SFX| Intermediate Digital Photography

A class which moved up the learning curve quite quickly last night. It seemed that as we investigated others work it became more understandable how people can translate ideas into the manner that they do. As we moved from presentation to presentation one could see the personal signature that accompanied the work from each individual. It was interesting to see how humour, empathy and irony formed commentary within each mosaic and only became more obvious when correlating statements to the the visuals. In this way it was learned how shape, light, subject, colour, perspective, focus, all contribute to the visceral invitation which characterises the individuals approach.

This exercise was a foundation study to examine the voice within. One’s natural vocabulary before any practice and further application. It was a starting point.

You have a week’s respite of homework. Next week we will be embarking on a tour into the Common where we will practice outdoor portraiture - pray for no rain! If it is raining we will have to go to Plan B - which may be an introduction to Photoshop.

It was requested that I present you with your next assignment which will be due in two weeks or July 1st 7:00 pm. So here you go.

CREATING A PHOTO ESSAY.

This exercise will have you telling us a story. The topic is open - it can be a story about a place, a person, an event, an adventure. You will use the camera and what you have learned to date about creatively adjusting your approach in order to invent a visual and visceral sparkle to showcase your subject. Your final product will be placed on Flickr and will be prepared for a slide show.

There are two additional instructions to this exercise. First it MUST be photographed in black and white.

Second, you are to write out a small concept statement (no more than a paragraph) about what the story is within your subject - what are you communicating? This is your “angle” on the subject — a point of view you attached to the work - something that you are applying about the subject. For instance, if you were to photograph Soho — pick a theme or something that you discovered about Soho that you want to share with the viewer.

Good luck and see you next week.

Excellent work around the class folks. As I walked around the room looking at the work you produced I saw all of you were able to establish mood and emotion - even if the class feeling seemed like you may not have succeeded at it. Creating emotion in photography is certainly not an easy task. It takes us away from simply documenting something and requires us to project a thought or condition on our subject which we hope translates over to our viewer. Colour, light, expression and viewpoint become instruments which we use to form the mood. It is how well we arrange these with the aide of our technical approach which will determine how well we have succeeded at the task. The final image is a record of your progress — did you stop too short, mastered it completely with just the right amount of tension and energy, or did you overdo it and cause your viewer to become lost in the dialogue.

A mood has volume and it can be a range moving from the soft to the loud. It may be something which is easily read or requires reading and understanding before we feel the weight of its visceral punch. But no matter what it is or says - you are the maestro — you create it.

For those who missed the class today, after examining the work of the Emotion assigment students were introduced to the next weeks challenge. The class had from 8:00 - 9:00 to shoot it, and if they did not bring cameras they were to work under the same conditions - 60 minutes to photograph the work. Please download the PDF to get the assignments and we will see you next week with the 25 images ready to be built into a grid.

Assignment

REMEMBER!!! - These phrases are simply stimulants — by no means do you have to go out and collect or find the literal association to each. Let the words and phrases heighten your awareness and locate imagery beyond the obvious.

We examined photography based on its iconographic information — and listened to what makes a photograph “speak”. What mood it suggests, what narrative it presents. We looked at the articulation of elements - from technical approach to content - and deconstructed images in order to examine the importance of elements. We also examined the insertion of political or social reference, and how a picture resting within a context can contribute a powerful execution of a point of view - even if the technical application falls short.

Sites we visited to have this discussion were -

World Press Photo Awards 2007

Life Before Death

onimage

Following this discussion it helped to inform people who are struggling with the assignment on creating a “emotive” picture out of something/ someone.

That assignment is now due on TUESDAY, JUNE 10th at 7:00 pm.

It is very important that you have that assignment ready for class so we can move on to our next discovery.

See you next week.

CLICKclick.

Great class last night folks. Hope you enjoyed it and took away some of what was said.

First it was very important to establish the ability to SEE instead of just look at something. Even something so ordinary, if you spend time observing and developing a curiosity for it, you can take that and trasnform it into something wonderful. And many of your drawings reflected that. They were very good.

It didn’t matter in the quality of the drawing - what mattered was the process behind it — the perspective that you took, the observation that you made. This is the real creative process. Just because you feel you can’t draw does not take away from the creative path you took to get your message you message “out there”. This is why being shy or making excuses for lack of a skill can be a dangerous thing because it erodes any attempt at communicating. Its like having an idea but refusing to talk about it for fear of how you are going to say it. But once you get it out there, in the open, then it will shaped itself.

