OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion - Part 2

Im just coming to the end of TAOP now, 1 more assignment to do and tbh im struggling to find an interesting module to do next!

The video/film module doesnt interest me in the slightest as im in this for the photography

People and Place - the thought of sticking a camera in peoples faces out on the street sends cold shivers down my spine, although i do studio shoots so any aspect of that would be interesting

Digital Workflow and Practice - well that's just how to arrange your post production, something that i've been doing for donkeys years so i don't really want to blow £750 on that.

I'm just at a bit of a loss as there seems to be very little of interest at level 1. I will probably do the Art History module next, so long as it doesn't involve drawing and then try and APL over the DWP module.

Without having access to the course module's i dont really know whats involved in them apart from the few brief lines of description on the OCA site.

To anyone who has done People and Place, how much "street" work was involved?
 
essexash said:
Im just coming to the end of TAOP now, 1 more assignment to do and tbh im struggling to find an interesting module to do next! The video/film module doesnt interest me in the slightest as im in this for the photography People and Place - the thought of sticking a camera in peoples faces out on the street sends cold shivers down my spine, although i do studio shoots so any aspect of that would be interesting Digital Workflow and Practice - well that's just how to arrange your post production, something that i've been doing for donkeys years so i don't really want to blow £750 on that. I'm just at a bit of a loss as there seems to be very little of interest at level 1. I will probably do the Art History module next, so long as it doesn't involve drawing and then try and APL over the DWP module. Without having access to the course module's i dont really know whats involved in them apart from the few brief lines of description on the OCA site. To anyone who has done People and Place, how much "street" work was involved?
Click to expand...

There is a video with Michael Freeman on you tube that talks about progression through the level 1 modules. He says they were intended to be followed in sequence. Might be worth a look.

I'm having a similar dilemma. I'm pretty sure I won't go to the end of the degree now because I'm just not interested in writing the essays at the end. However, I got so much out of TAOP that I'm currently thinking I will do DPP, just not made my mind up.

To get the syllabus, you could have a look through Bykers blog.
 
I was going to say, take a look through mine or other students blogs. Easy to find with a google search Oca then course title
 
Morning all!

I'm just wrapping up my Colour assignment for TAOP and have a technical question. The brief says we have to make a sketch for each image to show balance and movement, but I have no idea what program to use for this. So all suggestions appreciated. I'm a Mac user by the way.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Carol
 
I seem to remember just adding a layer in photoshop and moving an arrow around
 
Carol S said:
Morning all!

I'm just wrapping up my Colour assignment for TAOP and have a technical question. The brief says we have to make a sketch for each image to show balance and movement, but I have no idea what program to use for this. So all suggestions appreciated. I'm a Mac user by the way.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Carol
Click to expand...

I opened in MS Paint and added arrows etc from there
 
Just noticed something with Flickr, it seems to be mangling my colours.

heres an example from my last assignment (Light) The greens are totally over saturated. Ive noticed it on a few other landscape shots i did too but this time round it really stood out as it just looks horrid. Anyone else notice this since the flickr "upgrade"

I wanted something to host my images so i can link them on my blog to save web quota, just looks like flickr might not be the one to use anymore :(

Flickr Shot



Same file hosted on my website
Colour.jpg
 
Yup I put my images on pbase and link/load into Wordpress from there. I have a Flickr account but realty only to join the Oca groups.
 
Hi all,
TAOP now underway and I've started a couple of the first projects. Really loving it (except that I've been hungover the last couple of weekends when I'd planned to be out and about!!) Off out now to fluster the rowdy teams of cyclists in Richmond Park by pointing the camera at them! :)
I've set up a website to be the home of my OCA Learning Log if anyone's interested. It's really early days for the webby and I've only put a few bits on there so that it's not just a blank space with the LL on it.
www.chrischadwickphotography.com
Still haven't heard from my tutor yet though. I emailed him a couple of weeks ago, and then a week ago, just to update my profile. Is that normal? I'm not going to hassle him ... maybe he's on holiday?
Thanks again for everyone who has contributed on here so far as it's really helped me get a good idea of what I should be aiming for.
Cheers
Chris
 
