OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion Including Assignments and Submissions

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I'm intending to sign up for the TAOP within the next few days too. I'm very excited, although slightly nervous about finding the time for study again.

Reading the OCA website, it seems that there are two strands to chose from, 'personal development', which isn't assessed and 'university level', which is assessed.

I'd like the challenge of the University level strand (even if I'm just doing the course out of personal interest), but I'm not sure whether I'm good enough yet.

What have people here chosen? It would be really useful to see the learning logs from people on the different strands, to get an idea of the standards expected.
 
lucyb said:
I'm intending to sign up for the TAOP within the next few days too. I'm very excited, although slightly nervous about finding the time for study again.

Reading the OCA website, it seems that there are two strands to chose from, 'personal development', which isn't assessed and 'university level', which is assessed.

I'd like the challenge of the University level strand (even if I'm just doing the course out of personal interest), but I'm not sure whether I'm good enough yet.

What have people here chosen? It would be really useful to see the learning logs from people on the different strands, to get an idea of the standards expected.
Click to expand...

Hi, I have signed up for and i am hoping to complete the full degree, as far as I am aware, everyone does the same course content, but you just decide whether you want to be assessed or not, my feeling would be to have the assessment even if you are just doing for pleasure as it gives you something to look back at, and go I did this ( obviously putting everything into practice that you have learnt throughout the course as well) :) hope that helps x
 
Hi Lucy

As above there's not two different courses or strands, at the end of the module you can decide to put your work in for formal assessment. 3 level 4 modules gives you a HNC, add thwe level 5 modules to get an HND and the final level 6 and you get the degree.
 
Okay, thanks guys, that's useful clarification. The website fine-print covers all courses, so it's good to hear from people who've already signed-up. Aiming for a formal assessment certainly makes sense.
 
Just had this:

The OCA Student website (www.oca-student.com) and We Are OCA (www.weareoca.com) will be taken offline this Wednesday 16th May from 10PM GMT until the morning of Thursday 17th May for essential maintenance and general improvements.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this downtime and thank you for your patience.


Nothing about the previous downtime.
 
Hi Everyone, I am also on TAOP (sorry have been a lurker on this thread up till now) and was wondering if you are meant to include the full tutor feedback on your learning log? I am assuming so as well as including the changes you make after their feedback?
Also with blogger, I am guessing if I do need to include all feedback I am just going to have to copy and paste the lot on onto a new post rather than have a pdf link in a post (I thought I could do this on blogger but after searching I guess i am wrong?) The course is going well but never having used it before it seems to be blogger thats frustrating/confusing me!
 
I've not included my full tutor feedback but I have in places made references to items/ suggestions in the feedback. Looking at other students work doesn't appear they have either.
And welcome.
 
Many thanks, I was thinking the same after looking through other logs so will do that too on mine, although there are some with no reference to the feedback at all but I thought surely when it comes to assessment they will need to see it as well as evidence of you making alterations to feedback you have been given. (although thinking about it I suppose maybe they send theirs on hard copies rather than using the online log for assessment)
 
My course notes are being sent out tomorrow. I can't wait :)

Shutterbug, do you have a link to your blog? I've been reading through other student's blogs too and I've found the quality and approach varies quite a lot. It makes sense to refer back to your tutor's feedback in your learning log, but I guess it depends on whether the student is using a paper notebook or online blog, etc, as their primary learning log for final submission.
 
When you go for formal assessment you have to send in the tutors feedback as well as everything else. They then look through I guess to see if you made corrections etc. I'm just going through all my taop stuff again before I submit it at the end of the month.
I'm slightly worried as I have a digital scrapbook, nothing physical.
 
do they have set term times or can you enrol and start a module at any point in the year.

Im not too worried about doing a full degree but there are 2 or 3 modules there that interest me but i couldnt afford them all right now. I just dont want to have to wait a whole year before signing up to another one but obviously want to get one started now to avoid the price hike!
 
