Week 3 already....

By now you should have a very clear idea on what you intend to do. You should have downloaded and printed all the units you have chosen to do and read them thoroughly.
Also you should have done at least one of your two statements of intent in full. The choices that you have made will then need to be researched via the web, books, magazine, youtube videos, etc..etc..of the photographers who work in your chosen areas.

We will look at research and what is required, also you can look in the archive on the main site to gain access to valuable information to help you on this course. Ask me about this and I will show you where and what you need to be looking at.
You should also be starting to label all your blog work so you can self track it all via the labels gadget which we went through the other week, any problems with this please ask me.

Also you need to be starting your photography now to run alongside your research. There is an expectation that you will be working online away from the college at all times to add more content each week. This has to happen often in order that you might want to use the studio for a session, or go out to do some night photography whilst at college for example.

Next step

Can all level 3 students decide which units they want to do, print them out so that you have these with you at all times. When you have these in front of you, can you then start to blog about the research your chosen areas.

Please be aware that you must balance the amount of work that you do equally for both themes.
Can you also add a statement of intent for each of the chosen themes and be prepared to discuss this with me when we get to talk.

There is an expectation that at level 3 you take complete control, ownership and responsibility for the units and photography that you undertake. You need to be proactive in your research and development and experimental in your photography based upon the rich and diverse inspiration you gather from all of your research.

Please make sure that you gather enough images from the research of each photographer and their work, load at least 10 images from each and comment upon them individually or in groups of similar work. Write using critical vocabulary about the value you can add into your own work based upon these influences. This was all covered in the level 2 program.

Last chance saloon

Can everyone make sure that they have all their images with them in the next class, as I will be doing a final collection of all student work for the college wide exhibition.

Some images are for the showreel which will play on all the TV screens in the main reception, the others will be used in a printed and framed exhibition in room CS118.

All printing and framing will be done via the college, so all I need is your high quality PSD files so that I can start to print them. This is a last minute change to space allocation that has become available so I grabbed it for City and Guild students to use.

If not you may have a posse sent after you!!

exhibition images

Can I remind everyone that I need all your images so far so I can select some for the exhibition please. Can you make sure that you have any originals with you along with any you have post produced in photoshop. As I don't want to leave gathering these images to the last minute, if you want to help can you make sure they are converted to jpegs to make my job a little easier as converting loads plus all my other courses work will take me a long time.

TV screens / Gallery of images

In addition to the use of an online website gallery, I have negotiated the use of the TV screens in the main reception to display all of the City and Guilds photography. For this you will need to supply me with a cd of your images or I will gather them from you on a hard drive. There are around 6 TV screens and a large projector screen which may also allow audio to go with the images to add mood, etc..

The website for the online gallery will soon be started, and again I will require images, from both of these ways of displaying your work I can use any images you want to give me, not just your final images. Also photographs from previous city and guild courses can be included along with any personal work you may have produced.

I will need all the images as soon as you can give them to me, no later than the 15th June as the exhibition opens on the 20th June and runs for 2 weeks. The online gallery will run throughout the year linked to the main tutor site.

Photoshop

Can you all bring in all of your shortlisted images and we will have a photoshop session where we will look at the most appropriate methods for each of your work. The digital workflow of your images will concentrate on only being applied to your best images, any that don't make the grade will initiate a reshoot.

We will not be spending time on images that quite frankly aren't your best work as this is often the most common mistake in digital photography. Good images which strongly link to your research will be considered.

This saturday shoot

The following has been kindly arranged by Rob, can all of you make it saturday as this will really help the group, and some pennies for the expense please. I have booked a model for Saturday from 9.30 to 1.30 (with the usual coffee break) cost is £60, can you post a message on the Level 3 blog to this effect & it is open to all so bring your camera & some cash! thanks Robert Brittle

Comments..

Can you make sure that you leave comments on this site as to this course and any possible improvements that you feel ought to be made. Any problems or concerns you can voice here about anything to do with the course. This is your voice as regards what's right and wrong so I can address any issues. Oh any anything you like about the course you might like to leave some comments here, mind your p's and q's.

Welcome back...

I just wanted to let everyone know that they will need to bring all of your images to the next session so we can get an idea of how much photography has been done up to this point.

A short list of around 40 images from each theme needs to be available to see, this is so we are not spending time sifting through hundreds of images in class as this takes up too much time.

In doing this you will be able to see where the gaps are within your work and attend to them.

Also we need to get all of the blogs up to date. I am seeing a lot people commenting on each others work, when you do this can you make sure that you use the 'critical vocabulary' to articulate what you mean as this will lend more weight to your comments and thus aid the other person to really understand what it is exactly you like. Rather than just saying thats a good image or I really like that one!