Last edited:
Rubidium86 said:
Hi all,
TAOP now underway and I've started a couple of the first projects. Really loving it (except that I've been hungover the last couple of weekends when I'd planned to be out and about!!) Off out now to fluster the rowdy teams of cyclists in Richmond Park by pointing the camera at them! :)
I've set up a website to be the home of my OCA Learning Log if anyone's interested. It's really early days for the webby and I've only put a few bits on there so that it's not just a blank space with the LL on it.
www.chrischadwickphotography.com
Still haven't heard from my tutor yet though. I emailed him a couple of weeks ago, and then a week ago, just to update my profile. Is that normal? I'm not going to hassle him ... maybe he's on holiday?
Thanks again for everyone who has contributed on here so far as it's really helped me get a good idea of what I should be aiming for.
Cheers
Chris
Click to expand...

Hi, good luck with the course I have just completed it and sent the work in for final assesment.

Your website is already looking really good with some excellent images.

Have you heard from your tutor at all? I was caught out a little recently because I started people and place and e-mailed my profile to my tutor but the OCA had supplied me with her old e-mail address and apparently now they all have the new oca e-mail addresses. I would check with the OCA the contact details they have given you are correct.
 
TurboFan said:
Hi, good luck with the course I have just completed it and sent the work in for final assesment.

Your website is already looking really good with some excellent images.

Have you heard from your tutor at all? I was caught out a little recently because I started people and place and e-mailed my profile to my tutor but the OCA had supplied me with her old e-mail address and apparently now they all have the new oca e-mail addresses. I would check with the OCA the contact details they have given you are correct.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments Kieron - very kind of you! And thanks for the tip about email addresses. No I haven't heard from him at all yet. I'm not sure what mail address I'm sending it to as it just has my tutors name and '-tutor' after it - I can't actually see what the email address is. I'll leave it for a few more days and then maybe give him a call. Incidentally, did you find that your tutor would give you feedback on all your work (such as the early projects) or just when you sent assignments in?
Best of luck with the assessment by the way!
Cheers
Chris
 
Depends on the tutor Chris. My Taop one was brilliant, quick feedback and some really good support and hints. My current one is similar.
Mostly you get feedback on assignment submission but you can always contact them if you need help, suggestions, etc
 
My tutor made it quite clear early on that he could only give his full attention to my blog at assignment time, which at first i thought was wrong but since realise its the only way the OCA could keep the course cost down. He would however always be on hand to answer any quieries i had.
 
Byker28i said:
Depends on the tutor Chris. My Taop one was brilliant, quick feedback and some really good support and hints. My current one is similar.
Mostly you get feedback on assignment submission but you can always contact them if you need help, suggestions, etc
Click to expand...

Thanks Byker. I guess it takes a little bit of time to get the relationship up and running. I'm happy to crack on with things until then. There's a study group visit in London later this month that my tutor is hosting so I'm hoping to go to that.
All the best.
 
Last edited:
TurboFan said:
My tutor made it quite clear early on that he could only give his full attention to my blog at assignment time, which at first i thought was wrong but since realise its the only way the OCA could keep the course cost down. He would however always be on hand to answer any quieries i had.
Click to expand...

Thanks for he reply Kieron. Yes, that's understandable I suppose. By the way, love your aircraft light trail pics. Never thought of that one!
 
Rubidium86 said:
Thanks Byker. I guess it takes a little bit of time to get the relationship up and running. I'm happy to crack on with things until then. There's a study group visit in London later this month that my tutor is hosting so I'm hoping to go to that.
All the best.
Click to expand...
You got Keith Roberts? I've met him - seems quite good, very approachable
 
Yes, Keith Roberts is/will be my tutor! :)
Glad you've given him a good review and not 'awful man, harsh marking, never gets back to you'!
 
Last edited:
Hi all,

Been a while as have taken some time to reflect on the last year. I have had my final feedback off my tutor and his main point to note is that i need to make my mind up more :)

I decided to use the boat weekend at St Katharines dock, as it is well out of my comfort zone and something different, I went with an open mind (meaning i had no idea what i was going to do....lol) and see where it went from there. The images aren't the issue, it is that by doing close ups of certain bits of the boats and also more generic ones, I haven't focused on a single area (my theory was to give the reader an overall feeling of the place).

It will be a few months until I start the next part, mainly due to finds and also I have a half Ironman to train for in June, and i know with everything else, something will suffer, this time will allow me to learn how to use PP more, as i am severely lacking in knowledge with it.
 
