Overall Comments
An interesting idea for your final Assignment Amanda, which brings you away from the subject and back to the image at the end of the Landscape course. Your ‘Transitions’ shows a willingness to experiment and take creative risks while still staying in touch with your own vision of landscape photography.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Immediately when I open your Assignment at the image it looks interesting. It’s great that you’ve used your personal research as a starting point and it’s a pity you couldn’t locate the photographer (I tried but I couldn’t either). There’s a lesson to be learned here to always make notes on anything that interests you so that you can use it later. I’m a big fan of Evernote, a free app for organizing all your research with tags. You can use any number of tags (I have hundreds) – e.g. ‘landscape’, ‘transitions’ - so that you can easily find things later.
Initially on reading this brief, I thought of the seasonal changes that the natural landscape undergoes and the dramatic effects that these seasons create.
Could you say a word or two about why you’re looking for dramatic effects?
However, these ideas started changing as time went on. The first few weeks went by as planned, with the shoots at the same time on the same day. But then there would be times that I couldn't make the same day of the week and ended up going on the weekend or other times I would be later going and not at the 10am I had been doing.
I then decided to take monthly photos where possible, and to alter the times of the day that I went. So as I had started to go for 10am for the start of the project, I could then visit an hour later every time so that not only would the image have a yearly transition, it would also have a daily transition as well, from morning to evening.
I like the way the idea is evolving here, there’s nothing wrong with introducing another level of complexity as long as your visual language is clear. But is it coming through in the work?
Technically, I kept the focal length at 18mm and used my tripod to keep the framing the same, but there was an occasion where I took the wrong lens and had to shoot at 24mm and then my tripod broke.
I would reshoot or forget about the image where you didn’t have the right lens and fix your tripod!
After the layers were aligned and flattened, there were only slight bits that needed retouching.
A bit more detail is needed here. Editing is an important part of the work.
Your evaluation
In regards to the image, I am very happy with how it came out.
I wouldn’t start exactly like this Amanda, it doesn’t appear critical enough.
There was hardly any frost either and so the overall transitional content didn't have as much of a dramatic difference as I would've liked. Even the beautiful autumn colours didn't show through as mush as I would've liked. I did actually manage to get some tidal changes though with the stepping stones becoming clearer through the image but overall, I am quite disappointed that the transitional changes weren't as different through the seasons as expected.
This is more critical which is what we want to see, but I think you’re focusing a little too much on a descriptive idea of photography. Isn’t the scene just a starting point for the image? How does the image work on its own terms? You’ve used a composition in the genre of classical landscape painting as your starting point – ‘natural’ landscape, foreground, middle and background with the lines of the river gently leading the eye into the frame. This is very well done. It prepares the ground perfectly for a little subversion.
First of all it's a man-made landscape – not so obviously as with buildings, roads and signage for instance, but a little more subtly. I think you need to say something about that in your notes when you discuss why you chose this scene. But the most apparent effect of your process is the curious pattern of coloured banding across the surface. You might expect to see a simple and repetitive pattern, but this is more complex with different areas of dark and light, sudden colour variations and an interesting softness. As a result of experimentation you discover something new.
How does Transitions relate to your previous work? I’m especially thinking of your work with image in A2 and your ‘translations’ of Gilpins landscapes in A5. How can you see this idea developing in the future?
Presentation
I understand you’re considering a blog only submission but this will hit you pretty hard in the marks for quality at Level 2. I strongly suggest you print out at least one assignment for assessment. You might use this image. It should be a good quality print with a white border (not a black key line unless you can explain why in your notes), and professionally presented. If you decide not to submit prints please submit your assignment work as full sized finished JPEGS on a DVD in a simple and clear organization for assessment.
Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays
Context
Your learning log isn’t yet ready for assessment and I’m aware that most of these suggestions may already be on your list of things to do.
The tabs on the top are very good – they make for very clear navigation at assessment. But when you click on a tab the text moves up in the text box, please find a way to resolve this.
Under each Assignment section add all tutor reports at the top in the same format – I suggest you do it exactly as No.5.
You don’t need a separate tab for Feedback if you’re including feedback with Assignments – or remove the reports from the assignments tab and upload them here all in the same format.
Context tab – don’t duplicate your research from your assignments, just include any reading and exhibition reviews and you might also add any exercises that were research based.
Suggested reading/viewing
Context
N/A as this is the final assignment.
Pointers for the next assignment
N/A as this is the final assignment.
Thanks for your feedback and evaluation and well done for completing Landscape!
There are a few tweaks that need to be made to my assignment write up which I will adjust in red colour so you can see the additions. Also, my tutor has advised on altering a few details to do with the design and layout of my blog, as I will be submitting online only for assessment, so i will amend the details that he has suggested, if possible. Even though i intend to submit digitally, I hope that the new year will allow me to at least print out a couple of assignments to submit alongside but I will have to see at the time of submission.
As a final note, I am happy that this module is finished, it's been a tough journey. However, There are some aspects of the course that I have enjoyed and as my new course file has arrived in the post, I am excited to see what that module has in store.
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