OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion - Part 2

Carol yours is changed, Chris, yours is added. :)

Today I managed to get the shutter speed and panning with shutter speed photos, blog entries will be done before bed. Had hoped to use the local trams as something different but they are infrequent and varying in speed, so cars were the order of the day. Hopefully I can use the trams for something a little more creative. I did manage to get some of a small water fall in Beddington Park and test my 10 stop ND at the same time. Nearly dropped my camera in the River Wandle though!

How much contact do you guys have with your tutor throughout the exercises? Or do they only speak up come assignment time?

I emailed my tutor and let him know I'd sorted the first few exercises out, he replied that he wasn't sure which blog posts he was supposed to be looking at which worried me a little as I thought my blog was fairly clear. He looked once I'd pointed him in the right direction and said that it's looking good. He also mentioned that there are rules about the amount of time he is supposed to spend looking at my stuff, but since this is first time tutoring with the OCA we are going to play it by ear.
 
Hi Darren,
Others will have more experience of this than me, but yes, your tutor is only really there to assess your assignment and then give general feedback. Your contact is expected to be fairly minimal - your tutor won't be on hand to answer queries regularly, and it's unlikely they will reply quickly to questions. OCA tutors work part-time for the college and will only devote around 1 day a week to this. I studied with the OU before this and tutors were full-time and on hand at most times, so it was a bit of a surprise. Having said that, I've found that having to stand on my own two feet more, quite liberating! It's sometimes difficult to know if you're doing the right thing and this forum has been a brilliant resource for me. The OCA Flickr group is also useful and there will always be someone there to help if needs be.
Personally I'm loving the course and how it's expanding my knowledge, even if a lot of it is self-taught!
Cheers
Chris
 
Thanks again Chris. I expected as much!

Well that's the two shutter speed exercises written up. 1000 words in one and about 650 in the other. I've done the 5 exercises this Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday and written them all up, so quite pleased with myself, even if I had nothing else to do! I'm hoping that the upcoming exercises mean I can create a few more images I actually like though.

Now it starts proper with The Frame and having to visit exhibitions and stuff. eeek!
 
Ingeneral I might drop my tutor an odd email, for some assignments you are expected to contact your tutor in advance.

In terms of the exercises, this is indeed just what they are exercises. The more you experiment, challenge and move out of a comfort zone then the more you will earn. The exercoses are really just warm up toward your assignment where in your assignment you demostrated what you may have learnt.

In terms of the assignmnets don't get to tied up in the exact details of what is required. Use your own creativeness, interpretation, justification etc in a set of images where some kind of token nod can be given to the assignment requirements. Just justify why you have followed a specific approach. be critical of what you have done, say what you wanted to do and perhaps explain where your knowledge, experience skills etc may have prevented you doing what you wanted. Don't be afraid to take risk

I'm no expert and myself only upto DPP Assignment 4 but this is what i have learnt so far myself, conversations with tutors and more experienced students. The great thing about the arts is that you can give an assignmnet to a class of students and yet get back a very vast range of results. Perhaps in maths you would get the right answer and that would be shared by the majority of the class

Most importantly enjoy the challenge. If you get stuck ask, people probably also got stuck at the same or similar point. treat everyone here as fellow student in your class..ask and share ideas and advice

Thats my view :D
 
Sound good. My tutor on Dpp told me he only spent 20 mins per pupil and that was to check my assignment and respond. Not sure how true that was.
 
Heading to London Zoo tomorrow, hoping to tick off some of the exercises for The Frame there and at Camden Market. Was planning to go to an exhibition at Brick Lane today but will now go to the next one next Monday instead.

Also been spending some time getting the introductory writing done for each exercise for The Frame so that I can worry more about looking at the pictures and less about waffle when then time comes.
 
Agree with Fratton Freak above - assignments apart, I think that the reflection is in a way more important than the image; for example in the exercises I try my best to take a decent image but I don't lose sleep (or more importantly time) if it isn't the greatest. As long as it demonstrates the point of the exercise to a certain degree, in my mind the subsequent write-up of how it could be improved and why is more important and helps more with the learning process. Yes, self-critique and self introspection can be hard (it is for me as I always want to be perfect lol), and sometimes a little depressing, but it really is an essential part of this course, and of one's personal development as a photographer. I'm only on Level 1 (about to start my second module) and there are certainly wiser people on this forum, but I understand from Level 2 students that the reflection and research element of the course increases significantly at Level 2 so maybe it's not a bad idea to consider getting into good habits early.
 
Forgive me, I was referring to the introduction that I do for each exercise, not the following analysis and introspection on the images.
 
In the introduction perhaps detail your intention in response to the exercise and then at the end reflect on if / how your end result compared.

