Back!

It’s now just gone 9pm and I’ve been up since 5.30am so apologies if this post seems to be a bit disjointed. I don’t think or write very well when my brain needs sleep …

I confess that I am faintly dismayed by the number of students on the OU T189 conferences and also on Flickr who are celebrating having sent their ECA After seven years of OU study, I thought I was pretty much immune to the feelings of panic, indecision and anxiety that seem to invade the consciousness of a student nearing the submission date for an ECA when surrounded by students who have already completed it.

So I’m sternly telling myself that I took my draft ECA away with me on my laptop and gained valuable insight and feedback from various family members as we travelled upcountry and back down again. The deadline isn’t until midday on Monday 16th so I still have plenty of time. Creating the slideshow in Acrobat format wasn’t difficult and I’ve done a fair amount of zipping and despatching of zipped files through the OU’s electronic TMA (tutor marked assignment) system so neither of those pose any problems. Writing has always come pretty easily to me and 200 words x 3 isn’t exactly taxing. But still there’s this still small voice inside telling me that I’m behind everyone else …

Part of the problem is the conflicting feedback that I’ve been getting on OpenStudio and on Flickr. One image may be a ‘hit’ on Flickr but a ‘miss’ on OpenStudio AND vice versa. This brings all sorts of doubts and anxieties bubbling to the surface and it’s induced a sort of paralysis over the final choice of ten for the panel. I thought I had it pretty much sussed out but now I’m not quite so sure. I was planning to drop the Ripe Golden Pear in Sunshine which, although nice, hadn’t received much feedback and replace it with the rather more dramatic Evening Storm Cloud.

But now the pear has gathered some very favourable comments on OpenStudio and I’ve been thrown into indecision

The other “not sure” has been the dramatic blood red amaryllis close-up (image on a previous post) which was raved over on Flickr, gathering several ‘awards’, but managed only one single comment on OpenStudio. Talk about conflicting views! I was wondering whether to replace it with another moody grey evening sea image (probably one of the week 4 images either Porthloo at Dusk or Steely Sky) … but would that be too much sea in my panel? Would the poor assessor have to reach for the Kwells to stave off seasickness?

As you can tell, I’m both tired and confused. I think I need to sleep on it and return refreshed to the fray later this week….

Refreshing the memory

I decided this morning that I would revisit my OpenStudio weeks and re-read the comments that students made on my images just to refresh my memory. I also went through all the images on my Flickr photostream as well and did the same. It’s interesting that there isn’t necessarily a correlation between the two – an image that was liked on Flickr and got several comments might be languishing un-commented on OpenStudio. I’ve now got a good selection of ECA ‘possible’ images and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to choose between them.

I’d like to get a fairly broad selection of images rather than mainly macros or mainly landscapes. One of the trickiest subjects has been portraits which have been common amongst other student images but which I find very difficult, not only because I feel self-conscious about photographing other people but also because most of the folk I know would run a mile rather than let me take their photo! If I do manage to ’snap’ someone it’s usually a spur-of-the-moment candid shot – grabbing the opportunity when it arises – so the images tend to be less than perfect technically but usually capture a great expression or a special moment.

The other problem I’ve had has been weighing up one image against another and trying to determine which one should be included in the ECA panel. It’s very difficult to make a decision when you’re comparing two very different images. Adding the potential for editing in the Elements digital darkroom just complicates the issue for me especially since I’ve not mastered all the techniques in the tutorials, especially the more complex week 8 techniques. Anyway I’ve always had problems making decisions and the final ten images for the panel is going to take a lot of time and deliberation.

We’re also going to be away for four days over the weekend so that raises the prospect of taking more photos which will then throw all my ECA panel plans into disarray!

Week 8 Assignment

Yes, I know, I’m a bit behind but the weather has been very changeable this weekend and The Artist hasn’t been able to get out and paint. Consequently he’s been working on the computer – catching up on the delicate task of balancing, resizing and adding text to images of paintings ready for printing on our professional giclee printer to sell in the Gallery.

So I haven’t had much time on the computer neither have I been very inspired to go out and take photographs. What is it about inspiration? It seems that either I’m full to overflowing with it or flat as a pancake (mixed metaphors, I know …) Anyway, I’ve been suffering from a badly blocked right ear and my hearing and balance are both affected so I’m due to visit the Health Centre for a ‘de-coke’ tomorrow morning. I intend to take my camera on the walk there and back – if the weather is halfway decent (as it might be according to the Met Office) I might get some good shots en route …

This evening I’m re-reading the week 8 assignment and spending some time online.

Your central task in this week’s assignment is for you to put into practise better commenting and critiquing of others’ images. Constructive criticism is a powerful tool – both for the giver and the receiver of it.

Spend at least 1 hour this week giving constructive criticism on the photos in your group. Share at least three images that you have created by using some of the advanced image editing taught in the course and use the rest to share any other images you wish. To help you focus and improve your commenting, use the language and terminology in the criteria on visual awareness and technical quality used in the ECA. This in turn will help you prepare for your own ECA as well as next week’s assignment.

