OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion - Part 2

Hello everyone,

Well I've finally enrolled on the OCA TAOP course. Just waiting for the course materials now, what is actually included in the materials. Is it just course notes and assignments etc? I'm so glad I found this forum as well, especially this thread. It looks like a really friendly place to ask for advice and share ideas :)
 
1 big red folder with the course notes, exercises and assignments in it
A course text book
Lots of admin paperwork giving you lists of things to get ready. While waiting for the big box to arrive you can order the main course text "Photograpers Eye" from whatever source you prefer

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Photographers-Eye-Composition-Digital/dp/1905814046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401225841&sr=8-1&keywords=photographers eye

Then sit back and enjoy. Make sure to have a wade through everyones blogs to give you some ideas. Theyre listed back a couple of pages from here, post #204

There is also quite an active OCA flickr group you can join
https://www.flickr.com/groups/ocarts/
 
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Thanks for that Ash, book ordered. Just sorted my OCA Gmail account out on my phone so just going to email my tutor before bed.
 
Thanks Essexash, I've got that book already in my stash! Will fish it out and wait for the big box!
 
My white box arrived today! Just hours after I'd printed all 181 pages of the material off at work to bind ;)

Contacted my tutor who is Matt White just after midnight last night, not yet heard anything back but I'm sure he's busy.

Spending the next several days sorting my site/blog out. Using the TTG plugins for Lightroom as I've used those before with nice results.

I'm Darren513063 by the way.
 
No box yet! My tutor is Maria Kapajeva, I've emailed her yesterday, and have since thought of loads of other questions to ask her. I am Wendy513072 :)
 
Welcome both, sometimes at the start it's a bit daunting, so do ask if you get stuck.
 
Its worth spending a few days looking at the TAOP blogs of others to get an idea of what is being done and people's approach. Its much like having discussions with other people in a class room or looking at their - one of the problems of distant learning

I'd also recommend buying Michael Freeman's the Photographers Eye

Good Luck with your course and all the worries / concerns you have have likely been encountered by people here so do ask
 
as far as emailing your tutor at midnight. I wouldnt expect a quick reply :) All the ones ive had put aside 1 day a week to do their OCA work.
 
He replied and we are having a chat on the phone on Monday :)
 
Well my TAOP assignment 5 is winging its way to my tutor - hooray! Glad it's in the bag. Will go for November assessment so won't have to rush around getting ready. Signed up yesterday for Context and Narrative so looking forward to receiving my big white box when back from holidays.
 
Well my conversation went well with my tutor, I'm his first student with the OCA and he seemed very nice and down to earth. Very reassuring regarding my concern learning at this level for the first time.

Website and blog coming along nicely, hoping to have it finished today with a bit of luck!
 
im annoyed they got rid of DPP and replaced it with some fluffy nonsense. If i had known that i would of done DPP first before Western Art.
 
Ok, it's done.

http://www.dbt85.co.uk/blog

It's taken longer than I thought but now things are all set up for the next several months in the background so I shan't have to worry about them. As always with these things you get to the end and think you could have done better. I wanted to keep it simple so that's what I've ended up with. Maybe I'll redo it at some point but it serves for now.

The annoying part was looking through my pictures and finding so few that I liked enough to put in a gallery. Need to have a big clear out and get a lot more new images while studying!

Thank you all for your help and advice so far. I'm really looking forward to delving in to the course.

My tutor has reminded me to set some targets to complete the assignments by. I'm not sure on that just yet as I don't go back to work until the middle of July!
 
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Morning All,
Got my feedback for my first assignment last weekend and I was pretty pleased with it. My tutor Keith Roberts was quite complimentary about my work but also gave me some good constructive criticism too. One question I have is, should I post all of my tutor's comments on my Learning Log or just comment on the 'highlights' so to speak?
Cheers
Chris
 
Hi Chris - I've met Keith Roberts - good tutor, interesting insights. He tends to lead study visits around Manchester/Liverpool. Up to you with the comments but I tend to add reflective stuff only.
 
