When submitting Assignment 3 to my tutor, I asked for some pointers in my work following receiving my assessment mark for the previous course. He agreed to include this advice in with my feedback.
The feedback is as follows;
"Amanda, I find it interesting that you have gone for a mix of interior and exterior shots of your chosen buildings. Most students use exterior shots for this assignment so well done on taking this route! Your first four choices are good and I’m sure you could have approached the powers that be at each one and asked if you could get access whilst the buildings were not in use. Each choice here is a kind of ‘spectacle’ centre where specific events are held, that is interesting in itself but also taking images of them when they are not in use could have worked quite well in my opinion.
In your email you show concern over your module grades, I think you need to exercise more of a personal vision in your photography to improve these. Your technical skills are fine and you know your way around a camera, I just think that you need to hone in on your ideas and take more risks. Get out of your comfort zone and take some images of subjects that you normally wouldn’t, that’s the best advice I can give and going by experience that is exactly what I do when the mojo is slipping!
Home
The shot of the toothbrushes is a good one although it seems to be a portrait rather than showing certain aspects of the actual building. I took a similar shot many years ago as a portrait of a disabled guy I was working for, he had an electric toothbrush and all the various enablers had normal ones which surrounded the electric one. I can see what you are trying to do with the images here and that is to put the personal touches into the buildings.
The shot of the bedroom really needs more light; yes the lamp and the resulting image do convey a certain atmosphere, either (at this time of year) at evening or in the morning. I do think both of these shots are too subjective a more objective approach would, in my opinion, have worked a lot better. A simple idea would have been to produce one exterior shot of the building and one interior shot, the interior shot shooting position could have been the exact opposite of the exterior one so that you would in theory be looking through the walls at the camera pointing at you. I hope that makes sense! Simple approaches in photography can raise many more questions and issues than complicated ideas where the images become too subjective and the viewer looses interest.
Children’s Playhouse
Both of these shots are quite similar, the wheel is seen in both of them and there is no need to repeat this, you have two shots to use and these should really have been quite different. On a
technical level you are shooting into the sun for the first image, you would really need to wait for the sun to get lower or shoot on a cloudy day. I can see you have opened the door for the second image and this shot works well, although the hole with the sunlight coming through should have been cloned out. I think the second image does contain an essence of childrens play we can see into the little house (maybe a smaller aperture is needed so we can see the details in focus) which is getting quite close to what you set out to achieve.
The Duke Of Wellington
The first shot I found quite strange as there a number of half finished drinks on the table nearest the camera, so either you asked the people to move or they left? I suspect the former as there is a mobile phone on the table. Either the people should have stayed in the shot or the table tidied up.
The second shot shows a couple of empty tables and not much else, I don’t see how this shows anything about the building and its function. It could have been taken in any number of similar venues, you really need to capture the unique parts of the building and show these identities in a more pictorial manner.
The third shot works ok as a general stock image but again it could have been taken anywhere. In your introduction you mention a few things about the pub, the open fire, daily menus, a pint of beer; and there’s your three images! Simple and effective, these three elements are all different yet combined together start to form the essence of the actual building and its purpose.
Shopping Centre
In our age of consumerism, where money is the new religion the shopping centre could be said to mirror that of the church, a place people flock to, to buy all manner of things. I’m not sure of your approach here, the shots are quite generalized showing different areas of the complex but there is no style or substance to the images. You need to be thinking about breaking the shots down and taking just one small detail and working with that. I think you could have explored the architectural details a lot more, you seem interested in these and rather than trying to show too much in your images think about trying to show less!
Registry Office
I did find this a strange choice of building, where you there primarily taking images of the service?
The first shot of the actual room does work well, its is bright and spacious without having too much character. The second example is more of a wedding shot and again this subjective view point doesn’t really work that well. Of course you have captured an essential part of what the building is used for, but then most would know this anyway.
Interestingly and on looking through your various exercises leading up to the assignment, I found that some images are working very well. The darker shots of the shopping centre for instance where you have concentrated on using the small amount of natural light come across much better than your submitted images
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You are right about the shot you took in the hotel, it is a great shot and one you could have built on for the assignment. Also your image of Stitch D is great and I’m glad you enjoyed the work of Mr Friedman. Tracey Moffatt’s Up In The Sky is actually about the Australian government’s policy in the 1970s to have Aboriginal babies taken away from their natural parents and put in adoptive care, as happened to Moffatt, it is a highly personal piece of work and interestingly you compared it to a horror film, well I guess this policy must have been pretty horrific for the people it directly affected.
