frame, unless it is necessary, e.g. in the "rhythm shot", in order to be able to inlcude the other elements of the image.  I also look to use thirds more now when placing other elements in the frame.  This said, I particularly like the composition of "two points 2" showing the old people looking out over the inlet because of the high horizon, the low foreground and the large centre framing of the main subjects, with just some small detail to the left of the bench to offset the central composition.

My technical skills were lacking on the seal trip, evidenced by my falling back on the saftey of an auto function, and then sticking with it for the rest of the afternoon, because I had seen on my display that it was working quite well under the prevailing light conditions.  I have since researched what I could have done to avoid doing that - see my notes on the Nikon D5000 - from snapshots to great shots.  My visual awareness has also improved, for example, the image of the bird digging the worms out ("single point"); previously I would have just shot the bird itself, but this time I waited for it to be interacting with its environment to make the image more interesting.

Quality of outcome

Looking at the descriptions for the assessment criteria, I hope I've presented a compentent presentation of ideas, which are of a consistent standard and in an agreeable format.  If I were being strict and using "strong judgement" I should have excluded the image of the two seals, but I really liked it.

I used a journal type narrative for my presentation of the assignment, as I wanted to present a journey of discovery and I also included some small thumbnails as a banner at the end as a conclusion; although this wasn't prescribed by the assessment instructions, I wanted to add a little personal touch.  The images in the banner are in the same order as the points on the map reading from left to right.  If I were presenting this in hard or soft copy as a document, I would still produce it like a journal as it is a record of my weekend discovering Norfolk, but the images and descriptions could also be used to design a promotional brochure.

Demonstration of creativity

In his feedback from the last assignment, my tutor explained that creativity wasn't necessarily about processing, as I had previously thought.  I now understand this to be about risk-taking and finding unusual aspects or angles to shoot from - i.e. using imagination - and also making shots more personal  I think the angle of the hay roll in "curves" is one of the more creative shots, as the perspective and size ratios of the other rolls are distorted.

I did convert some images into black and white to see if the elements became stronger; the windmill ("distinct shapes") worked well, as did the hay roll ("curves") but in both cases the glorious colour of the sky was lost, the yellow flowers in the "distinct shapes" and the distant rolls in "curves" became lost.  Although creativity is not about processing, I think the decision to retain the colour in both these shots is creative, because of the fantastic cobalt blue of the sky, although clearly this is aided by the polariser!  An image that I nearly included, and then I didn't as I wanted to include the flowers with the windmill's base and also show the windmill on the ground rather then peeking out over a roof, but which did work well in black and white because of the cloud formation is this one:

Context

As previously mentioned, I planned this assignment thoroughly, not only thinking about my subject, but where I wanted to go in particular and details of the shots I wanted to take.  I also re-read the Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman to get the full background to the elements of design and ideas for images.  My learning blog is complete and up-to-date for the two parts of the course leading up to Assignment Two.  I also think that I am now more aware of the work I need to do to take good images and what I still need to learn and practice.