OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion - Part 2

Thanks both for your kind comments

I remember being impressed with your images for this assignment Carol so I'm not surprised by the excellent feedback. What you will find is that as you progress through this module your skills, understanding, knowledge and own levels of what is good enough continues to increase. Additionally looking for design etc when composing starts to become 2nd nature. Its this progression I think is what the assessors are looking for :) When you finish this module look back at the images you were producing before you started to those you are at the end (non course).
 
Hi all,

It was great to find this thread as I'm in the process of trying to decide whether or not to sign up for the OCA course. I've been making photographys on an off for the past 30'ish years. Started out 30 odd years ago while in school, after leaving school I drifted away from photography, but never fell out of love with it, just life. About 15 years ago, after the birth of my daughter, I got back into photography, did an evening course which with the urging of the tutor turned into me doing a Fetac (NCQ in the UK) exam. That was the last formal education I had, in the past formal education and me didn't make good bed fellows.

In the last 3-4 years, I've become more and more active with photography, in the last 2 years I've completed two 365-Projects, creating a book from one, 3-4 SoFoBoMo (solo foto book month) projects. I undertook the projects to push myself, to learn and to keep going with photography. I've yet to find "my style" and question if I have a style.

So here I am, 47 years old, considering embarking on my first ever degree course, if I do it then it will really be for me and not career orientated. Having read some learning blogs from people undertaking the course, it looks very interesting. It's getting close to decision time, the cost side of things is a serious factor!

Looks like most people start with The Art of Photography, a lot of the content of TAoP is similar to the course I did before, so I'm happy I've a good grounding there. I'm just wondering if anyone has started with People & Place?
 
I think You have to start with taop. It's a good grounding of skills, both photography and getting backinto learning and the Oca ways.
 
Hi DaveF66

It is strongly recommended that you start with TAOP, as it's the introduction for the course and provides the building blocks for the other modules. However, if you've done similiar before then it's possible you can skip that module altogether with an Accreditation of Prior Learning. You'll have to look at the website for details or contact the OCA directly.

I've learned far more than I expected doing TAOP. The exercises can get a bit tedious, but it's not too bad. The best bits for me so far have been learning how to reflect on my work, learning about the field of photography from both an academic and contemporary point of view, and meeting other students on study visits.
 
Byker & LucyB,

Thanks for the replies.

Byker28i said:
I think You have to start with taop. It's a good grounding of skills, both photography and getting backinto learning and the Oca ways.
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It does look like good module and one that needs to be done. I'm about to embark on a year long project that I feel would tie in well with People and Places, which is why I was thinking about starting there.

lucyb said:
Hi DaveF66

It is strongly recommended that you start with TAOP, as it's the introduction for the course and provides the building blocks for the other modules. However, if you've done similiar before then it's possible you can skip that module altogether with an Accreditation of Prior Learning. You'll have to look at the website for details or contact the OCA directly.

I've learned far more than I expected doing TAOP. The exercises can get a bit tedious, but it's not too bad. The best bits for me so far have been learning how to reflect on my work, learning about the field of photography from both an academic and contemporary point of view, and meeting other students on study visits.
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TAOP is very similar to a course I did before, but I don't think OCA will allow me skip, from what I've read about their APL the accreditation I received for the course is one level below what they want. As I mentioned above, I'm about to embark on a year long project which I reckon would tie in with People & Places.

Actually because I keen to do my new project, which will be a body of work documenting a farmer's life over the period of a year, I'm wondering if I'll have time to undertake the OCA course in the next year. Decisions, decisions :eek:
 
Assignment 5 submitted nearly a month ahead of schedule - http://bushtography.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/assignment-5-illustration-and-narrative/ :)

I've skipped the Rain exercise though. Frustratingly, I've not been able to get out with the camera when it's rained recently.

So, a quick question for Byker and anyone else that has submitted for formal assessment - did it take you long to get everything together? I think it's getting a bit close for me having to submit things if I want to get in for the November assessment.
 
It took a little time to put the formal assessment together, but I had all the photos I submitted. I added print outs of all the tutor feedback and any emails I sent/received. I turned all my blog entries into PDFs and put everything onto a memory stick which I also added.
Took a couple of days to get everything together, then I used a portfolio box from silverpoint to put the lot in.

There a couple,of good videos on the student website giving guides to submissions.
 