Cheers Byker. Yes, from what I've found so far Keith does come across as a nice guy, with some good advice.
In the end I've uploaded the feedback PDF as a link so if anyone is interested in reading it, it's all there. Then I just summarised the key points in the feedback. I'd love to get along to some study visits but I don't have a car and have been pretty skint recently. I know that seems like a bit of a feeble excuse but I didn't want to reserve a place on something in advance and then not be able to get there. Anyway, things should improve for me quite a bit in a few weeks' time and I'll be able to get out and about more. It's one area where I am struggling, getting to exhibitions and the like. Need to get my backside in gear!
Should anyone be interested, the link to my Learning Log is www.chrischadwickphotography.com and there's a section devoted to my OCA stuff there.
All the best
Chris
 
Whereabouts are you Chris? If you're lucky you'll find someone to share lifts with, possibly by posting on the WeAreOca study visit post.
 
Byker, I'm in Kingston, Surrey - close to probably one of the biggest collection of art galleries and exhibitions in the world! Ha Ha! I really need to get a grip! Good tip though thanks. I'll investigate, as some of the visits are further afield as you know.
 
Guys, I'm just filling out my first assignment deadline thing on the website and I'm a little lost as to what I'm supposed to put in the description part of the Create Assignment Submission page. Clearly its asking for a description of the assignment but since I've not done anything like this before (never had anything like this at A-Level 12 years ago) I'm concerned that I'm missing something or am going to look a tit. I endeavour when looking like a tit to do it on purpose!

Assignment One is all about contrasts. Not just those in light and dark as is typical in the tones of an image but the content and subject itself. A baby in the arms of his grandmother is one example of contrast in a photograph which has nothing to do with tones of light, as is an image of a celebratory sports star with a dishevelled or weeping opponent nearby.

For this assignment I'll be showing eight pairs of photographs displaying contrast between them chosen from 21 pre selected options of contrast, Eg. Long/Short, High/Low, Hard/Soft. I'll also be showing one example of contrast contained within one photograph.
Click to expand...

I feel I'm just regurgitating the text from the course materials. Thoughts?
 
I just put a one line - Assignment 1 - Contrasts

I think it's just note so your tutor knows which assignment it is when you submit it.
 
Yes I agree. I actually don't think I wrote anything in the description box! All the info I thought my tutor needed was already provided (course name/assignment number/due date). Maybe for other courses more info is required.
Cheers
Chris
 
Thank you very much guys.

I just went out on my first attempt to take pictures specifically for the course. My location choice was a local park but it was a bad choice, nothing but grass and trees around the edge and a kiddy park. I'm not yet comfortable enough to start snapping away inside a play area (even without children in!) and there wasn't even a rack of bikes or a bunch of cars lined up to shoot and no flower beds either.

Fortunately it was only for the Introduction projects on "standard" focal length and focus. I managed to cobble something together from some pine cones and the daisies in the grass but I'm a bit meh. Never mind. I did make notes before I went and took some while shooting though so that's progress.

I have 5 blog posts waiting to write and post too, two to cover these images I took, one for my first personal project (clearing out the crap from the last 8 year and making something useful from the remains), one on that BBC article and the discussion here about it, and one about the 10 stop Camidox ND I bought. That last one might get scrubbed though as the few images I took seemed to be washed out but I've not looked on my PC yet.
 
It's always the write up that takes so long...

I think my focal length images were of a park bench!
 
Hi Chris - The assessors will expect to see some response from you in relation to the advice from your tutor.

My personal response is to add in my tutor's feedback into the assignment write up within my blog n a certain colour, then add my comments / responses to this also in a different colour. Responses will / may include text or images.