Can I also stress that all blogs need to be labelled up to date now please, this is a vital process in understanding where you are within the course and will assist in time management of the rest of the course.

From the images selected we can then sort the correct images to put through photoshop. I will be going through an introduction to photoshop in the coming weeks , but we must be sure that the images are of the correct quality to be post produced. If they aren't we must allow time for any reshoots to take place.

Reminder...

                                         

Can I remind everyone that there are two other things going on in the background. Can everyone who has work produced on a City and Guilds course look at the competition for 2011 as the deadline for entries will be here before we know it. There is blog about it with a link on this site.

www.cityandguilds.com/photographygallery

Also the National Forest theme where you can submit some of your work , or fit your theme / photography into the area covered by the National Forest. The deadline for this is by the end of the course and there will be opportunities to get certain work or images into an exhibition / marketing material if chosen. This will happen later in the year.

http://www.nationalforest.org/

College Break

The college will be closed from April 11th until 26th April. Also we are closed for the 'Royal Wedding' on 29th April. (Bank holiday on the 25th April included).

Take stock...

After this weeks session we have the easter break, its over this period that great effort has to be made to eat as much chocolate as possible. Also its a time for consolidation of where you are within the course. Take a moment to sit down and sift through the assignment paper and your units paperwork. Look at the work that you have done, has it been labelled properly, what criteria does each blog meet, what extra can you add to some of your blogs to really raise the level of your achievement and aim for a higher grade.

Look at the amount of research you have done, is it enough, have you enough images to go with each photographer that you have looked at? Are you taking enough photographs yourself, if not why?

Have you got both themes underway, are you spinning both plates ? Have you done a lot for one and not the other, if so attend to the weakest one now and come back to the other one.

Plan out what you going to do over the up and coming weeks. To help this process you now need to sort out all your best images into folders of your top 40, from this we can then start to sort out which images can go towards your final 10 for each theme.

We can talk this through during the next session so you can enjoy easter and have a blog and photography work up to date and in place for after the break.

Studio session

Can I just say that the studio session we all did last saturday will need evidencing on everyones blog as to the whole approach and techniques used. The studio and the use of lighting is important to know for a whole range of applications and themes.
The type of lights, the studio camera used, the way power settings affect the f stop used on the camera along with the variance of the ISO to suit.
Can you make sure that you all share the technical information together and the type of equipment and attachments used.

Have you looked at Blogger lately?

Following and comments..

Can you all make sure that you are following each others blogs please fro next week. There is a full explanation of how to do this on the blogger guide on this website. It is vital that you are able to follow each other and able to add comments about each others work.

Peer feedback should be relevant and constructive, but also you must use the correct vocabulary to describe what you see. Can you all make sure that you are commenting on each others work please, and you never know you should benefit from it, which should help you obtain a higher grade.

More research please....

With all good research there has to be a thorough investigation into the whole theme. This can only be done by collecting all the evidence you can find and then to examine each piece to see what value can be drawn from each one. In a similar way to Sherlock Holmes and then deduce what best action to take.

This is the week where we really need to dig deep and concentrate on research in all its forms. Then collect at least 10 images from at least 5 photographers in the area you have chosen. Then produce the written analysis based on the critical vocabulary we have discussed before on this site.

From that you will become informed and inspired to produce work at a higher level. Then we will move into the preparation stage where you put all that knowledge into practice.

And don't forget alot of you are running two themes as well so make sure that you time manage your weeks now to avoid a log jam towards the end of the course.

I'm watching you!...but in a good way

To make sure that everyone gets the support they need but might not ask for I have a method in place which shows me how you learn, how often you learn and what you look at on the tutor site even when you are not at college.

Also I can even tell whether you are using a pc, mac, ipad or mobile to learn with. In this way I can monitor areas to improve and prompt anyone who isn't using the site enough to help them with their work.

This is a revolutionary way of looking into the 'statistical data' and how often you learn. I can offer better methods or plan how you can improve you grades whilst on this course.

This has been proven to work at all of the students in the last group managed to achieve distinctions. Its my personal aim that everyone who comes onto any of my city and guilds photography courses is not only supported in every way possible, but has the ability to challenge themselves to achieve higher.

I will demonstrate how this system works so you can all see the benefits of it.

Labels and criteria

This is the week where we look at the work you are generating to make sure that each blog has a reason and a structured purpose. Each entry has to be targeted at meeting a certain criteria so as to ensure what you have written has a very clear purpose and aim.

