OCA STUDENT LED

RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: STUDENT LED HANGOUTS

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OCA Documentary Student led Hangouts 18.2.21- 1.4.21

1.4.21

I was able to share my first draft with the group. I have written this up in my learning log but here is an extract:

I asked the group:

Should I give more context, perhaps in the title?  but was told to keep the ambiguity.

Whether they could see my voice and what they thought my message was?

  • Some did realise that I was taking a tongue in cheek position and that the visuals are opposed to the text.
  • The fact that one peer asked me where I sat in the whole thing told me it wasn’t clear enough.
  • Some thought the message was about spreading corona virus, holiday homes
  • So I realised that my message wasn’t clear, nor was my voice.
  • No one had realised that I had put the subjective Facebook comments on a grey background and facts on white background.

We discussed what I wanted to convey and how I could adjust to achieve this and to ensure the visuals come through. There were suggestions to:

  • Reduce the text
  • Separate the text in some places from the visuals
  • Put the facebook comments on ticker tape under the images
  • Present some facts without visuals on a text only page.

Afterwards I thought more about how to make it clear what my position is:

  • I need to really think about where I am in the story.
  • Let my voice speak in the visuals.
  • Make sure the work is really tongue in cheek.

18.3.21

Much general discussion and sharing of resources, events, talks and books.  

We also spent time discussing the pros of printing from lightroom and various paper that people prefer.

4.3.21

We spent a long time discussing printing. The useful part of this for me was that I will soon be changing my PC and getting a monitor. I made some useful notes on suggestions for good photographic monitors and have since researched. Currrently I have noted I should get a Eizo 24” at just over £500 recommended by Bob our resident group technical guru, though others are happy with their BenQ monitors.

Judy Bach joined us for the first time, she is close to the end of level 3.

I discussed my plans for my assignment 5 presentation, and asked the group if they thought I could use just 4 images appearing 4 to 5 times with varying text to show layers of truth. I can to the conclusion that I will need to use 4-5 images maybe for times to cover my themes which will give the required 15 images for the brief.

18.2.21

Many of our documentary group are now working on level 3. Much of our discussion this session was around level 3 work. This does give me some insight into level 3 which is approaching for me later this year.

We also gave peer feedback to Jonathan on his Documentary assignment 3.

Link to my OCA regional student meetings: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/thames-valley-oca-meetings/

Link to my other Student led hangouts: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/oca-student-led/

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/2021/04/08/research-and-reflection-reading-on-research/

REFLECTION AND RESEARCH: STUDENT LED HANGOUT

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OCA Documentary hangouts

4.2.21

We peer reviewed Neil’s assignment 5 work, bird hides in Scotland, in particular the colour treatment of them; its always good to hear other’s views. We often share work between meetings online so it has become a very supportive group.

I shared some initial thoughts about my assignment 5. I am considering using text that I’ve collected over the past year from social media and the press, mainly about the tensions between locals and tourists. I shared that I thought I would juxtaposition the text against local images that don’t support text. His idea was received positively. I then asked for ideas how I could present the work as a book was the obvious choice to me, but I was wary of presenting it as a book because assignment 3 had been a book. There were ideas that I could do it as a slide show with either text or audio overlaying it. Using power point and sound files was suggested as better than doing in lightroom, apparently each slide can have its own audio (soundbites). I always find the group useful for technical support.

7.1.21

We peer reviewed Bob’s project for assignment 5. It was useful to hear how he’d mocked up a whole gallery to show his work in virtually using photoshop and a perspective tool.

Then we discussed Jonathan’s work which I just contributed some personal text as a caption to one image, as he’d previously shared it at the a Thames Valley OCA meeting. We had a lively discussion about the possible interpretations of one image, which he’s now rethinking.

Some of the documentary students have now moved onto level 3 and we spent quite a bit of time discussing level 3 work and studying; for me looking ahead this is useful.

I’m already thinking ahead to level 3 and what I could base my work on; I’ve not had any significant brainwaves but am getting a flavour of what is required and this might help me.

As I’m working on my critical review no I had no work to share.

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/oca-tutor-led/assessment-drop-in-26-1-21/

REFLECTION AND RESEARCH: OCA DOCUMENTARY STUDENT LED HANGOUTS

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Hangouts 2.7.20 – 8.10.20

I have been involved in this group since I started Documentary, there are usually 6-8 of us in the discussion (1 member is now on level 3) and we have formed quite a close group. 2 more members have now submitted for assignment but we are going to stay as a group and it is already useful having conversations with peers who are working at level 3 as well as peers outside of the UK.