Next we looked at the “focal length” or viewpoint that each of you took. some went wide while others went for that close up sort of “shot”. Some filled the page while others took a portion of it. Some were technicians while others were abstractionists. And some struggled because you wished to be technicians bit felt you did not have the skill to apply to your desired look — ahh a common complaint that transfers over to photography. This is where trial and error are important tests along the way of communicating an idea. Photography is not a perfect science. It requires test, observation, mistakes, and accidents until you arrive at what it is you wish to communicate.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT.

We looked at documenting a subject and creating an emotional statement based on that same subject. We began to observe and list how we add elements to a subject to draw out an emotive reaction from our viewer. People will be easier than still life because people have have expression which is an expressway to communicating a feeling or emotion. Still life is much more difficult to work with — you have to turn the inanimate into something living, breathing.

For next week — have two photographs — one a simple document snapshot of what it is you will be working on to creating an image filled with emotive context and then the emotive shot itself. A kind of “before and after”.

Good luck with it —  and remember you are EXPERIMENTING HERE — this is the only way you develop yourself as a photographer — there is no right or wrong in this — no exactness — it is like trying to produce music — it may come in a flash of inspiration or be something that takes weeks or months to develop. The main thing is to simply be doing. The rest will uncover itself along the journey.

See you next week.

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BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK BOOK

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Ok now that the PR is done let’s continue. Last week I believe you were not able to access this for reasons beyond both Julia and my control — but here you are now (I hope!).
This will be your space to come and visit over the remaining weeks ahead to collect assignments you have missed or to just keep in touch with what is going on with workshops or other things photographic.

The link above - SFX | Intemediate Digital Photography is yours.

Last week you were given a few tasks so we could see where strengths and weaknesses lie as a class. After marking all the papers the two common areas are in metering and focal length.  We will begin the course by examining each of these in isolation.

Before we do that though, (thought you’d get away from it eh?), you also have an assignment due. For those who missed completing it I’ll take the time to say it here –it’s very important to have work completed because this course revolves and evolves around your response to the briefs and the work we have at hand to examine. Photography is all about the product — in this case imagery - so having product here on time is paramount.

Tonight’s schedule is looking like this:

First - we go through the written work and take a peek at what you know or don’t know. Some areas were not so black and white/ right or wrong answers — I was looking for your knowledge base and if you were in the ballpark or outside waiting for the ball to fly over the fence.

Second - You will be exhibiting your work that you photographed over the week. The things to take away from this exhibition is to first expose your creative (as well as technical) side to the class. Start getting into the feel of realising that as a photographer you are also communicating and your approach to your communication is very important. Observe how others approached the assignment and what processes they employed at getting that shot you may envy. Think through what forces were working for or against you on this assignement and take note of them so that in future work you can avoid the same pitfalls. If I use myself as an example– I cannot shoot when very hungry - especially when travelling. I feel defeated and tired and not inspired because I am hungry. Also I cannot work well when I need to be somewhere else shortly. A recent trip to Scotland showed that my photography changed from the technical medium format art work I was looking to shoot to the more personal toy camera approach because I was in a rush to get back home.

This assignment will be obeserving first if you understood the requirement — next it will observe how you creatively worked with the properties involved.

This should take you to the end of the class. If it doesn’t then please give a read to this before we move into studying focal lengths. If it does then FOR NEXT WEEK PLEASE READ.

Oh — all of you should have received my email earlier today. It is your class list so that in the future if you need to ring someone about homework — they are only a few finger tap tap taps away.

See you next week.

- interesting, talented, friendly instructors who seem to care.

- taught me to develop a style and discover a voice.

- good course, interesting and well taught.

- found it motivational to make me go out and take pics. Enjoyed the class, teachers were nice. Feel like my photography has come a long way because of this course.

- fun course with a lot of practical involvement and class discussion + encouragement to explore ideas.

- really enjoyed the course. learned alot. EXCELLENT TUTORS!!!

- enjoyed the material and the course. Fab!

Thank you to all of you who attended and we wish you great success in your photographic pursuits. Keep in touch!

