OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion - Part 2

Thanks Byker. That's really helpful. Oxford and Brighton both sound good. I'll look into those a bit more. I'm certainly up for tagging along with some of you guys should the situation arise.
 
I use Time Out for London and also keep an eye out for reviews in Metro and the Evening Standard. I've recently joined the mailing list for the Beetles + Huxley gallery in Swallow St, London, who have exhibitions; so far this year since I found them I've been to Alex McClean and Steve McCurry (Afghanistan). Martin Parr and Vivian Maier exhibitions are on there at the moment (planning on visiting after work one day next week) http://www.beetlesandhuxley.com/exhibitions.html There are probably other galleries that do similar.

Somerset House is also another place worth keeping an eye on for exhibitions.
 
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Thank you very much for the information Carol, I will look into your suggestions - apologies for the slow reply.
Just had an email telling me I've managed to get on to the study visit to the Brighton Biennial - which will be my first study visit. I'm going to do both days. Really looking forward to it, and hopefully meeting a few fellow students.
 
Ooh is it up - brills - seeing as I raised the subject on the OCA forum.


Emailed the office.
 
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Wahay - I'm in. Looks like I'm going on my own though, my wife is working :( but that will save me money on the shopping.
 
I did post a photo of her in the other half thread. This was the Liverpool study visit, which we made a weekend of, about 90 mins after leaving her

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That's funny! Fair play to the Mrs though - she comes along with you. I can't imagine much more boring than following me around when I'm out with the camera. Scuba diving is worse. Never buddy up with an underwater photographer! They spot something then spend 10 minutes trying to get a decent shot, during which time you see nothing as they're blocking the view. Rinse and repeat until your gas is out and you have to ascend. Then you have to look at their pics and go ooh, aah for 2 hours afterwards!
 
LOL. No we go away - Brighton, Liverpool, she goes shopping, I go on to the exhibitions. We meet in the afternoon/evenings.
 
Just had email from OCA confirming my place on the Brighton study visit. See you guys there.

Rob
 
<insert rude word> I'm going to habe to withdraw from Brighton, or go for just the sunday. I've promised to take my father in law to his navel reunion and it's on the Saturday :(
 
Anyone suggest where best to stay for the Brighton study visit? As I need to stop overnight.
 
Pop a note on the details on the OCA website and see where everyone is staying. We stayed on a hotel with others on the seafront, which meant we could have discussions in the bar in the evening with the tutors and other students.

Gutted I can't go
 
should you get your stuff back from assessment? This was back in july and i still havnt got my submission back. I meant to email them last night but forgot. I wouldnt be too bothered but i spent a lot of money on a decent presentation box and folders.
 
well i emailed them last night and got a reply

"Regarding your July assessment work I will relay your message to the dispatch team to arrange the return of work."

So it sounds like you have to request it back! a bit on the cheeky side.
 
well i got mine back today, they made no mention of being busy. I really think you need to request it back.
 
Well I've bitten the bullet and sent my TAOP submission on its way this morning for November assessment. So lots of nail biting until then. Now back to Context and Narrative (put on ice for the last couple of weeks) and a delayed first assignment.

Anyone else on here going for November assessment?
 
I'm not going to say good luck carol as I think your work is excellent. I hope you get the mark you deserve
 
Hi - I'll have my DPP submission going in for November Assessment.

Remember a pass is the only important thing and the eventual assessment feedback will be great to inform you how to improve for the next course. Whilst we all endeavour to learn and do the best we can its the last 3 modules that determine your degree rating.

The % pass is a good way of assessing how you are doing with individual marks detailed later for each of the respective marking areas with some text feedback
 
Byker28i said:
I'm not going to say good luck carol as I think your work is excellent. I hope you get the mark you deserve
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You are too kind Byker. I'm fairly confident of a pass but the marks for the last couple of TAOP assessments have been fairly average/on the low side (in spite of what I think has been some cracking work going in) so my fingers are crossed for a half-decent score. Only just under two months to go ...
 
FrattonFreak said:
Hi - I'll have my DPP submission going in for November Assessment.

Remember a pass is the only important thing and the eventual assessment feedback will be great to inform you how to improve for the next course. Whilst we all endeavour to learn and do the best we can its the last 3 modules that determine your degree rating.

The % pass is a good way of assessing how you are doing with individual marks detailed later for each of the respective marking areas with some text feedback
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Wishing you good luck Warren, not that you will need it having had a look at your blog. It will be useful to get the assessment feedback - it does seem that this is a bit more informative now.
 