This area of your blog is interesting and is something to be encouraged, looking at other photographer’s work is one way of broadening your horizons, it’s a bit like listening to music; you don’t necessarily listen to all the same bands all the time you like different styles of music at certain times to reflect your mood or indeed to change your mood.
I’m just wondering if you can incorporate some form of musical photography for the final two assignments, try and use it as an excuse to take photographs of what you really want to take photographs of.
Another photographer well worth looking at is Ricky Adam, he has shot a lot of bands, mainly punk ones and is an outstanding photographer. His personal work is excellent, have a look and see how his images build up a portrait of his friends and lifestyle.
http://www.rickyadamphoto.com/www.rickyadamphoto.com/projects.html"
My tutor warned me that I may find his comments a bit harsh but, to be honest, I didn't at all. Constructive criticism is always good when trying to progress and at least with his comments and that of the assessors that marked 'Digital Photographic Practice 1', my mind is slightly at ease knowing that it is not my technical skill, it is the lack of research through my blog and assignments that it causing most of the issue. This, of course can be rectified to an extent so I will now attempt to include more research into my work where time permits.
In regards to the tutor feedback, he has mentioned a few pointers and possible amendments to the submission so I will address them now.
Home - I liked my artistic flare, so to speak, in these images. The purpose of the assignment in my eyes was to photograph 'buildings in use' so my target was to try to show the buildings being used in the way that they were designed. I agree that they are more subjective shots and I like the idea that my tutor suggested, however that is an approach that would not even have crossed my mind. The atmosphere was what i was going for in the second shot so I'm glad that did come across to my tutor, however I am happy with the images that I submitted here.
Children's Playhouse - I agree completely with the comments by my tutor here. The wheel does appear in both shots and I did take numerous other images to create a different approach but with it being attached to the outside of the house it was difficult to find an angle of any interest where it wasn't included. I have however found another shot with a slightly smaller aperture and a longer focal point to be able to see better in through the door and have also cloned out the hole in the back. This image is to replace the second image 'Houseboat' on my original submission:
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| Houseboat - altered submission |
The Duke of Wellington - I was happy with these shots until my tutor highlighted the fact that I could've just used the examples that were right in front of me the whole time, the beer, the fireplace and the menu!!
The first image caused some confusion for my tutor with the table being used in the shot. The table was actually MY table so I had not asked the occupants to move, neither had they left. Again, with the idea of the building being used I thought this would be a better inclusion to the image with the table being used although my family was up and wandering when i took the image so perhaps I should've waited until they had come back before taking the shot. Either way, I like this image in my submission as it does reflect the website quote of being "
a great quality traditional pub, with modern touches and stylish furniture...".
I did actually take photos of the other features though so will alter the second and third shots of my orginal submission to the images suggested, the fireplace and the menu;
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| Submission alteration to replace 'take a seat' - Menu; The Duke of wellington, Cowbridge |
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| Submission alteration to replace 'enjoy your meal' - Fireplace; The Duke of Wellington, Cowbridge |
Shopping Centre - I am quite happy with these images. My tutor suggested that I focus more on the building structure but I don't feel this would've been any more interesting than the original submissions. The centre itself is not one solid structure, it is made between several streets forming a massive undercover centre which covers a large part of the centre of cardiff. The outside isn't one building itself, the outside is just made up of store fronts in the individual streets. I like the structure of the building inside and wanted to show how they have made use of the space in each 'section' of the shopping centre but my main objective was to show the shopping centre being used for it's purpose and I think I managed that well.
Registry Office - I am happy with these images. I know my tutor is not a fan of the subjective view again here with the typical 'wedding' shot but, as he agrees, it does portray the building being used for its intended purpose so I will not be amending any images here.
I have taken on board the encouragement and need to address other photographers work and it's relevance to my overall learning so I am hoping to try and progress with this aspect too, which I will do in separate posts. Overall, I am happy with my feedback and am very grateful for the advice and encouragement given by my tutor at this stage.
