Thoughts on submission

This post accompanies the final submission of all five assignments for Expressing Your Vision and aims to summarise my thoughts, experiences, and learnings now that I have just completed the course.

On the whole, I have enjoyed the course and found the exercises, projects, and assignments both interesting and challenging. I remain confused as to the nature of and difference between a project and an exercise but that is a very small point. Looking back from assignment 5 to the first assignment ‘the square mile’, I can see a great degree of progress in my own work, more than I think I expected to see. I believe the images in the assignments become progressively stronger in a range of aspects. They are more well thought out and considered.

I have relaxed. Seems a simple statement but I think it is important in my progress as a photographer. I think this can best be seen in the number of images in contact sheets for the assignments, which I think become fewer as the assignments progress. This is because I am more relaxed and considered in the shots I am taking, I have a greater degree of a pre-imagined image in my mind’s eye before I shoot which I think results in better images for fewer shots taken. This is probably the aspect of my photography which I can see within myself.

I have switched from Aperture priority to Manual mode, I don’t think I will switch back. I have found that manual mode and the selection of exposure has become 2nd nature and allows me much more flexibility to set the mood I want from the shot. This has taken my photography past the goal of ‘correct’ exposure towards the exposure I want. I can create images in-camera which are much closer to the mood I am looking for. As a result, I find I now spend far less time and effort in post-production as my images are closer to what I am looking for.

Simple is strong. I think always knew this but now have greater degree of confidence to seek simplicity and use this to create stronger images. I think this is evident in assignments 4 and 5 where the ideas and concepts I aim to represent in the images are a little more complex and so require strength to convey.

I have gained some interest in the work of other photographers due to the examples given, research exercises etc throughout the course. There are some specific learning log entries which are devoted to some of these photographers. For now, I have tended to consider photographers from earlier in the history of the art form, this I think is typical of me and how I like to work, addressing things in some kind of order which makes sense to me.

This tendency of mine to apply some kind of order is another area I think I have gained some personal experience of and learning from.

Sequencing is its own language. I remain a novice in this area however during this course I have learned and to some extent wrestled with this area. I tend to sequence images following some internal logic, this is just how my mind works so I will always start there. The logical order could be geometric, or conceptual or narrative or something else. However, during the course I have learned that there is another way to look at this which may not be described simply in logic and relates more to the impact the sequence can have. The introduction and release of tension for instance. This is best seen in the work and then rework for assignment 2, where the initial sequence has a very clear logic however once re-sequenced after feedback from my tutor, the logic has gone but the sequence is more interesting, balanced and complementary ( in my opinion of course ).