Assignment 4 of DPP rather surprised me in that although it was the creation of one image the effort on involved in planning and processing matched that required for previous assignments.
For anyone who is interested this assignment can be found here. Its sent off and now ready for assesement:

Warren's Assignment 4 for DPP
 
Well, I've now got my study pack for the new Context and Narrative course - this one is really going to stretch me on the creative front. Looking forward to the challenge :)
My new blog is carolstreetphotographycn.wordpress.com (for the blog list). There's not a lot on it at the moment but hoping to get the first exercise posted by the weekend.
 
Nice - I'll watch that with interest. Did you get into this months assessment?
Thanks; it's just in its infancy at the moment. Having now read the course notes I realise that this is huge step up from TAOP in terms of research and reading - one of the assignments is a 1,000 word essay rather than photographs - so more academic but I think it will be a good lead-in to the level 2 courses (presumably why the format has been changed)

I'm going for the November assessment - July was just too tight a turnaround.
 
well its worth signing up to the OCA flickr group, i post the odd image in there and got an email today from the OCA PR Manager who wants to submit one of my images to go in next months Big Issue! fame at last.
 
well its worth signing up to the OCA flickr group, i post the odd image in there and got an email today from the OCA PR Manager who wants to submit one of my images to go in next months Big Issue! fame at last.
Good work. One of mine was in after my trip to Thailand in March.
 
I finished Art of Photography earlier in the year, and have been pondering what module to do next. Context and Narrative or People and Place.

Was thinking of doing P&P first, although it would take me out of my comfort zone photographing people but would would seem to have an image base for the assignments. Looking at Carols blog for C&N it looks very research and written word assignment based, which would perhaps be better leading into level 2.

Thoughts and comments please.

Rob
 
Hi Rob,

I think it depends on two things; i) whether you are planning on doing the full OCA degree, leading to ii) what you want to do for your third (and final) Level 1 course. If you are planning on doing the degree, there seems to be a view that UVC is almost an essential module as it provides the underpinning theory behind contemporary art. So I am using C&N as a gentle lead-in to UVC (I really don't want to do P&P). There is a useful Flickr thread here which has some good info on it from both Level 3 students and tutors. Don't worry about the title (to UVC or not to UVC), there is a lot of discussion about C&N:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/ocarts/discuss/72157645460091526/

I'm really enjoying C&N. Yes it is vastly different from TAOP and I am having to learn to formulate and express my own opinions in a coherent manner (I was at school a very long time ago!) so I get butterflies before each research exercise but it is getting easier each time and the research (which is directed) is very interesting - it is easy to get carried away and spend a lot of time following different ideas so I have to be quite strict with myself (I work full-time so my study time is limited). I think that the new structure (more academic than TAOP) is good as I feel it will be a good preparation for Level 2. Maybe some Level 2 students can comment here?

I've also finally reached a photographic exercise :) but I actually haven't missed taking 'course' photos; I've just spent the time doing my own photo work (which didn't really get done during TAOP).

Happy to answer any other specific questions or PM me if you would rather.

Hope this helps a little and do have a look at the Flickr thread.

Carol
 
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On the other hand - I took people and place to get me comfortable with photographing people outside the studio and loved it. ;)

Level 2 is very different to level one, more discussion, thought and writing. C&N is one of the new courses that are more academic than photogenic and moves towards the level 2 requirents, apparently.
 
Carol/Byker

It is my intention to complete the degree, just searched cannot find the UVC module, I wonder if it's because level 1 courses are being rewritten and this is being phased out. Although reading through the Flickr posts in Carols link UVC has a lot of supporters.

I am totally out of my comfort zone with photographing people :( although I understand that P&P will be phased out also.

Been thinking about this all day, I think I will do P&P first and then C&N. I also need to use the OCA forums and various online groups more to help with my understanding of the "art" aspect.

Byker do you think P&P could be completed in 6months? I do not want to repeat my 2yr stint on TAoP.

Carol / Byker thank you both for your comments they have helped a great deal.

Rob
 
As with everything I guess it's how much you put into it, but I'd suggest a year for people and place, perhaps 9 months if really pushed? I did my second course in nines months but I did have 5 weeks of working 4-6 hours a day on it whilst unemployed.
 
Hi Rob,

Here is the link for UVC (Understanding Visual Culture) - it's one of the two optional choices for level 1 photo degree if you only do 2 out of the 3 photographic choices. (see the photo pathway on the OCA site)

http://www.oca-uk.com/subjects/theory/visual-studies-1.html

I spent 20 months on TAOP from my original OCA joining date (did delay starting work on TAOP for three months) - well over my original plan of a year so am trying to complete C&N in one year so that I can catch up a bit. I've drawn up a week by week schedule :)

Anyway, good luck with P&P and look forward to seeing your new blog.
 
Apologies for the slight highjack here..