 

As I’ve mentioned before, constructive criticism is a tough call. I’ve been reading around various photography forums and camera websites and almost everyone seems to agree that it is beneficial but it can be surprisingly tricky to get right. So this evening I’ve settled for browsing the images that have already been submitted by my Week 8 group and admiring their efforts. I try and comment on some of the images that haven’t received comments yet – usually they’re the ones that you look at and think “What do I say about this and how do I phrase it constructively?” as you scratch your head.

 

In the meantime, I thought it might be interesting to post some raw statistics about OpenStudio. Bear in mind that these statistics have been produced about two weeks before the end of the course so they are by no means definitive. But they give an insight into MY experience of OpenStudio.

 

My Photos

• Week 1 -  10 images submitted – 5 received comments
• Week 2 – 10 images submitted – 4 received comments
• Week 3 – 10 images submitted – 7 received comments
• Week 4 – 10 images submitted – 9 received comments
• Week 5 – 10 images submitted – 6 received comments
• Week 6 – 10 images submitted – 5 received comments
• Week 7 – 10 images submitted – 0 received comments

(I haven’t submitted any images for Weeks 8 and 9 yet!)

My Groups

• Week 1 Group – 21 students – 186 images submitted
• Week 2 Group – 20 students – 164 images
• Week 3 Group – 20 students – 163 images
• Week 4 group – 20 students – 109 images
• Week 5 Group – 20 students – 116 images
• Week 6 Group – 20 students – 81 images
• Week 7 Group – 20 students – 60 images
• Week 8 Group – 20 students – 86 (to date – 2nd July 2007)
• Week 9 Group – 20 students – 104 (to date – 2nd July 2007)

Now I’m off to track down and copy my ECA possibles to a CD-RW so I can work on son’s computer tomorrow because it looks like The Artist will be working on the Office Computer….

Assignments

So we are now in week 5 of a ten week course and we have done a photographic assignment for each week so far, using the techniques we’ve studied during the week. According to the website, the aims of the Assignments are as follows:

1/. to get you practising the theory

2/. to get you sharing your work

3/.to help you learn with and from others.

 

This is done by allocating ten image ’slots’ on the OpenStudio image-sharing website to each student each week, asking them to upload a specific number of images produced as part of that week’s coursework (usually five or six) and inviting them to use the surplus ’slots’ for any images of their own choosing. Each student is part of a group of about twenty students for each week’s assignments and the brief includes looking at images submitted by other students, offering constructive critique and suggestions.

This caused a lot of heartache among students for several reasons. Some didn’t want to hurt other students’ feelings by making a less-than-complimentary comment about the image. Others felt they couldn’t put into words their feelings about another student’s image. The least confident students on the course simply said that they didn’t feel able to make any constructive comments. This was because they considered themselves ‘unqualified’ to do so given their minimal experience. Sometimes students said they looked at an image but, because they couldn’t think of anything to write about it … just passed over.

The first assignment was simple, quite straightforward and fun.

Choose one of the following activities:

Select six letters from the alphabet and take a picture for each letter. Do not just look for letters on signs; think creatively about the shapes in nature and of objects – for example a rope laid on the ground may become an s or a w.
OR
Take six images of familiar subjects from below waist height or above head height (not at the normal head height). Try to find a subject that you can photograph from above and below and from the side. Take at least one shot which is close up to the subject and one which is taken from a distance. Use this opportunity to give an unusual perspective on a familiar subject.
OR
Choose one landscape, one portrait and one still-life subject and make two versions of each image – one horizontal and one vertical.

Using our new knowledge about the fundamentals of image composition, placement of subject, light and shadow, colour and perspective, most of us found ourselves actually thinking seriously about the image we were intending to produce with our camera … before we pressed the shutter button. (I use the term ‘most of us’ because it was clear from the start that there were a fair number of already very experienced photographers on the course. This may possibly have been one of the reasons that some of those students who were very new to photography suffered from a severe lack of confidence)

I chose the ‘letters’ option and was amazed at the breadth and variety of ‘letters’ that were portrayed in students’ images. It had the desired effect of getting us to think ‘photographically’ and taking notice of our surroundings in new and different ways.

Thoughts about commending on Flickr

I wrote this response to an appeal by the Admin of the Amateur Shutterbugs group on Flickr for members to comment on other members’ images:

Personally speaking, I find it very difficult to comment on an image if it has just a title and nothing else – no time of day, location, note of anything unusual. Just a little extra information about the image to provide you with a ‘hook’ into commenting would be really good.

Sometimes, since Flickr is very much a global community, you even have no idea where it was taken and you have to scrutinise the tags to see if they offer any information.

It’s even worse when it’s just a generic filename – something like DSC_39357 – which implies that either it’s part of a huge bunch of images uploaded in one go without any attempt to be selective or the Flickr member just couldn’t be bothered to think up a title or even consider why he/she was uploading the image in the first place.

While trying hard not to hurt feelings, it’s good to be as constructive as possible about an image and not just post the generic “Great image!”. Most folks who are serious about improving their creative photography skills (not necessarily those with the latest and most expensive whizzy-dizzy kit …) are happy to learn from other points of view. Not everyone will see the same image – some will pick up on one aspect and others will comment on something different.

It’s also quite time consuming to study an image and write an intelligent comment – I know I tend to do this on images I like and pass over images that don’t appeal to me so much. This is a bit lazy really – sometimes deliberately commenting on something you’re not keen on can teach you something about your own perception.

It certainly made me think …..