Assignment 1 - conclusions

Have now completed Assignment 1 and all the exercises for Part One. The Assignment asks for some thoughts on what went well, what went less well and area for development.

Generally, I have found this a successful chapter. I was not looking forward to it as am not particularly interested in portraiture and do not have access to the expensive equipment many use, but, rather as the still photography in TAOP, found the experience useful just so can feel confident as and when the circumstances arise to do more.

Specifically, I though the main things that went well were:

• understanding some of the technical points, e.g. the effect of long focal lengths versus shorter ones;
• learning the importance of expression and pose/stance. The exercise on Pose and stance exercise was useful because I had never really given these elements any thought;
• developing my thoughts on context and narrative (see reading on Context and Narrative and British Journal of Photography June 2012 in particular) and adopting these in the assignment;

The less successful area was probably the sequencing exercise. I adapted the brief but not sure it worked well. It is related to a weakness in creativity, albeit I was pleased with this as regards the Assignment.

As regards strengthening my skills, I set this out in the preliminaries to the Assignment; more creativity, understanding and developing context, and establishing a style. I have set out in the BJP June 2012 blog that I hope to develop a style that incorporates words to a greater degree; it suits my aptitude and interests in the world around me. Quite how that will pan out, time will tell, but at least there is a plan.