Byker28i said:
It took a little time to put the formal assessment together, but I had all the photos I submitted. I added print outs of all the tutor feedback and any emails I sent/received. I turned all my blog entries into PDFs and put everything onto a memory stick which I also added. Took a couple of days to get everything together, then I used a portfolio box from silverpoint to put the lot in. There a couple,of good videos on the student website giving guides to submissions.
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Thanks Byker. I'll have to have a look at those over the weekend. There are some shots from a few of the previous assignments that I'd like to try redoing so think I have a fair amount of work still to get done.
 
AlfyB said:
Assignment 5 submitted nearly a month ahead of schedule - http://bushtography.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/assignment-5-illustration-and-narrative/ :)

I've skipped the Rain exercise though. Frustratingly, I've not been able to get out with the camera when it's rained recently.

So, a quick question for Byker and anyone else that has submitted for formal assessment - did it take you long to get everything together? I think it's getting a bit close for me having to submit things if I want to get in for the November assessment.
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Hey that's a great Assignment, I'm very impressed so well done

TAOP Formal Assessment. On my blog I have posted some advice I have been given. 1 contributor is a tutor and also I believe sits on the assessors panel from time to time:
http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/taop-formal-assessment-preparation-and.html

I'm already to post it now and will do so this weekend. I think all in all it took about a day to prepare but it depends on how organised you have been during the course in storing the documents etc
 
AlfyB said:
Thanks Byker. I'll have to have a look at those over the weekend. There are some shots from a few of the previous assignments that I'd like to try redoing so think I have a fair amount of work still to get done.
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You need to leave your original assignment submissions as is but you are encouraged to have adjusted / re-shoot images in response to tutor's feedback.

In my case I made these adjustments and included them in my learning log as part of the tutor feedback posts I made. In my submission I've made reference to these so the assessors can see what I've done and judge accordingly I guess

Be aware that you don't need to submit prints for TAOP. I've chosen to submit as a document with DVD but I guess its how you feel best suits your submission
 
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I submitted prints as my first tutor asked for them. There is a certain thing about prints that's better for seeing the image.

Videos about submission are here:
http://www.oca-student.com/resource-type/video?page=2

You'll need to logon to the student site

How's your scrapbook? Mine was digital, but I've never had any good feedback about whether this is good or not.
 
AlfyB said:
Assignment 5 submitted nearly a month ahead of schedule - http://bushtography.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/assignment-5-illustration-and-narrative/ :)

I've skipped the Rain exercise though. Frustratingly, I've not been able to get out with the camera when it's rained recently.

So, a quick question for Byker and anyone else that has submitted for formal assessment - did it take you long to get everything together? I think it's getting a bit close for me having to submit things if I want to get in for the November assessment.
Click to expand...

Really nice assignment Alfy, well impressed.
 
Carol S said:
Really nice assignment Alfy, well impressed.
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Thanks Carole :) No response from my tutor yet though :(

Also, Thanks Byker/Warren for the tips on submission. You've made it sound less work than I expected. Time to go and watch the video and start getting everything together. My scrapbook is limited and unorganised at best which won't help but is my own fault.
 
From my Taop submission overview:

Assessment Submission Overview

Included in the folder are my prints submitted to my tutor for each assignment with the Tutor feedback printed out.

On the memory stick attached are three folders at the top level:

1. Blog entries
My blog is available at: http://www.nineelmsphotography.com/blog with a TAOP menu at the top taking you to the chronological entries. On the right side menu are also selections by date or category allowing quick access to articles.

In the Blog Entries folder on the memory stick, I have created pdf copies of every article entry and put them into sections relating to the course notes.



Items 7 (other photographers) and 8 (uncategorised) were other blog entries I made not specifically related to the course notes.

2. Tutor Feedback
In this folder I’ve included the 5 Assessment feedbacks from my Tutor.
 
3. Scrapbook
I’ve had long discussions with my tutor over my approach to scrapbooking.

I’m a strong supporter of the idea of ‘take only photographs, leave only footprints’ which also feeds into my scrapbooking. I have a photo/car magazines on subscription and do not wish to rip pages out of them, and won’t do this with other magazines as I take them into work for others to share.

For my magazines I will make references to the magazine and page number, for others I will take a photo of the image and make notes on the articles. I find the camera on the iPhone 4s is excellent for this.

Mostly I read articles on websites and forums and make notes/copies of those. My scrapbook is then carried around on either my iPhone (which I always have on me) or my iPad and synched back to my main computer.