I normally post these sessions on my blog individually but thought I would post them in one chunk here as the form a useful digest of my learning progress whilst working n part 3.

Documentary fact and fiction hangout 2.7.20

We had some useful discussions on:

  • Putting images to music (Jack)
  • Personal voice
  • Blurb books versa lightroom for book making (Bob)
  • The recent Documentary Reconsidered zoom talk which some of us watched

I shared the scars that I’m intending to use for hash tags in assignment 2, they were found to be very lifelike which is good.

Documentary fact and fiction hangout 13.8.20

Bob shared his assignment 3 work based around his cat with dementia and we gave him feedback.

We spent much time discussing digital assessment. Jack particularly enjoyed curating his work for digital assessment and has subsequently built his own website (using Ben Smith from Small Voice podcasts). However Bob feels that printing your photographs is central to putting yourself into your work and its disappointing that we aren’t able to submit prints.

I should stay open to different approaches to exhibiting and curating work, especial for level 3.

I shared some initial thoughts that I’ve had on my assignment 3 work.

OCA Documentary photography hangout 24.9.20

I was booked on this hangout but my mother had been taken badly ill and consequently I’d not re-edited a series to show since my Thame Valley Meeting the previous week, so I was intending to just say hello and apologise and leave the hangout. In the event I stayed for the hangout, when I explained my position everyone was really supportive.

I had also just picked up the message from the OCA that my Tutor is no longer available, so I was in a bit of a spin, with that and all sorts of circumstances conspiring against me.

I talked about my intentions to return to photographing the carpark to exploit its mundaness, with the story being how it transitions from quiet, to busy, to quiet. Through this ideas came up such as places in vacuum (Jack Latham was suggested ) and those with no context and transience.

We also talked about possible text to put with the images, in particular incidents in carparks and what I’d been overhearing.

I’m going to follow up on a couple of works suggested: Jack Latham “Parilment of Owls” and Jan Svobada.

I’m also going to email to ask for  a Tutor to submit to, and to contact Dan Robinson to ask for breathing space in view of circumstances should I need it.

OCA Documentary photography hangout 8.10.20

We talked a lot about level 3 work and one note I have made is possibly to link my assignment 5 to something that will share the work, like Instagram or even the village telegraph pole.

It was useful to talk about bookmaking; we discussed flipbooks, blurb books, and books made in lightroom, some feel the later are better quality than the pdf produced in draft for blurb.

I also reminded myself to look out the learning objectives and refer to these rather than the assessment criteria.

Since the last hangout I had returned to Pembrokeshire and had been able to photograph again for assignment 3.

Following from the TVG meeting I introduced my reworked draft “Breathe in Breath out”. Since the TVG meeting I’d returned to my original idea of the car park as an entity to showcase the way the area goes from quite to busy to quiet; making the car park not the people my focus. I have also tried to contrast the flatness of the car park in bad weather as a contrast to the vibrancy of the height of the season shots. 

I have also considered how to show that it is only one car park and have done this by including in most images the bus shelter to anchor the location; it now seems that this has become a monitor of the “breath in breathe out”.

Suggestions and questions:

  • Could I begin with the vibrant busy images and work down to the empty quiet images?
  • Do I need to have 10 images as briefs seem to be more flexible?
  • Consider exploiting the lines seen and no lines seen
  • Really focus on absence and presence

Actions following the meeting:

  • Rework again starting with the Kayak image, then review my contact sheets for other images.
  • Text wise I am still considering whether I should use statements from the press about lockdown or the local area a bit like Anna fox did in her Basingstoke work using press statements about the town.

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/research/a3-research/additional-research/

THAMES VALLEY OCA MEETING

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OCA Thames Valley Meeting Student led 20.6.20

Padlet for the meeting: https://oca.padlet.org/jonathan515050/g2qa3q12tfzkr97g

This was a virtual meeting. There were 6 of us at this meeting and 5 of us shared our work and personal projects. 