Would anyone recommend taking C&N alongside TAOP? I am loving the course but really finding the art side of it difficult (thankfully sounds like I am not alone!). Having looked at the sample of C&N it would appear to have more "guided reading" which might help develop the art/academic side of the course. Hard to judge from the sample chapter though.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Dave
 
Hi Rob,

Here is the link for UVC (Understanding Visual Culture) - it's one of the two optional choices for level 1 photo degree if you only do 2 out of the 3 photographic choices. (see the photo pathway on the OCA site)

http://www.oca-uk.com/subjects/theory/visual-studies-1.html

I spent 20 months on TAOP from my original OCA joining date (did delay starting work on TAOP for three months) - well over my original plan of a year so am trying to complete C&N in one year so that I can catch up a bit. I've drawn up a week by week schedule :)

Anyway, good luck with P&P and look forward to seeing your new blog.

Hi Carol,
I'm glad I'm not the only one who is taking their time with TAOP. I've only sent in one assignment and am already 9/10 months in. Picking up ok now but it took a while to get properly set-up so to speak.
All the best
Chris
 
well its worth signing up to the OCA flickr group, i post the odd image in there and got an email today from the OCA PR Manager who wants to submit one of my images to go in next months Big Issue! fame at last.

Nice one Ash!
 
Apologies for the slight highjack here..

Would anyone recommend taking C&N alongside TAOP? I am loving the course but really finding the art side of it difficult (thankfully sounds like I am not alone!). Having looked at the sample of C&N it would appear to have more "guided reading" which might help develop the art/academic side of the course. Hard to judge from the sample chapter though.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Dave

Ali I would suggest is to concentrate on one course at a time.
 
results out today and i passed! not a very good pass though and i expected a bit more but 40 credits in the bank. The feedback was a bit thin and i was hoping for more off the assessor really but there were some good pointers to take forward.
 
Thanks for that - just looked, got 63, which I thought was low, but then it's the third highest score for the module out of 15, so got to be happy with that.
Some good feedback this time, I'm liking the new format.
 
I think all the photography modules got hammered. Not really excellent results across the board, it was the same with the first results earlier in the year. Although i havn't done any serious study for 20+ years but i really put some effort into this and was just expecting a little more. A bit more feedback would of been appreciated though, its not like there were hundreds of students to assess. Ah well, onward and upward.
 
Feedback was more this time than I got from my previous two modules. TAOP I got the score only!
 
I also passed, but with 58%, which I'm quite disappointed about. Admittedly, I was less disappointed when I saw the range of marks given for AOP this time round. I'm really grateful to have been given some feedback, but at this time I don't understand it. I need to concentrate on the technical side and I only got good/average in the Content section for the learning log. I guess however much information they give, we'll always want more and it'll probably make more sense in a few months time.

I'm going to sign up to C&N next I think. I definitely noticed my photography improve during AOP and I'm sure now that I've got some experience of what's required on an arts degree I can do better too.

Byker28i, it does seem that OCA mark things very harshly, so congrats on the 2:1 pass for the module!
 
Guys,
Can you give me some suggestions for quality magazines/journal subscriptions? In the past I bought the consumer mags - which are great for technical tips and reviews but not really appropriate for degree level study, as I'm sure you understand.
My tutor suggested the BJP, Source, Aperture and Portfolio but I was wondering if any of you subscribe to any of them and what you think?
Cheers
Chris
 
I subscribe to BJP and its a great mag. I also pick up Black and White photography which is a bit lighter weight than BJP but still does photographer studies. It also has a really useful couple of pages each month listing various exhibitions around the country.
 
I subscribe to BJP and its a great mag. I also pick up Black and White photography which is a bit lighter weight than BJP but still does photographer studies. It also has a really useful couple of pages each month listing various exhibitions around the country.
Thanks Ash. Yes I was definitely thinking of starting with the BJP. Not sure whether to go for print or iPad though. Too many bloody choices!
:)
 
I have a free code for a years subscription to the BJP for Ipad. I'm actually thinking of getting the print edition as I think I prefer to read that way.

Can definately say the BJP seems to fit in more with the course work than other commercial magazines
 
Thanks Byker. So, I've gone for the BJP and also Source. Apparently Source is similar to Aperture but is UK rather than US based. I did think of going for hard copy but will try the iPad editions to start with and see how it goes.
While I'm about it, and Ash mentioned exhibitions, could I trouble you to recommend a good source for exhibition dates/locations? I've been a bit lazy/skint to get out and about much to visit exhibitions but am planning on getting stuck now. I know I can look in Time Out and the like but just wondered if there's a good comprehensive resource anywhere that I'm not aware of.
Cheers
Chris
 
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I use Time Out for London, then use google for local searches. Worth just checking the flickr groups and the student forums occaisionally too.
i.e. Oxford has a photo festival soon http://www.photographyoxford.co.uk/
OCA will be runnign a weekend visit to Brighton Festival - now that's very good.

Nothing to stop a few of discussing and meeting up if we fancy anything specific. A few odf us have done that for other exhibitions in London before
 
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