Well done on completing the first assignment. Expectation will increase but thats a good thing as your skills and knowledge will increase. When you look back at your assignments at the end you will see this yourself in terms of your improvement
 
Oh, in terms of focal length I used bottles of beer as you can see the writing on the labels being in or out of focus but also check out the blogs of other people, I think Byker put liinks up the other week for people who visit here
 
FrattonFreak said:
Hi Chris - The assessors will expect to see some response from you in relation to the advice from your tutor.
My personal response is to add in my tutor's feedback into the assignment write up within my blog n a certain colour, then add my comments / responses to this also in a different colour. Responses will / may include text or images.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip re: assessment Warren - that's interesting. I did acknowledge his feedback but I didn't change any of my work. It did cross my mind to do that actually. I was really planning on referring back to the feedback during my next (and later) assignments to show I had taken it on board and utilised it. I might need to review this.
Cheers
Chris
 
If my tutor thinks I haven't done soemthing well, then I've added a post explaining it and the reshhot, recrops wwhatever.
 
Folks, I've just published my first three exercise posts from the Introduction. I'd appreciate a glance over to see what you think. I waffled a bit.

http://www.dbt85.co.uk/blog/

Trying to think of a subject to do for the shutter speeds exercises that aren't cars on a street as I don't have a model I can get to run around a park for me!
 
Morning Darren, I'm only a relative noob to this course but your start looks more than adequate to me! I did what some of the others on here did and look at other people's blogs to get ideas - it's a great way to see what is expected as it's not always easy to tell from the course material. I don't tend to write very much (which I need to improve on) but I don't think waffling is a problem - it is meant to be a record of your thought after all and even if you write rubbish, as you progress it will become apparent that you're learning!
For the shutter speeds and panning exercises I went to Richmond Park where, particularly at the weekend, there are always hundreds of cyclists going round and round the park. It's a never ending stream of opportunities! I set up my tripod slightly hidden, with a longish lens and snapped away merrily!
Cheers
Chris
 
I've been doing exactly that Chris! Partly to see what kind of things they've used as subjects for exercises and partly to see if what I've written is in any way similar to what others have written. As Byker said earlier in the thread, at a brick and mortar university you'll see other students work and talk all day about it, so with distance learning we need to rely much more on the blogs and things like Flickr to get a sense of what we need to do. Most of the time we'll have a good idea of our own, but the reassurance to see that everyone else is thinking in the same direction is nice!

Richmond Park sounds like a great spot for some pics, not too far from me either as I'm in Croydon. I'm going out somewhere today to try and get these shots, just not sure where yet!



I've taken the liberty of updating the list. A couple were dead links and one had only posted a test page 2 years ago and nothing since.

Byker28i: http://www.nineelmsphotography.com/blog/
DubCat: http://ocalog.blogspot.com/
Muz: http://futurephotoltd.blogspot.com/ - Not updated since 2011
LucyB: http://lucyslearninglog.wordpress.com
AlfyB: http://bushtography.wordpress.com
Essexash: http://www.ashleycottle.co.uk/MyBlog
FrattonFreak: http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/
Reidy36: http://markslearninglog.wordpress.com/
Faddius: http://acephotographic.wordpress.com/
VaguelyFamiliar: http://www.imlee.co.uk/learning-log
GillG: http://gillslearninglog.wordpress.com/
GerCam: http://gerricampbellphotography.wordpress.com/
CarolS: http://carolstreetphotographytaop.wordpress.com
Alet: http://alettaop.wordpress.com
ScubaSuzy: http://theartofphotographybysuzy.wordpress.com/
Polum2 : http://annettejohnsonphotography.wordpress.com/
Robsea: http://robsea.wordpress.com/
DBT85: http://dbt85.co.uk/blog/
Rubidium86: http://chrischadwickphotography.com

the OCA blog how-to yet? It's at http://ocalearninglogsample.wordpress.com/ and contains detailed instructions.
 
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Nice Darren.