Hi again folks, been 3 months! After completing the into exercises I had my holiday and then things got very busy for me at work so I barely had any time free, then I moved in with my new partner and didn't have everything with me. Now I'm in and settled so can pick up where I left of so long ago :(

Managed to get some nice photos in Murcia on my holiday a few weeks back, this evening I'm photographing my GFs netball match and at the end of November a friend has asked me to help out at a wedding he is doing for a friend. Really want to get stuck in now. Thanks to all for your help before, I'm sure more will be needed.
 
Good luck with the wedding, I id my forst one as official photographer in February. I did read what I thought was a good book on Wedding Photography by Mark Cleghorn. Doing the first one is a good and challenging experience, hopefully you will get a good feel for this helping a frend

I have another wedding at the end of October
 
I've never even taken my camera to a wedding before, my personal rule being that a) I want to walk around with freedom and enjoy the day and b) they paid for a pro and I don't want them looking at my lens instead of theirs. My friend is what I think people call weekend warriors, he takes some nice pics and he's done 3 or 4 before, clearly the friends he is doing it for are happy with his work and he in turn is happy with what he's seen of mine. I'm not (enough), but that's different!

I'm going to do the best job I can and hopefully pick up some useful experience. In 12 months or so I'll be moving out of London Worcester and that may soon after come with a change of jobs/career so adding some decent wedding shots can't hurt if I tried to go in that direction as some kind of assistant or something. We shall see!
 
"Weekend Warriors" - Likely a term from the Pro's worried about people "stealing" business from them but no-one can become a Pro overnight.

All you need to remember is to get the best images of people you and they both need to be relaxed. In addition don't expect every image to be perfect, it wont. Not even the pro's expect that. Try to get the formal one's done then you can experiment with creative images

Most importantly - enjoy it
 
That's the plan, it's a wedding at Croydon Aerodrome which isn't the most picturesque of locations but there are some options there. Will feature lots of guys in full dress Army uniform.

The Netball last night was very difficult, so much faster than I was expecting. Not watched a game before or taken pictures at one, tried the first half with the 24-70 and the second with the 70-200 so see how both felt and what I could achieve with both. Not looked at the results yet, yay work.
 
Did anyone else find when they first started that they were trying to take the best possible pictures for the early exercises when its more about learning the technique? I looked around at other peoples blogs and saw that a lot of images from the early exercises were taken purely for the exercise rather than for any actual photographic merit. I've struggled to think of suitable subjects for some things until I released my mind a little and concentrated more on getting what the exercise was trying to teach me rather than produce the next masterpiece with every shot.
 
DBT85 said:
Did anyone else find when they first started that they were trying to take the best possible pictures for the early exercises when its more about learning the technique? I looked around at other peoples blogs and saw that a lot of images from the early exercises were taken purely for the exercise rather than for any actual photographic merit. I've struggled to think of suitable subjects for some things until I released my mind a little and concentrated more on getting what the exercise was trying to teach me rather than produce the next masterpiece with every shot.
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Yes - me! Put it down to personal pride. But there were some exceptions (the lighting exercises in TAOP come to mind and I am sure there were others). I find I have a much better mindset, and also enjoy myself more if I consciously try to take the best photos that I can rather than just making do. But that's just me; I am a bit of a perfectionist. My blog is also public to the world so I don't really want too much rubbish on there - I'm hoping to become good enough to sell some of my stuff someday and don't want it to come back and haunt me.
 
Ha, I'm sure no hauntings will occur Carol!

Maybe when you're Prime Minister the Star will run a front page with some damning evidence of your work ;)
 
DBT85 said:
Ha, I'm sure no hauntings will occur Carol!

Maybe when you're Prime Minister the Star will run a front page with some damning evidence of your work ;)
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Hahahaha - if that's all they can find I will be happy! But seriously, wonky bird tables (my first TAOP exercise) are not a good look lol!
 
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Netball and sports - well you are going to need a body with plenty of fps and subject to camera body need continious focus. However no-one ever gets anything right first time. Knowing what to do to improve your images i sthe key bit :D
 
Well I ordered a D750 about an hour ago, though Sports aren't going to be a regular thing, more an experiment really.

Also managed to get the writeups done for about 5 of the exercises for The Frame done over the weekend. Only one exercise that requires taking new images remains too, the others are looking at stuff I've done already. Feeling it again :)
 
never mind
 
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