I find my iPad useful when shooting multiple ideas as I can quickly flick through my ideas folder and refresh my memory of shots I wish to take.

So in my Scrapbook folder I’ve broken down the images/notes into the 5 parts of the TAOP course and another folder of Misc images that I found interesting or wanted to research more about.

Each folder has images and a text document of notes about the images or interesting articles/websites I have read.
 
Sat the last two days and wrote up my latest assignment. I'm now going through all the photos I shot over the last month as I know I shot some extras for the next exercises. I'm struggling physically the last couple of days having a couple of minor ops. One was near my eye, the other on my back so I'm struggling to use the camera normally. Thank heavens for live view, or even random point and shoot from the hip :D
 
Byker28i said:
Sat the last two days and wrote up my latest assignment. I'm now going through all the photos I shot over the last month as I know I shot some extras for the next exercises. I'm struggling physically the last couple of days having a couple of minor ops. One was near my eye, the other on my back so I'm struggling to use the camera normally. Thank heavens for live view, or even random point and shoot from the hip :D
Click to expand...

Is this still for people and places? How are you finding it?

Hope your feeling fixed up soon!
 
Hello everyone!

I'm Annette and I have also just started the TAOP aiming to do it as a three year course and currently looking(very bewildered) at the three units in front of me (TAOP, photo prct. and people and place). I found this wonderful forum whilst looking for more info on the course and perhaps some valuable guide to how others have progressed so far.

I wasn't wrong and hope I may at sometime soon start contributing myself with daft and inane questions which have probably been asked before.

Most of my "new" learning will be this blogging stuff, seems to me once I have it set up I will be able to get on and start with the units.

Any helpful friendly advice is always appreciated. Especially on how I might timetable my three units? How realistically can you do them in. (currently unemployed so have fulltime allowance at the moment)

Thank you

Annette
 
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Hello Annette and welcome to Talk Photography!

I'm halfway through TAOP now. I'm doing it at a rather slower pace than you, but there are plenty more experienced OCA students on here who should be able to advise on scheduling. As a HE professional (NOT photography :) ) the best I can say is that the guideline is for each credit to be worth roughly 10 hours or work, so e.g. TAOP is supposed to take around 400 hours (as a rough approximation, obviously).

Have you come across the OCA blog how-to yet? It's at http://ocalearninglogsample.wordpress.com/ and contains detailed instructions. I followed it to get my blog up and running fairly quickly (it helps that the example used in the guide is TAOP!), and then tweaked things to taste as I went along.

Good luck and have fun!
 
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Thanks Alet?,

I have actually signed up to Blogger as I found it easier and don't have a limitless supply of funds to make it look as good as i would like.

I am allowing at least 10 hrs per week per subject so that gives me a total of 30hrs plus I guss reading and blogging. I am going to get my head round submission dates and timescales for those tomorrow.

I am very much looking forward to just being able to get on with this sometime very soon.

Cheers
Annette
 
Well that is my assignment five sent off to my tutor (y)

Hopefully by doing something a little different to what i normally do, he may be happy....lol

Going for formal assessment in March, so gives me time to sort bits out. Hoping that work will fund next bit as part of development (fingers crossed), just not sure which one to do.

Any suggestions.
 
Hi Annette and welcome to the forum.

I'm aiming to finish part three (out of five) for TAOP at the end of October - it will have taken me then 10 months from starting, but then again I work full time so photography has to fit in around work and life. I've found that I spend around 15+ hours a week on the course but as I am sure that other more advanced people will say, the more you put in the more you get out. And it is very easy to get sidetracked on reading, visiting exhibitions etc which are all part (and an essential part in my view) of the course.

Anyway, you'll find that we are a really friendly bunch on here. Have a scoot around people's blogs too to get an idea of what the course is all about.

Most importantly, enjoy!
 
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welcome Annette

I wonder how hard it would be to do 3 separate courses at the same time. It might be worth concentrating on one at a time, especially as most exercises follow each other so shooting opportunities are similar.

Do read the course notes and plan ahead. Sometimes you just spot something that can be used for a future exercise.
 
