Note for Assessors (Final Blog Post)

•              This blog is my logbook for the OCA Photography 3 course: “Your Own Portfolio”.

• It is indexed on the right hand side to provide easy access to posts on assignment work, exhibition visits etc.

• Tutor reports are not available, but have been included with my paper submission.

• Image files are not included. Prints of images have been provided alongside my paper submission.

• This is the last post for my blog: no further posts will be added prior to assessment.

Following assessment the blog will be closed down.

Final Thoughts

During the two years that I have been working on the “Your Own Portfolio” course my thoughts and views on the theory and practice of photographic art have changed considerably.

In particular, I have spent the entire course trying to merge my strong interest in the genre of wildlife / natural history photography with the demands of a practice in photographic fine art. This has proved to be very difficult. I have come to the conclusion that overlap occurs only in the field of documentary photography and photojournalism, where the impact of our society on wildlife (and vice versa) is portrayed. The works of Beltrá and Stirton (see my critical essay) are good examples of this.

Research, in the form of reading and multiple exhibition visits, has given me a much better understanding of how projects in the field of photographic fine art are conceived, developed and completed. Taking out a subscription for the “British Journal of Photography” has helped enormously in this regard, even if the content of much of the work described therein is of little general or photographic interest to me.

Working on a portfolio of images has caused me to finally move away from the idea that the purpose of a “good” photograph is to have aesthetic appeal, even if this is still an important requirement. Instead I am starting to look at themes and links between photographs as part of my work.

Instead of going out to take individual photographs I am now looking at creating photographic projects, with themes and subjects that are of interest to me.

I have invested in better equipment and will continue to upgrade, in order to be able to handle difficult photographic conditions better and to produce better results.

I have been helped by having a patient and understanding tutor, who has also provided much constructive criticism!

I feel more confident now than I did at the start of the course that I can make further progress as an active photographer, particularly in the documentary field.

I am still fighting, eight years on and into my sixties, to get that photography degree. One more course (hopefully) to go!

Final Reflections on the Major Project and YOP Course Work (18 September 2015)

It has taken me two years and, I estimate, around 1000 hours of study to complete the “Your Own Portfolio” course. Why have I taken so long and has the extra time (600 hours recommended) and effort been worthwhile? To answer these questions I need to look at how I navigated the course, review my mistakes and failings and consider what I have learnt.

In contrast to the level 1 and level 2 courses, where projects are largely imposed, the level 3 courses offer the photography student far greater freedom to explore their own photography-related ideas and concepts and to work in genres that particularly hold their interest. My major interest lies in the field of wildlife (particularly birds) and the environment and, away from my studies, photographing wildlife has for many years provided a major part of my photographic output. Having been somewhat frustrated by the very limited opportunity to incorporate wildlife footage into my earlier course work I was keen to select a wildlife-related topic for the major project. Encouraged by my tutor (who also has an interest in wildlife) I chose to look at man’s interactions with wild birds through the process of feeding them, and this formed the basis of my major project proposal, which is summarised below:

“My intention for the Major Project is to produce a portfolio of photographic images that both illustrate some of the many different ways in which we feed wild birds in Britain and explore the reasons for our actions. Our roles, both as individuals and within groups such as charitable organisations and businesses, will be covered. Crucially, the content of the images will be used to encourage consideration of both the motivation behind our desire to feed wild birds and the benefits that this action provides for the birds and, in particular, for us.”

The images produced would cover the genres of wildlife and (particularly) documentary photography and, after discussing the plans with my tutor, it was agreed that all my other assignment work (Assignments 1-3) would be used as preparation for the major project work.

During my first year of study, various factors influenced and changed my thoughts and project plans.

Firstly, I took out a subscription to the “British Journal of Photography” (BJP), the leading UK magazine that addresses the subject of contemporary photographic art. I also visited many more exhibitions of photographic art, both by leading practitioners and by final year photographic art students, than I had previously done. Through these media outlets I have developed a much greater understanding of how photographers in the art world create, develop and complete projects. I cannot pretend that I was inspired by most of the work that I saw; indeed, the motivation behind a lot of the work seemed rather obscure, but by the time I entered my second year of study I had a much clearer view of what was expected of me, as an art student.

Secondly, I started to feel uncomfortable about limiting my major project to covering what wild birds can do for us, even though my images of people feeding birds could provide a consistent set, with a clear visual link. A high percentage of photographic art focuses on people and I feel that we are becoming so obsessed with ourselves that we have forgotten that we are supposed to share the world with other life forms. I decided that I wanted to broaden the project to cover not just what wild birds do for us (and feeding wild birds is essentially for human gratification, as I hope my images in the first section of the project will demonstrate) but also what we do, both directly and indirectly, for wild birds. In this way I would be able to introduce the environmental issues that I feel so strongly about.

