Assignment 4 - feedback.

I have just realised that I have not posted anything in nearly 3 weeks! In that time I have been on three courses for work, two of which have been in my own time - and I also have an assignment to complete on the most recent course. This is something that may take me a while to complete and is eating into my amount of free time. I have however just treated myself to an ipad which I am hoping will allow me to update my blog on the go, particularly when I am out shooting.

I have just this second received a letter for the OCA about applying for formal assessment as I am "either working on or have now completed your penultimate course assignment". I cannot believe how quickly this has come round, and in many ways still think of myself as very much a beginner. Reaching this point makes me feel as though I should be much further ahead in terms of knowledge and technique.

Anyway, back to the subject of this post - assignment 4. I think I felt at the time that I was progressing well. My tutor felt that I should of built a story around the shoes, and to be honest I had considered this but felt that I was straying from what I should of been doing. I have now realised that I should of taken the risk and just done it instead of worrying what is 'right' or wrong.

I did do one thing that I am particularly annoyed with myself about and that is not re size the images. I think that I just became so focused on the assignment that I am always in such a rush to get it on the webserver (the bit that generally goes wrong) that it completely slipped my mind. The webserver was set up for me at the beginning of this course as I have no idea how you go about something like that. Unfortunately when it came to me putting my assignment on the webserver something had gone wrong and a whole new one had to be set up. I am hoping that when it comes to posting the next assignment, I have no problems.

Regarding the actual assignment I must really concentrate on a running theme and "try to tell a story with the images rather than just photograph exactly for the assignment". I think that in a way I have taken a bit of a backward step from assignment 3 as I seemed to of gone from starting to develop more creativity with the assignments to taking the brief too literally.

I must definitely show more of the processes I have gone through to reach my final images so with the final assignment I need to be much more through and take my time to show how my ideas and thoughts have developed.

I feel before the next assignment I must again go through all of the work I have done so far so that previous lessons can be combined to produced my final assignment.

I must also talk about why I have selected certain images , particularly if I have shot more than the required number.

I still keep shooting with the ISO way too high generally because I have not checked the setting before shooting. I also keep doing this with the f number so I shall be researching this further so that I can make better selections. I still need to state why I have made technical decisions regarding settings. I must also go through focal length again. My tutor has also provided me with links to other sites that will be particularly useful.

I feel that from this assignment I can take all of what has been said and use it to hopefully produce an assignment that can show how much I have learnt through the whole of The Art of Photography and take away skills and techniques that will provide a good base for future work.