NEXT COURSE: St. Francis Xavier College Tuesday April 28th, 2008 7 -9 pm.

WELCOME BACK GANG!

Oooooo…. you know what day it is today — assignment due day! And Julia will be with you now so you have to be on your best behaviour.

I have really enjoyed working with you and watching the work blossom to another level. I hope you are feeling you are becoming better photographers and better at understanding and appreciating photography.

Thought we would place a calendar of events up here for you so you know what to expect over the next five weeks. So here it goes:

W6. Light assignment due/Editing/ Crit and discussions/ Review of Construct and assignment given. Download assignment HERE.

W7. Construct assignment due/ Editing/ Crit and discussions/ Review of Style and assignment given.

W8. Gallery or Lab tour/ Concept assignment given.

W9. Style assignment due/ Concept discussions.

W10. Concept assignment due and closings.

Have a great five weeks and I look forward to seeing your work on Flickr.

CHASING LIGHT

For those of you who have completed the PORTRAIT assignment - here is an advanced preview of what is coming up for submission and examination on February 26th, 2008.

Your next assignment will be one which is inspired by the greatest contributor to the “wow” factor of photography - LIGHT. This assignment will have you chasing light - looking only at light and its qualities and photographing it — what it falls onto or illuminates is secondary - the key point here is to shoot images of light.

The two images below were shot simply on a camera phone. Nothing else was done to them. So you don’t need to make the assignment hard on yourself by forcing to find things - just look and see and respond. Look at light and how it works itself around a subject - either artificial or natural light — open yourself up to being drawn into the light first.

For next class after we return from our midterm break, please have in your Flickr portfolio a minimum if ten light inspired images. ENJOY!

Due to the computer glitch we had tonight the Shoot from the Hip assignment (to be placed on Simple Striking Portraiture pool ) is due next week and your portrait assignment is due the following week. For those who did not make the class tonight please read on.

Following investigations and tours of the content supplied for the “shoot from the hip” assignment we went on to examine concept in photograph with a focus on the portrait. We explored how powerful a tool concept can be in setting up a direction to process a visual tableaux resulting in a final representation of your journey towards that photograph. And the more we learn to understand the visual language the more we can understand the complexities of what it is you are saying.

Have fun with it and see you next week.

Keep seeing.

Hey there folks. Just some notes for ya.

We talked about in camera meters to make you aware that there exist options in your equipment to personalise your exposures to get a more accurate rendition of what it is you are trying to communicate to the viewer.

We also spoke on the subject of file size in your image capture and what sizes are needed for when. We also compared jpeg to raw files and where and when to use them. There is a really good article on this that I found here.

Moving on to composition we studied three different photographers and witnessed three distinct styles and methods/ inspirations behind the work they pursue. From those wishing to simply create the beautiful to those who are more interested in using photography as a means to document a social experiment or observation (which can escape the attempts to make things aesthetically beautiful) - the camera is a tool only. Like a laptop to a writer or a paint brush to a painter - the camera is the means which the artist has decided to use to communicate their own vision. This means it is not a finite box which you photocopy life through. It has the capacity, through your concept and vision, to provoke, educate, entertain.

Following this discussion we moved on to look at the work you pulled together and brought to class and examined it for its content and link to your own personal style, voice, experience and/ or vision.

SHOOT FROM THE HIP
Next week please have ready your “shoot from the hip” experiments. 1 -10 samples were asked for but if you shoot more then by all means shoot and publish more. Please have no more than 20 though!

The larger the body of your work the more we can see into your vision and direction. SO more is definitely better.

I also found some MUCH better examples than what we saw in class. These show that it is how creative and “freestyle” this process can be.

Sample 1 Sample 2

Sample 3 Sample 4

Sample 5 Sample 6

Have a good week!

Great meeting all of you and it looks like we have a great 10 weeks ahead. This is going to be your space to catch notes, look for signature shots of the week by yourself or fellow students and hopefully grow during the next process in your image making steps.

Just a recap —

We reviewed shutter speed, aperture, iso, wb, and focal lengths last week. The next session we will continue with the technical material in the areas of metering and image file size. You will also be presenting the five images that you collected in terms of compositional interest in the categories of either style, concept, and or construct. Please be ready with these for this Tuesday.

Oh yeah — PLEASE…. have a Flickr account set up soon so we can look at your work.

See you then!