SELF-ASSESSMENT

I have reviewed the work I have done for Assignment 1 against the required Assessment Criteria Points as set out in the Course Handbook and I will now evaluate how I believe the work measures up to the Criteria.

—–   o0o   —–

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills   My purpose for this Assignment was to create two sets of photographs, each set comprising one of a pair of images. Each pair effectively shows the same view but one also includes elements in the foreground which affect the impact and meaning of the image.  This purpose dictated to a large extent the method and techniques that I employed and the subject matter and composition of the images.  I believe that the resulting images are successful in meeting my original purpose and I am happy with the results.  The choice of lens for respective subject shoots and the utilisation of a polarising filter was, I believe, appropriate to achieve the required image content and quality.  

As the majority of landscape photographs which are destined for public consumption either for enjoyment or publicity purposes (or both) are digitally enhanced to increase their visual impact and make them ‘pop’ I did tweak the images for the Assignment slightly in Photoshop in order to more nearly emulate the style and appearance.  This included altering the lights and darks to change the contrast, slight enhancement of some colours and sharpening.  I did not go so far as to give them the HDR treatment, however!

Quality of Outcome  –  Whilst I await the opinion and criticism of a higher authority on these images and the realisation of my chosen concept, I am at present content with the technical and visual quality of the images that I have posted in the Assignment and their relevance to the Assignments aim.  They were chosen from a larger number of other images taken on the shoots, the final selection being based on technical quality, appropriateness, visual appeal and reducing duplication.  

In addition to fulfilling the OCA’s stated requirements for the Assignment, my underlying purpose in  choosing this theme was to explore the range of polluting materials I found in terms of their nature, size and location and this was achieved I believe by presenting a greater number of pairs of images than was specifically asked for.  This, to some extent, also gave an indication of the frequency of occurrence of these polluting items which was another of my aims.  

Demonstration of Creativity  If there is one area in which I believe my Assignment might be open to criticism it is the lack of artistic creativity.  By this I mean that I have not attempted to give the images and their presentation a contemporary feel or used metaphor or allusion in my choice of subjects and their capture.  The images are unambiguous and documentary in style as befitted the theme and concept that I chose for the Assignment.  It could be argued that the choice and realisation of this traditional style is in itself a demonstration of creativity in that it was specifically selected after due consideration of the needs of the concept and then specifically put into practice to achieve the desired results!  

Whilst I acknowledge that there was no great element of experimentation or invention involved in the production of the work for this Assignment, the choice of shooting angle, distance from subject, choice of lens, depth of field and other factors did require some experimentation and rejection before I was happy that the brief for the individual images was met.  

Context     I spent a number of weeks considering possible themes and angles for this Assignment and looked at the work of a number of my fellow students in order to get some inspiration and an idea as to how others had approached the challenge.  After a telephone conversation with Russell, my tutor, I proposed two possible themes both of which he described as being ‘strong’ and capable of progression.  

Once selected, the context or theme for this Assignment required little research as I am a trained environmentalist and I know the local area and its pollution issues well.  I did, however, look at a range of on-line sites showing images of pollution examples and all images were of the same straight forward documentary style.  In the light of the purpose of the Assignment I saw little need to elaborate on this basic style.  

In summary, whilst the work I have done for this Assignment might not show any great inventiveness or originality I believe that it did meet the intention of the Assignment goal and also that it presented a form of pictorial essay of some of man’s impacts on the local environment which to some extent leads in to Part 2 of this course.

———-     o0o     ———-