No you can start anytime you want. Now is a great time with the good weather coming
 
Right, signed up to the art of photography one, will see how i do with that for a few months then might add another one. Cant wait now :)
 
Hi, I am just starting TAOP, and I am planning on doing the degree, I am have applied for student finance, so I will have 6 yrs to complete, is anyone else out there done or doing this! :)
 
No I wasn't eligible, nor could I get any payment through work, but it might be worth asking your employer if they would contribute anything towards the cost.
 
On the plus side, my taop went off for formal assessment yesterday. It took me a couple of days to put it all together but it's done.
 
i got to admit, im a little worried about how good my tutor is going to be. His reply to my inital email / profile just seemed to be a cut and paste reply, a friend at work also has the same tutor so we are going to compare replies. He doesnt mention the OCA anywhere on his website and his name isnt on the list of tutors on the OCA's site.

Is it easy to change tutors if required? I thought id give him the first part of the first module to see what he's like and then go from there. . Just a bad first impression i guess.
 
I think it's probably a bit too early to judge your tutor. I'm having a Skype chat with my tutor tomorrow evening and I think that will give me a much better idea of what he's like and what to expect. So far though, I like his work and I like that he's also based up in the North-West :)

There's a whole load of information about changing tutors in the student handbook and on the OCA website though. It seems quite straightforward.

I set up my learning log over the weekend. it's http://lucyslearninglog.wordpress.com. Anyone else got a blog to share?
 
My last tutor was John Todd, fantastic tutor. Prompt detailed feedback with excellent suggestions of additional resources/ideas/directions.

Hard to say much about my new tutor. It took me three attempts to contact him via skype/phone and a week for him to respond. I submitted my first assignment having kept him informed of dates and he then announced that he was away for three weeks and I've not heard anything since, so contact has been minimal.

However, I've learnt lots from TAOP so am carrying that forward into DPP.
 
im taking the degree and got sf.i have nearly finished toap module.
 
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Hi Lucy,

Interesting to see the new introduction talks about monitor calibration. I didn't have that but calibrated my monitor after my first submission as my prints didn't look quite right.
 
Byker28i said:
Hi Lucy,

Interesting to see the new introduction talks about monitor calibration. I didn't have that but calibrated my monitor after my first submission as my prints didn't look quite right.
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Yep. It's only a brief paragraph, but as you note, it's worth doing. Unfortunately, with mine, it's more a matter of finding the least bad setting :(

Hmm. I've not tried printing anything yet. That will be interesting.
 
Byker28i said:
On the plus side, my taop went off for formal assessment yesterday. It took me a couple of days to put it all together but it's done.
Click to expand...

Any tips / ideas on assignment submission etc for those not there yet? You have your assignment submission son your blog for us to look at?

Not sure who you use for your printing but I've asked for a calibration and sample pack from imaging@peak-professional.com whom OCA have apparently negotiated a printing discount for OCA students (10% I believe)
 
Im just looking through the exercises in part 1 of TAOP and theres a lot of mentions of getting printouts. How important is that at this stage? Frankly im trying to get through these inital steps so i can get my teeth stuck into the course proper. I dont really want to go and get prints done for what are pretty basic concepts. For the learning log , since its all electronic , surely we dont need to bother with printed copies?

The rest of the module after part one looks pretty interesting though. Really looking forward to working through it.
 
FrattonFreak said:
Any tips / ideas on assignment submission etc for those not there yet? You have your assignment submission son your blog for us to look at?

Not sure who you use for your printing but I've asked for a calibration and sample pack from imaging@peak-professional.com whom OCA have apparently negotiated a printing discount for OCA students (10% I believe)
Click to expand...


I bought a Spyder, check calibration before every assignment.

As for formal assessment, there's a couple of videos on the OCA student site about assessment and what they expect which is worth watching. I sent a portfolio box with all my prints and tutor feedback printed out, then a covering letter with a USB stick attached.

On the USB stick was every blog entry on PDF, arranged in order and sectioned off as per the notes, copies of my tutor notes and my scrapbook (images and text notes - I kept everything digital rather than physical).
 
essexash said:
Im just looking through the exercises in part 1 of TAOP and theres a lot of mentions of getting printouts. How important is that at this stage? Frankly im trying to get through these inital steps so i can get my teeth stuck into the course proper. I dont really want to go and get prints done for what are pretty basic concepts. For the learning log , since its all electronic , surely we dont need to bother with printed copies?