Hi Carol, I've had a look at your website and I'm really impressed by your coursework - it's certainly something to aspire to. I'm just at the start of TAOP and seeing what you've done really helps me inspirationally and technically.
Cheers
Chris
 
Hi Chris, you are too kind - I've never been called an inspiration before ... (blushing). However, having looked at the images on your website I think that maybe it is me who should be doing the aspiring. I'm really enjoying the coursework - it does take time and sometimes I do struggle to fit it all in with a full-time job and a social life! Simply to reiterate what others have said on this thread though; you get out of this course what you put in. Good luck with TAOP (not that I think you will need any luck!) and - more importantly - enjoy.

Carol
 
Well the November Assessment results are out for me for TAOP and I got.....

a rather disappointing 54% :( I think that must equate to a must try harder. I've no idea how this works out in terms of a pass, it is one I hope even if its a just! I hope the others here who submitted for the November Assessment did better
 
FrattonFreak said:
Well the November Assessment results are out for me for TAOP and I got.....

a rather disappointing 54% :( I think that must equate to a must try harder. I've no idea how this works out in terms of a pass, it is one I hope even if its a just! I hope the others here who submitted for the November Assessment did better
Click to expand...
I think in degree terms, 54% is alright. It's a mid 2:2. Remember that top marks, a 1st, are 70% which you're not that far from.
 
Thanks Ian. I was worried as this module is likely the easier of the 7 I'm going to do. I think I'll need to accelerate my learning faster than the increasing difficulty of the modules :D

Yesterday I also submitted DPP Assignment 1: http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/dpp-assignment-1-workflow.html

I sent an email to my tutor advising I was disappointed with my TAOP result and mentioned I feel I need to up my game somehow and he said he will reflect this in my assessment which is good. Hopefully this means I will get pushed a bit harder
 
Last edited:
Anyone else frustrated with the new student site? I've been unable to access anything for a week or so, raised it with the office and I've a letter through with a new account and new email for my tutor. I still cant get on though. Capitals, lowercase, numbers and punctuation - time to wait for another password reset...
 
I find it strange that the OCA students forum have supposedly been consulted about all this by the ICA yet don't appear to have actually canvassed students for their views. Its in a bit chaos at the moment.

I'm OK logging in and aconversing with my tutor but its yet another email account and password to manage
 
Yes I don't really get on with the new site either. I asked them to reset my password a while ago after the first one just wouldn't work. Earlier this week i received a letter with a different password - not the current one and not the original one either iirc - but the current password works. Its pretty confusing and worrying.
 
finally got in - had my password reset. bit of a pain I now have another google account
 
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.
Click to expand...

Byker, did you turn the blog entries into PDF's from your blog or just from the word document? I am in the process of sorting my stuff out for the formal assessment.

Funnily, i remembered that my first posts were turned into PDF's from Wordpress, but can't remember how to do it (doing my head in at the moment, if anyone can help, then feel free to shout up)
 
Last edited:
Me again. I have started converting the blog pages into PDF's, but what i have noticed is that in some images they are chopped on the pages of the PDF. Not ideal for submitting I would have thought, are there any ways round this?
 
Reidy36 said:
Byker, did you turn the blog entries into PDF's from your blog or just from the word document? I am in the process of sorting my stuff out for the formal assessment.I
Funnily, i remembered that my first posts were turned into PDF's from Wordpress, but can't remember how to do it (doing my head in at the moment, if anyone can help, then feel free to shout up)
Click to expand...

Yup I did. There's a post somewhere on this thread where I said what I use, it's a website that builds each page into a PDF which you save. I tried all sorts but found this the best way

I'll check on my pc tomorrow, currently away from it.
 
essexash said:
you can print to a pdf using most browsers.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that.

The issue is that some of the images are being cut where the PDF puts a page break from the blog page. If anybody knows how to sort this, then please shout up
 
Just looked through a lot of mine and none have split the image. Could you insert a page break into your page before the offending image. I wonder if acrobat pro would work? I've a serial for version 7 but I think adobe have removed old versions from its website now.
 
Apparently you can't do page breaks in a PDF. Looks like i might have to add the images to the original word docs and then save those as a PDF. I really wanted the background from my blog, but can add a background according to adobe.

How come yours never split the image Byker?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top