221.157 Independent Study Week #1
Week #1 – wb 28th February 2022
Week #1 Monday Tasks
- Next class bring your DSLR camera (if you have one) to the Zoom class.
- Watch the lectures ‘Lens photographic precedents’ and ‘Exposure and Photographic Conventions’.
- Start working on your assignment – you’ve only got 6 weeks and remember 14 hours a week outside of class!
- Best way to come up with ideas is to get out there with your camera.
- Start doing research into photographers who interest you.
Week #1 Thursday Tasks
- Make sure you have watched ‘Week 2’ required videos and make notes.
- Complete the ‘Camera Tasks’ sheet.
- Make your own images that use these ‘photographic conventions’: scale, repetition, depth of field, dynamic composition etc.
- Complete white balance task.
- Start to photograph.
- Bring photos to class on Monday / Tuesday.
Monday Actions
1. Camera
Dug out my old EOS 20D SLRs, which I don’t shoot all that often given the X100T is currently “my precious”.
Cleaned lenses, charged batteries, etc.
2. Watching
Watched both videos. Fortunately nothing new to me as a film photographer – happy to see transferrable skills!
3. Assignment
Got an Adobe CC license.
Started looking at Days Bay as my subject.
Found recent images and started to look at the modern versions of Photoshop, etc.
4. Photography
Went out at took some photos! See below for contact sheets and edits.
5. Research
Looking at photographers whose work I might like to reference?
Andreas Gursky? Hiroshi Sugimoto?
Thursday Actions
1. Watching
Confirmed: watched the videos and did the required reading.
2. Camera Tasks
Done – have done this before.
3. Shooting “conventions”
See below – part of my project shooting
4. White Balance
I set up a cup of colourful pens on a sheet of brown sugar paper, which is pretty close to neutral, then photographed in various lighting condititions.
5. Photography
See below for contact sheets and edits.
6. Bring photos
Done!
Contact Sheets
3rd March
This week’s best edits
Previously taken photos, edited for this project
221.157 Independent Study Week #2
Week #2 – wb 7th March 2022
Week #2 Tasks
- Go to the library and complete the Library Task: Learning to Look: A format for looking at and talking about photography
- Watch ‘Exposure in relation to digital’ and ‘Adobe Camera Raw software workflow – editing your images pt. 2’ videos (found in week 10)
- Read and take notes on ‘Photography: The Key Concepts’ by David Bate.
- Think about the feedback you received during your presentation and start to experiment.
- Bring photos to class on Monday/Tuesday to work with.
Week #2 Actions
1. Library
Did this with my group. This is included in the submission Zip file.
2. Watch videos
Did this!
3. Read and take notes
Again, part of the submission Zip file.
4. Consider feedback
Started to incorporate this, in homing in on my subject and starting to think about how I want to tell a story. At this stage, sticking with Days Bay Off Season.
5. Bring photos
See below for this week’s contact sheets and edits.
Took these to class.
Contact Sheets
8th March
11th March
This week’s best edits
221.157 Independent Study Week #3
Week #3 – wb 14th March 2022
Week #3 Tasks
- Complete the David Bate ‘The Key Concepts Reading Tasks’.
- Bring together your group response to the Library Task and David Bate The Key Concepts Reading Task in a presentation (PowerPoint) to present in your groups in the following class.
- Keep shooting and editing.
Week #3 Actions
1. Reading Tasks
Included in submission Zip file.
2. Prepare presentation
Included in submission Zip file.
3. Photography
See below for this week’s contact sheets and edits.
Feedback from Helen
Submitted this on 17th March:
Feedback received:
Thanks for sending these through, especially as they were small enough to open, I particularly liked the contrast of jpgs 3 and 4 and that there no people at all in the images. I think the connection to the sea is really important, although that maybe that I … don’t have the same immediate connection to the coast. The details don’t attract me as much, but a grid of images like that could be interesting.
Contact Sheets
17th March
This week’s best edits
221.157 Independent Study Week #4
Week #4 – wb 21st March 2022
Week #4 Tasks
Continue to photograph and develop the project after the feedback from your critique
Week #4 Actions
See below for contact sheets and edits.
Contact Sheets
22nd March
27th March
This week’s best edits
221.157 Independent Study Week #5
Week #5 – wb 28th March 2022
Week #5 Tasks
Just one: keep shooting and editing.
Week #5 Actions
See below for contact sheets and edits.
Feedback from Helen
Submitted this on 28th March:
Feedback received:
I like the idea of the horizon being consistent across the series. Your final submission is 3 – 5 images so you will need to ditch one, probably one of the two images in the middle of the series as they’re really similar. I’d be inclined to put the stormiest image, the one on the far right, in the middle with the two good weather images either side and than the two remaining on each end and would choose either the afore mentioned stormy image, or the image currently on the left as your main image.
Contact Sheets
28th March
29th March
30th March
31st March
2nd April
This week’s best edits
221.157 Independent Study Week #6
Week #6 – wb 4th April 2022
No tasks this week – prepare for presentation on the project!
This is the last week of the course, so it’s also a chance to reflect, as well as wrapping up the project.
Check-in: where am I up to?
- I did shoots on the following dates:
- 3rd March
- 8th March
- 11th March
- 17th March
- 22nd March
- 27th March
- 28th March
- 29th March
- 30th March
- 31st March
- 2nd April
- Shot over 700 discreet images.
- Selected 62 images and edited them.
- Selected 7 images for my final piece (3 to form a triptych, plus 4 supporting images).
Reflections on my final series of images.
This is kind of important, I guess, What do I think about my final selection of images, the layout, the overall impression?
Firstly, I am proud of the images. I think they’re some of the best I’ve taken in many years of (mostly film) photography. I also think I now have something of a handle on black and white digital processing, and am getting something of the “pop” that I’ve not managed to achieve before.
The images get across the feelings that I was hoping to capture – the quiet, calmness of off-season Days Bay. The quality and variability of the light; the difference that weather makes to the state of the sea, and so on.
My supporting images also gave me a chance to show some of the ephemera of the bay, both things humans have built, and that the sea has deposited. This was also a chance to look at the evolved, weathered aspects of objects too.
Tasks for this week
N/A – this is the week to edit and wrap up the project.
Contact Sheets
N/A – this is the week to edit and wrap up the project.
This week’s best edits
The general editing of my individual images was complete by this point. Instead, I worked on tweaking the images to do things like line up the horizon, and also adjusting the tonal balance between the images so that they work better as a triptych. I wanted a light, calm flow from the left through the sequence to darker, stormier mood at right.
For the secondary images, there were more choices for layout. I’m favouring a vertical layout, but may have a dollar each way and do a kind of up-down-up-down *o*o kind of thing.