The rest of the module after part one looks pretty interesting though. Really looking forward to working through it.
Click to expand...

Not sure what's in the new course notes. I only provided prints for each assignment.
 
Byker28i said:
From post 296 so good to update it:

I'm not on Flickr but a lot of students are: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ocarts/

Going through the thread for Blogs:
Mine is: 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/
ucyB: http://lucyslearninglog.wordpress.com
Click to expand...

Just adding mine to the list :D

http://bushtography.wordpress.com

I'm starting to gather shots together for the first assignment which is taking much longer than the exercises.
 
essexash said:
Im just looking through the exercises in part 1 of TAOP and theres a lot of mentions of getting printouts. How important is that at this stage? Frankly im trying to get through these inital steps so i can get my teeth stuck into the course proper. I dont really want to go and get prints done for what are pretty basic concepts. For the learning log , since its all electronic , surely we dont need to bother with printed copies?

The rest of the module after part one looks pretty interesting though. Really looking forward to working through it.
Click to expand...

I suspect these "prints" are requirments from the excercises are they? In that case just paper prints are OK as they are part of the excercises for you to perform.

The formal prints will be directly linked / request as part of each assignment. In these cases I suppose (unless your print your own) you'd want to select a photograph printers, get them to send a calibration print and calibrate your monitor to the print. That way you should be able to tie match in ypur monitor colour display with your selected printers prints
 
I'm using ds colour labs now for my prints as photo box just were wrong too many times, too dark, cropped prints when I had a border. Also they do pearl metallic prints. Pricey but for certain prints (such as my car prints) they are just gorgeous.
 
First assignment for TAOP sent off and I have had feedback already (surprising with the jubilee weekend!), positive and constructive comments and my tutor is happy with what I have produced, though I will take those comments and make slight alterations to my assignment.

First and foremost comment from my tutor, which I have to agree to, is that I'm too enthusiastic converting everything into black and white :LOL:

Looking forward to cracking on with the next load of exercises and next assignment :)
 
Excellent well done. No need to resubmit, just blog an entry into a rough overview of the comments and the results of what you changed. You just have to show you've taken notice of the tutors comments.
 
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I've spent a long time today reading this thread and am very grateful for its existence and the frank and open comments. It helped me to make up my mind.

I was looking for a follow on from the Foundation in Photography I just completed via the SPI ... and have signed up for the OCA a few moments ago.

Some of it will repeat the early stages of the Foundation in Photography particularly framing, shutter speed and aperture. But that's fine because learning always continues and there's nothing wrong with repeating things for a while in the knowledge that it will quite quickly move forward.

So ... this is it ... new learning and who knows - I would love to get to the degree stage but that's a long way off and life has many twists and turns before then!!!
 
Welcome to the course. Hopefully we'll all help each other along.
Currently in Rome on the app so replies will be short.

I thought I would know everything on taop, but actually learnt quite a lot you take for granted and just don't think about.
Same goes for dpp. I thought it would be an easy module but the first part forces you to think about your workflow and effectively justify or improve it. It's actually all really interesting and not easy at all at times. Makes you think.
Cheers. Looking forward to seeing your work. If you fancy adding your learning log to the list post it on here.
 
Thank you! I think you're right ... really, there's always more to learn.

I've received my confirmation emails today and have logged into the student area. My course materials will be sent out tomorrow so I should receive them in 3 days ... with the weekend I guess that will be Monday.


Lots to think about ...!!
 
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Hi everyone, I had been thinking about TAOP for quite a while finally signed up last week. My module material arrived yesterday, but not had chance to have a good look through it yet.

Glad I found this thread, as it has given me quite an insight into whats required.

Never thought about a blog before, will attempt to set one up over the weekend and start reading the course material in depth.

Must admit the degree is not my motivation for doing the course, but I need some direction in my life at the moment, also to get my photography back on track as it has been languishing on the side lines for many years.
 
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