As said as we are distance learning students it helps to chat to others as you sometimes need a prod, or help to give you the right idea. That's rreally what this threads about :)
 
DBT85 said:
I've been doing exactly that Chris! Partly to see what kind of things they've used as subjects for exercises and partly to see if what I've written is in any way similar to what others have written. As Byker said earlier in the thread, at a brick and mortar university you'll see other students work and talk all day about it, so with distance learning we need to rely much more on the blogs and things like Flickr to get a sense of what we need to do. Most of the time we'll have a good idea of our own, but the reassurance to see that everyone else is thinking in the same direction is nice!

Richmond Park sounds like a great spot for some pics, not too far from me either as I'm in Croydon. I'm going out somewhere today to try and get these shots, just not sure where yet!



I've taken the liberty of updating the list. A couple were dead links and one had only posted a test page 2 years ago and nothing since.

Byker28i: http://www.nineelmsphotography.com/blog/
DubCat: http://ocalog.blogspot.com/
Muz: http://futurephotoltd.blogspot.com/ - Not updated since 2011
LucyB: http://lucyslearninglog.wordpress.com
AlfyB: http://bushtography.wordpress.com
Essexash: http://www.ashleycottle.co.uk/MyBlog
FrattonFreak: http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/
Reidy36: http://markslearninglog.wordpress.com/
Faddius: http://acephotographic.wordpress.com/
VaguelyFamiliar: http://www.imlee.co.uk/learning-log
GillG: http://gillslearninglog.wordpress.com/
GerCam: http://gerricampbellphotography.wordpress.com/
CarolS: http://carolstreetphotography.wordpress.com -Password protected
Alet: http://alettaop.wordpress.com
ScubaSuzy: http://theartofphotographybysuzy.wordpress.com/
Polum2 : http://annettejohnsonphotography.wordpress.com/
Robsea: http://robsea.wordpress.com/
DBT85: http://dbt85.co.uk/blog/

the OCA blog how-to yet? It's at http://ocalearninglogsample.wordpress.com/ and contains detailed instructions.
Click to expand...


I've recently changed my blog address (oops, forgot to tell you guys on here) so for CarolS please use:

carolstreetphotographytaop.wordpress.com

Cheers

Carol
 
DBT85 said:
I've been doing exactly that Chris! Partly to see what kind of things they've used as subjects for exercises and partly to see if what I've written is in any way similar to what others have written. As Byker said earlier in the thread, at a brick and mortar university you'll see other students work and talk all day about it, so with distance learning we need to rely much more on the blogs and things like Flickr to get a sense of what we need to do. Most of the time we'll have a good idea of our own, but the reassurance to see that everyone else is thinking in the same direction is nice!

Richmond Park sounds like a great spot for some pics, not too far from me either as I'm in Croydon. I'm going out somewhere today to try and get these shots, just not sure where yet!



I've taken the liberty of updating the list. A couple were dead links and one had only posted a test page 2 years ago and nothing since.

Byker28i: http://www.nineelmsphotography.com/blog/
DubCat: http://ocalog.blogspot.com/
Muz: http://futurephotoltd.blogspot.com/ - Not updated since 2011
LucyB: http://lucyslearninglog.wordpress.com
AlfyB: http://bushtography.wordpress.com
Essexash: http://www.ashleycottle.co.uk/MyBlog
FrattonFreak: http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/
Reidy36: http://markslearninglog.wordpress.com/
Faddius: http://acephotographic.wordpress.com/
VaguelyFamiliar: http://www.imlee.co.uk/learning-log
GillG: http://gillslearninglog.wordpress.com/
GerCam: http://gerricampbellphotography.wordpress.com/
CarolS: http://carolstreetphotography.wordpress.com -Password protected
Alet: http://alettaop.wordpress.com
ScubaSuzy: http://theartofphotographybysuzy.wordpress.com/
Polum2 : http://annettejohnsonphotography.wordpress.com/
Robsea: http://robsea.wordpress.com/
DBT85: http://dbt85.co.uk/blog/

the OCA blog how-to yet? It's at http://ocalearninglogsample.wordpress.com/ and contains detailed instructions.
Click to expand...

And my blog is at: www.chrischadwickphotography.com
 
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