  1. Digital image and culture: one member is working on Identity and layers of digital information; what people can see, what someone lets others know, and what is available about them that they are not aware of. We discussed various ways of representing the information that there is on us.
  2. A personal project that may be used later for digital image and culture. This is analogue work as she is interested in negatives as she feels they are neglected. She has been experimenting with crafting the sprocket holes of negatives. I commented that I prefer her curled images of negatives to her folded negatives; we discussed the impact on our senses and the aesthetics of negatives that are whole, curled, flat, folded or cut. This led to a discussion on box brownies and available film which made me think about using the old cameras that I have at some stage and using analogue film.
  3. Another is just starting assignment 2 documentary. Her concept is isolation/solitude. Whilst looking at her images I was most interested in the visual interpretations people were making of her images and the discussion that ensued about what this might say about her feelings about her concept.
  4. One shared a book cover he had created, and we talked about text and layout.
  5. I shared my developing work for assignment 2 Documentary which I have moved on quite a bit since my documentary hangout 2 days ago: I cut the 8 images to 6 and placed 2 scars as punctuation between the images:

I asked for comments on the choice of images, including my rejects as well as thoughts about the inclusion of scars.

Again the images were said to be strong, especially the “Hollywood bowl”, it was suggested that I include the Aquadrome and the fairground image if I moved back to 8 images – This met with my thoughts and conformed that I was right to drop the “closed”café and pub garden.  There was an observation that the vertical and horizontal lines are especially dominant, and I think I should look to enhance this.

Following the discussions, I am going to continue with 8 images but experiment punctuating them with smaller images of scars either body scars or physical ones on the landscape) possibly these in black and white. Whatever I produce I will explain on my blog that I would present this as a book and possibly simulate it or present it as a slideshow to show case this. I also need to do some written research on economic scarring. 

I have a way forward!                

NEXT POST:     https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/aop-breakfast-club-23-6-20/             

ZOOM OCA: DOCUMENTARY HANGOUT

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Documentary fact and fiction hangout Student led 18.6.20

There were 5 of us at this meeting. We talked again about assessment and learning objectives. We also discussed the new OCA learning portal which I must look at. I was able to share my developing work for assignment 2.

I sent 8 images of my work to the shared google drive for discussion:

  • It was thought the strongest image is Hollywood bowl.
  • In my rejects the Aquadrome picture was thought to be strong, and the barriers lack of people and cars are enough to show that it is closed.
  • I was reminded that for digital assessment not al of the work is presented so I could if I liked just present I image, in fact it was suggested that I decide now on my top 3 images.
  • As for the scarring, we discussed how might incorporate it, as I talked about it but haven’t done it; by overlaying scars on the images?
  • Yes it might be interesting to see how these images compare to new ones taken when these premises have opened again, if they do.

Overall it has made me think about being very brutal on editing the images and to test out how things look if I incorporate scars into the set. I am still concerned as to whether the work will tick the conceptual box in the brief but I know that I want to present some of these images in some way.

NEXT POST: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/thames-valley-oca-meetings/20-6-20-virtual/

OCA DOCUMENTARY HANGOUT

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Student led Documentary hangout 4.6.20

There were six of us on this hangout and we discussed a variety of topics:

  • Critical reviews: We shared our thoughts about a peer’s essay and discussed word counts.
  • Book making: For assignment 3 we are asked to make a pdf of a book and blurb is suggested; I learnt that this can also be done in lightroom and will check this out.
  • Use of archive images: we reminded ourselves that it is allowable to use our own archive images, which could be very useful at the moment.
  • Truth in photography: we asked ourselves if things are constructed more now because the expectation of audiences have changed. I wonder if this could be a critical review topic?
  • Assessment: Those applying for July assessment shared that it is a good idea to use one document to give links to everything else to help assessors find everything.
  • Learning outcomes: Apparently there are different learning outcomes now to those in the course book – I found the  document “Preparing for digital assessment for photography units” which contains the learning objectives that we should evaluate and evidence against;  I am not currently sure how I mesh these and the assessment criteria I currently evaluate against (doing this will make it easier for me at the end of the course?). I have now watched the session run by Dan RobinsonMay 13th in photography forum: https://discuss.oca-student.com/t/photography-specific-adaptations-to-covid-19/11641/140  
  • Listening to this I learnt that another change is that assignment 1 can be assessed if you wish as can non assignment work, whereas previously assignment 1 wasn’t assessed but was a beginning benchmark.

I was able to share my initial ideas for assignment 2 (Economic scarring) and my peers had some comments and suggestions:

  • I could ask on the forums for images of scars to use
  • I could make scars – construction!
  • Bob suggested I look at a  photographer that displays different images together to create a third message: https://www.zednelson.com/?TearsheetsStories:thumbnails This might be useful for ideas I am currently formulating to use for assignment 3 and 5.
  • Lynda suggested: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/24/industrial-scars-landscapes-of-south-wales-toxic-j-henry-fair . She also suggested that at an “armchair street photography” workshop with Head on Photo festival in Australia and the photographer (Natan Dvir) stated that it is photography as you still have to choose your focus point, line the shot up from a certain angle, choose to zoom in/out, etc. You are taking photographs of a “virtual world”. Other photographers mentioned were Doug Rickard, Jon Rafman, Mishka Henner, Clement Valla. Just a few more options to think about”. This could be useful going forward.
  • It also gave me some food for thought about what I could do for my assignment 5, personal project.

