Assignment 1 : Reflection

Looking at the assessment criteria for this course now that I have completed Assignment 1, I have come to a number of conclusions:

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills. 

This area was the weakest area of my work when I completed the Art of Photography ( 21 out of 40 marks ) and one that I need to focus on more. Looking at this assignment, I feel the technical challenge that the presented itself, primarily lighting, was one that I struggled with and maybe took me away from the creative side of the assignment. Researching and using different techniques to deal with the cloudy bright weather was only partially successful and left me making more adjustments at the processing stage than maybe I would have wished. It was a fine line re how much saturation to apply to give the sense of place that I was seeing with the naked eye. I did find that I was instinctively applying what I'd learnt through completing the exercises while carrying out the assignment though ( e.g. histograms ) but it is still obvious to me that I need to work harder on improving my technical skills.

I think that the final outcome does demonstrate observational skills and visual awareness. In terms of design and compositional skills, some images show better compositional skill at the outset when the original image was taken where others needed to be cropped to improve the composition. The question is whether both approaches are equally valid in terms of demonstrating good compositional skill.

Quality of outcome content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.

If I am honest, I am not sure about the content of the images as I am not sure quite was is meant here. However, I do feel that I made a good stab at explaining what I intended to do and how the workflow went.


Demonstration of Creativity imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.

Not my most creative work is the best way to sum this assignment up and in this respects I feel a little disappointed in the outcome of this work. Hindsight is a great thing but at this stage I feel that I would have been better engaging the folk that work around Camber Dock and portraying this human element rather than the more abstract aspect that I eventually opted for. A much earlier start to the day would have conjured up more action that would have infused the images. 


Context reflection, research, critical thinking ( learning log)

The research that I carried out was very much limited to the technical side of the assignment. I do need to carry out more photographic research before and during assignments. Interestingly, having seen the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2013 shortlist, in particular Chris Killip's work, I feel that I'd would have been better bringing out the human interest aspect of Camber Dock.