I use blogger, a but limited compared to Wordpress but it can be all you need. I recommend that you regularly back-up your blog as you would any other file

After TAOP - I chose DPP and then plan to do P & P. I think many people doing these subjects do it in this order

Doing 3 courses alongside each other - WOW! Good luck with that. 2 alongside each other seems pretty tough. Personally I would speak to your tutors for suggestion of how to do this as it could be challenging. As Byker says planning the exercise out in advance is key I would think
 
Yup the rough workflow is
planning (reading, getting ideas, thinking about locations)
shooting,
checking,
shooting some more because it didn't quite meet the criteria or your expectations
writing up the blog entry​

for Assignments add in a couple of rewrites on the blog as well :)

I use Adobe Lightroom, the cataloguing is great and easy to sort Subjects/exercises so I can instantly refer/find/reference/use images.

Blogging I use Wordpress on my own website hosting (£20 a year). Really easy to use product and very versatile.
 
Cheers, not too bad, eye mostly healed up, back is still a little sore and pulling but I spent a few hours in bath today taking some street images ok.
 
Not bad results
152735754.jpg

152735951.jpg
 
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Hi again everyone,

and thanks for the advice given by different points of view! It really does seem to depend on personal situations.

Biker28i & FF, you are quite right I would be unable to concentrate on three parallel courses(doh!). So I am starting with TAOP, followed by DPP and P&P as FrattonFreak has suggested most people do.

I am going to see how the first part goes before taking on two side by side, I think I may well end up doing one after another as most folk seem to do. It does take a bit to get your head round submission dates and assessments, especially as when I first posted I did not have idea of how involved the courses are(not having skim read any details). Now I have, it has become much clearer. Obviously I was getting ahead of myself there!

I appreciate all the sound advice so far many thanks
Annette
p.s. Carol S is there a blogs link page?
 
This one was from Feb 2013 - I'll try and run through the posts since and add

If I've missed anyone, please quote and add the to the list:



Byker28i: http://www.nineelmsphotography.com/blog/
HeWhoKnows: http://mattgilesphotography.blogspot.com/
DubCat: http://ocalog.blogspot.com/
BenJ: http://benclist.co.uk/oca/
Muz: http://futurephotoltd.blogspot.com/
LucyB: http://lucyslearninglog.wordpress.com
AlfyB: http://bushtography.wordpress.com
Essexash: http://www.ashleycottle.co.uk/MyBlog
NurseLou: http://louisephotoart.blogspot.co.uk/
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
Alet: http://alettaop.wordpress.com
ScubaSuzy: http://theartofphotographybysuzy.wordpress.com/


the OCA blog how-to yet? It's at http://ocalearninglogsample.wordpress.com/ and contains detailed instructions.
 
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Hi Biker28i,

Thanks for that and just for the record my blog is here

Polum2 : http://annettejohnsonphotography.wordpress.com/

I have just finished two excercises today from the introduction I am just going to "sleep" on them so to speak before putting them up with attached pics.

Any feedback and comments are always gratefully recieved good or not so good!

Cheers

Annette
 
Well I got my tuition fee loan through (which I expected to be refused!) , passed my details on to OCA, so now just waiting for my TAoP course materials. Really looking forward to it. I've done a few OU courses over the last 10 years or so ( I'm part way into an Environmental Studies degree) but haven't done any studying for a couple of years now as the OU prices rocketed to £2.5k per year, which was beyond what I thought was justifiable for an 'interest'. Ive missed studying and thought I was going to be priced out of any more higher education but this OCA course seems to be a great balance of quality and price. Plus it does look really interesting. The contributors on this forum have really helped convince me that it will be money well spent! I look forward to sharing my experiences on here and of course picking the brains of those further along the road.
(Annette, I finally replied to your message!)
Cheers
Chris
 
Update:



Byker28i: http://www.nineelmsphotography.com/blog/
HeWhoKnows: http://mattgilesphotography.blogspot.com/
DubCat: http://ocalog.blogspot.com/
BenJ: http://benclist.co.uk/oca/
Muz: http://futurephotoltd.blogspot.com/
LucyB: http://lucyslearninglog.wordpress.com
AlfyB: http://bushtography.wordpress.com
Essexash: http://www.ashleycottle.co.uk/MyBlog
NurseLou: http://louisephotoart.blogspot.co.uk/
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
Alet: http://alettaop.wordpress.com
ScubaSuzy: http://theartofphotographybysuzy.wordpress.com/
Polum2 : http://annettejohnsonphotography.wordpress.com/
Robsea: http://robsea.wordpress.com/

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