Initially I chose to integrate the images by alternating the photographs of people feeding birds with the much wider-ranging set of images (wildlife, landscape and/or documentary genres) relating to “what we do for wild birds”, which covered habitat loss and creation among other things. Whilst this ordering of images (which I used to produce a story board for Assignment 4) worked for me my tutor found it confusing and, after a discussion, we decided that I would split the major project work into two sections: “what birds do for us” (feeding the birds)- and “what we do for wild birds” (environmental issues). Furthermore, it was agreed that I should produce a multimedia (images, video and sound) presentation that would complement my image portfolio, both by providing a link between the two sections and by providing an overview of the project rationale. I decided that the photo book, which I had always planned to produce, would be a more rounded and balanced view of aspects of our relationship with wild birds than the multimedia presentation, which would be somewhat more subjective.

The work was completed according to the revised plan. On the negative side, changing direction and expanding the subject area cost me a lot of time and resulted in the production of an image portfolio that cannot readily be interpreted without the aid of the multimedia presentation. On the positive side, producing the multimedia presentation allowed me to acquire new skills in the use of video and sound which, in combination with my images, will be harnessed for future work. Furthermore, adding the second section has given me the opportunity to present photographic work on a subject that I feel passionate about: I was highly motivated to do this, which must be an advantage. The photo book, which is essentially a brief overview of the relationship between people and wild birds in the UK, is a permanent record of my course work.

I am happy to have been given the freedom to combine my keen interest in wildlife and the environment with my photographic output for this course. However, because of this I have found some difficulty in sticking to the remit of the major project, and I believe that I’ve taken the somewhat tenuous link between wildlife photography and photographic art (see my critical essay) as far as I can and as far as I want to go. In the future I plan to choose projects that develop other areas of photographic interest and provide more uniform, yet distinctive portfolios of images.

Final Status Report 8 September 2015

My portfolio of 22 images for the major project has now been printed, to A3 size, on Fuji “C-type” archival print paper. I sent five images each to two separate printers and compared the results. The prints that I obtained from “The Print Space”, a London printer, were both marginally sharper and also lighter in tone than those I received from the second printer, so I went with them. Although “The Print Space” offers a mail order service I chose to download the images on their premises, and return to pick up the prints a few hours later. In total, I spent over £300 on the prints and, when added to the cost of the portfolio box, storage sleeves and the cost of producing two photo books, this brings my total printing expenses in line with the original projected expenses of £450.

All that remains is for me to assemble and index my assignment files, tutor reports and logbook for submission both on disc and as hard copy, together with my prints (assignment prints other than those for the portfolio will be submitted at A4 size), my multimedia presentation and a copy of my photo book. I will update my blog with final thoughts and, as there is a large amount of material to be examined and I am aware that the assessors have limited time to look at each student’s work, I will also provide a concise explanatory note for the assessors, both on my blog (which acts as a primary source for the logbook) and in the hard copy presentation. All this will take time, but I intend to have the submission ready for handing in at the OCA offices on or around 23 September.

Costa Rica: A Photographer's View

In August 2014 I spent a fortnight in Costa Rica with my partner Helen, as part of a group on an organised “Exodus” trip. Costa Rica is very much a place to visit for tourists interested in its incredibly rich and diverse wildlife and environment, although it also offers excellent surfing and sun-soaked Pacific beaches. However, as befits a country with tropical rain forests the weather can be extremely wet! Whilst I was strictly on holiday I did, of course, record (where possible) the wildlife that we saw and, in the light of the “why feed the birds” subject of my major project, I was particularly interested in recording the Costa Ricans’ use of bird feeders to attract (mainly, but not exclusively) hummingbirds. During our fortnight I took 3300 photographs, ultimately keeping around 1000 as a photographic record of our visit. The following is a very brief commentary on our adventures.

Red-eyed Tree Frog, Manuel Antonio NP

The People

I’ve never been to an “exotic” country before where the people treated me as “part of the scenery”. They are not rude (quite the opposite), but they are presumably so used to seeing tourists that we don’t register as being unusual in any way. This was quite a revelation on the holiday. I also felt completely safe everywhere I went, although there is a small amount of petty crime at some of the major destinations. The Costa Ricans are clearly peace-loving people (they don’t have an army and have largely escaped the [civil] wars, which have recently affected some of their neighbours, unscathed).