NEXT POST: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/oca-tutor-led/andrea-norrington-17-6-20/

ZOOM OCA: GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHY HANGOUT

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Photography general STUDENT LED VIRTUAL HANGOUT 3.5.20

This forum is student led but was joined by photography tutor Clive White, which is what interested me. Again it was nice to put some names I’ve seen online to faces.

We began with a discussion on personal voice based on this article which I have subsequently viewed: https://99u.adobe.com/articles/51575/the-4-phases-of-developing-your-creative-voice

Behance, Inc (2015) The 4 Phases Of Developing Your Creative Voice. At: https://99u.adobe.com/articles/51575/the-4-phases-of-developing-your-creative-voice (Accessed 10/05/2020).

My notes from reading this:

  • Your voice is the how you’re recognized by others
  • It speaks to your values and the perspective and skill that you bring to the work
  • It is often forged as you follow the inspiration on your influences as well as commit to your intuition
  • Virginia Woolf “Your voice is the confluence of inspiration, dedicate practice, and strategic risk”.

  Stages to finding your voice might be:

Discovery phase: Its when seeds are planted and you are often disappointed with your work, you might have ideas but clear ways forward, so ask yourself:

What new ideas or skills are obsessing me right now?

Who are the practitioners that I can learn from here?

Emulation phase: Think about other’s work to immerse your self in and how to practice the skills I want to improve/learn

Divergence phase: Once you’ve achieved enough mastery then youll want to move on from emulation:

to do this take intuitive steps and bend or break the rules you’ve learned.

Push yourself out of your compfort zone

Crisis phase: 

be careful that you push yourself out of your comfort zone even if it exposes vulnerabilities

refuse to settle for good enough- hone your skills

We then discussed how to stay motivated in these challenging times, Clive said that its important to do work that’s meaningful for you, finding your bliss and follow it – I think that’s what I’m struggling with at the moment!

We also discussed landscape assignment 6, one said it was a waste of time, I disagreed with that and said that I thought it brought a lot of personal growth.

Some with assessment looming asked for ideas on how to show work in a virtual exhibition, there were some suggestions:

We were reminded by Clive that you can have mastery of techniques and/or mastery of voice.

Though I both gave and got something from this group hangout it was less useful/stimulating that the other hangouts/groups that I attend so I wont attend again for a while but the nuggets that I took away I have highlighted.

NEXT POST: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/documentary-hangout-7-5-20/

ZOOM OCA: DOCUMENTARY HANGOUT

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STUDENT LED Hangout 9.4.20

This was my first documentary hangout. I have been used to joining landscape hangouts once a month but it took me until now to cross over to the documentary group; in fact several of the members like myself were still active on the landscape hangout and so we have shared our early thoughts about documentary there.

There were six of us on the hangout tonight and we began by discussing how were are managing our photography during our lock downs; it was bizarre, but comforting, that with one OCA member in Canada and one in Australia as well as us in the UK we are all experiencing the same situation.

We also discussed looking ahead to level 3 with one student who has just finished documentary.

I shared my initial series “Staying safe at home”. My peers generally gave positive feedback on my images.

I asked them the following questions:

  • Which of the eleven photographs should I drop t make the series of ten as the brief required?
  • Which of the two sink/cleaning fluid images should I chose, the one with the straight window sill or the diagonal perspective?
  • Is it okay to have mixture of closed and open windows?
  • Is the narrative clear with the images posted between the glove on the front door and the empty shopping bag at the front door?

The consensus that I was given was that I should remove the paracetamols at a distance on a coffee table and the laptop which is a distance from the window.

The group thought that it is okay to mix the open and closed windows.

All agreed that my narrative is clear.

I shared that I think that some of the images are rather obvious and lack the ambiguity that I have come to like; however after one false start prior to lock down on this assignment, (because of being confined to my house due to Covid19) and having effectively lost about a month’s work, I am now keen to finish assignment 1 and move on. The group didn’t seem to share my concerns and encouraged me to proceed.

This virtual conversation and work sharing has helped me in my editing process to change my series of images slightly.

Next post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/thames-valley-oca-meetings/18-4-20-virtual/