To know how to label properly look at the how to blog guide, and read the section on labels are how to embed them onto the design of your website.

Also each week you need to have the units you are taking in written form in front of you to refer to at any time. The computer will automatically stack all the labels into your website. You will meet criteria again and again throughout the course but just label each blog for the criteria you are aiming it at.

Some blogs will meet various criteria and be appropriate for more than one, just make sure that you put a comma between each one so the computer can seperate them out into the label stack.

By using this method you will be able to take ownership of your own learning and be able to tell where you are and on which missing or weak criteria to target next. In this way you will be able to raise the level of your work to achieve a higher grade.

Remember all the criteria that you need to get a PASS , MERIT or DISTINCTION is included within each of the units you have selected to do, have these to hand to refer to at all times.

Half term time...no escape....

As a general note to all, can you make sure that over the next couple of weeks when we are not in college that you put as much effort as you can to get your selection of units sorted along with your themes. And for at least one you have a clear statement of intent on your blog.

Of course I know you will all get a little time to start researching and developing your ideas and start to put together any photographs you have taken onto your blogs, etc...

And I will be sorting out this site to include more course information. The generic assignment paper for all the City and Guild courses will also be added along with any useful file downloads.

RSS Feeds

The website you are working on can receive RSS feeds, what this means is that all the latest blogs that appear on this site can be linked with a direct feed to your blog. All you have to do is to go to the design area of your website and add the FEED gadget to your blog site.

Add the web address for this site which is  www.cityandguildsphoto.blogspot.com

Then the feed and lastest blogs etc that I produce will appear on your site. This will enable me to give 'Global Comments' and 'Feedback' to a larger group when the general message or information is the same.

Normal comments and feedback will be given individually as and when required to guide and help you achieve a higher grade.

How to write about photographs

What to include in each of your blogs is of vital importance, what I mean is that it must be relevant and add value to your learning.

All that you do is all based on the learning cycle for which there is a another blog on this site all about it. This is to help you to understand the process. A blog is all about a free written piece of work with no cut and paste work of the internet in it. It has to be about your thoughts and ideas based upon the inspiration based on the research that you do.

Your research of the work of other photographers is a vital part of this process. It is the value that you identify from this that you are able to add to your own work and photography. For example you must see what clearly shows in their work from a range of about 10 of their photographs. These photographs you grab from the internet and upload to your blog. Then looking at these images you may see any of the following showing through as predominant throughout their work;

Composition, Colour, Shapes, Patterns, Lines, Tonal Range, Frames, Rule of thirds, Texture, Form, Focal Point, Perspective, Scale,  Denotation, Connotation, (literal and implied meanings)

Once you have used these words to help identify what value you can add to your own work. For example if one photographer uses colour, or patterns , or perspective in their work you could try adding this value into your own work.

For example the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg and her night time photography;

This image shows the use of colour, shape, lines, patterns, and also the deeper meanings of the aspirational artwork images of an ideal home within that community.

Whereas this image is more about composition and frames within frames, colour, scale, perspective, but also is a social comment on how people live stacked one upon the other.

Where this image is about colour, scale, viewpoint and perspective. Also it a social comment on how that for someone this is where they work as a car park attendant.

Where this image is about perspective born out the unusual vantage point, also the focal point, the vanishing point is also a critical part of how this image is constructed. Also colour is playing a part again along with lines and scale (such as the size of the cars).

How to blog?

(Ok not quite Anne Frank but you get the idea).

When writing a blog you also need to explain what kit and equipment you used. It may be useful to put a blog together just about your complete camera kit. This often dictates what photography you are able to do.

To help with this add some images from the web of the kit you have got and add these onto the blog as well.

You need to tell a story in your blog, after all it is an online diary. If you have gone to a location or event for example write about what you did, what kit you chose to take and use?. Did you have the right lens, could you of done with a better wide angle lens?.

Were the light conditions poor and did you need to alter the ISO settings on your camera?. Did you have a great success or a bit of a failure, What would you do next time to improve or alter your approach or technique?

Writing in this way will help you to explain what you did in a logical way. The way that you think about what you did will help you identify what you need to do next time to improve.

News - Android App for Blogger

For those of you who want to work from your mobiles Android have launched a new App for Blogger to allow you to from your phone.

Following and a new RSS Feed

For all level 3 students can you add yourself as a follower please. Also can you set up another RSS Feed gadget to pick up the information blogs, etc from this site.

New- Due to demand!

                                    


Due to the success of the City and Guilds Level 2 tutor site I have set up this one for Level 3. This will take some time but should be in place over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime can you use info which is posted on the other site.