The Landscape

Costa Rica has volcanoes and mountains reaching almost 4000 metres. But it also borders both the Caribbean and the Pacific oceans. The high rainfall (particularly in the east and in the mountain regions) produces lush vegetation (no deserts here!), which carpets large tracts of land and virtually all the mountain regions. As a consequence the landscape can start to look rather “samey” after a while: there are few exposed rocks or lone trees. This is not ideal habitat for landscape photographers! Upland areas are often hidden in a layer of cloud or mist, which can produce some atmospheric effects if you are happy to put up with a visibility of 10 – 50 metres. The limited numbers of landscape scenes that I photographed whilst in Costa Rica were mainly produced as representative images of what it was like to be there, rather than for their artistic or aesthetic qualities.

The Wildlife

Now you’re talking! Costa Rica has an incredibly rich, diverse and (importantly) colourful wildlife. It is possible to get close to monkeys, sloths, birds, snakes, frogs, spiders, crabs, butterflies and dragonflies. Not to mention all the orchids and other plant life. You name it, Costa Rica has it! With the exception of its secretive “big cats” (Puma, Ocelot and Jaguar), it is possible to find and take decent photographs of pretty much anything. The diversity of species reflects the diversity of habitats, so animals that are common at sea level may not occur up in the mountains and vice-versa.

Male Resplendent Quetzel, Savegre NP

So is Costa Rica the wildlife photographer’s dream? Well, not completely. For a start it rains heavily throughout the year and particularly in the summer and early autumn months (i.e. when we visited!). This causes problems with water getting into the camera lens (as happened to me on more than one occasion) and steaming up: good waterproofing of your equipment is strongly recommended! Also, much of the wildlife is found in and around forested areas, which are shady at the best of times and particularly when the weather is overcast and/or wet. Consequently you have to rely on the subject being static or, if it is moving, using a high to very high ISO setting (say 1000+) to capture the action without blurring. I mainly used my Nikon D7000 camera in these conditions. The camera has many qualities, but does exhibit some graininess at higher ISO settings. Images would not print up well under these circumstances.

A second problem was evident when we made a nocturnal visit to watch green turtles laying eggs on a Caribbean beach at Tortuguero. Strictly no photography! This rule was essential, because taking photographs may disturb the turtles and cause them to abort laying, but watching the huge female turtles emerging from the sea, digging holes, laying eggs and then covering them with sand was an amazing “once in a lifetime” experience, which would have produced a dream photographic sequence….

The Hummingbirds

During the first part of the holiday hummingbirds were in short supply. However, we had the opportunity in Monteverde National Park to visit a “hummingbird garden”, equipped with sugar feeders, where several species of hummingbird were zooming around, sometimes within a few inches of our faces. What an amazing experience, and definitely one of the highlights of the trip! However, we only had limited time and the light was very poor (overcast with light rain in a forest clearing), so I had to settle for some static images of various species, taken at high ISO values. Fortunately the final lodge we visited, in Savegre National Park, had several (mainly hummingbird) feeders and attracted good numbers of three main montane species (we were situated at 2200 metres altitude). The staff had gone to some lengths to provide natural perches for the hummingbirds and I was finally able, on the penultimate day of the holiday, to get some decent photographs of the hummingbirds at rest. The commonest (and most photogenic) species was the Green Violet-ear: I took over 100 photographs of this bird, one of which is shown below.

Magnificent Hummingbird at Feeder, Savegre NP

Green Violet-ear Hummingbird, Savegre NP

Photographing the hummingbirds hovering and feeding on nectar proved challenging, even though they kept their bodies still during the process. My favourite portraits were all of static birds.

Do the hummingbird feeding stations in Costa Rica provide any insights for my project work? The feeders are easy to set up and common throughout the Americas, obviously benefit the birds and provide pleasure for tourists and locals alike. Monitoring birds coming to feeders provides useful information for conservationists and there is commercial gain for the manufacturers and lodge/hotel owners (the latter would attract fewer visitors if they did not provide feeders in areas where hummingbirds are common). The provision of “natural” perching posts close to the feeders encourages wildlife photographers. Unfortunately we don’t have hummingbirds in the UK, but many of the reasons for feeding the birds in Costa Rica are equivalent to our own reasons. Perhaps the biggest gain of all would be the personal pleasure gained by the private home owner or tenant, in the UK or overseas, who can get close to the birds and enjoy watching their activity by providing them with the food that they need.