OCA The Art of Photography Course Discussion Including Assignments and Submissions

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As far as I am aware, you are ok to use them, not allowed to use photos taken before you started the course.
 
No that'll be fine to use them. You just can't use ones from before you started.
 
Thanks for your help in this. I have nearly finished the exercises - must say really loving it. Must say I have really slowed down taking photos now - I think a whole lot more
 
Byker28i said:
No that'll be fine to use them. You just can't use ones from before you started.
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I accept this but isn't the point to use your new knowledge gained in the preceding exercises to take the images for the assignments?

I suppose its the difference between doing enough to get ticks for the assignment or actually doing the assignment as a development and challenge

Its horses for courses I suppose but its my view anyway
 
If you only read the exercises one at a time maybe.

I have limited time to get out, and if I am going somewhere specific, then if I feel the opportunity appears to get a few photographs for an exercise a few ahead I will. That opportunity for that shot may never appear again.

I write a brief description of requirements on evernote, may not be for photo opportunity, more a case of finding other subject matter.

I do understand where you are coming from, when I did the photographs for the story/scene one, I used the time getting there for horizontal/vertical exercise, as knew I wouldn't get a chance in a long while to get back to the area.
 
Reidy36 said:
If you only read the exercises one at a time maybe.

I have limited time to get out, and if I am going somewhere specific, then if I feel the opportunity appears to get a few photographs for an exercise a few ahead I will. That opportunity for that shot may never appear again.

I write a brief description of requirements on evernote, may not be for photo opportunity, more a case of finding other subject matter.

I do understand where you are coming from, when I did the photographs for the story/scene one, I used the time getting there for horizontal/vertical exercise, as knew I wouldn't get a chance in a long while to get back to the area.
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I entirely sympathise with the time issue - I work away from home midweek so time is limited for me :( . I also agree that some exercises can be grouped e.g. horizontal / vertical / diagonal etc. Yes you are right if you have an opportunity then you should take it

I simply wanted to remind ourselves / myself is that its all a learning opportunity as well as a hobby we enjoy.

A good thing to do is after completing TAOP take a look at your pre Module non course images and those after and see if the images have improved / your approach and thought processes to taking the images improve

Bet I'm not the only one when on a walk or drive etcthat now starts spotting diagonals / horizontals / triangles / shapes / points / implied lines etc now "visible" in our surroundings :lol:
 
Hi
been following this forum for a while now and can not make up my mind as to whether to sign up or not for the course.
Everybody seems happy with the course but has anybody been dissapointed and why.
 
I am doing the balance exercise(i am finding this really difficult) and am using skitch to draw on photos. What did everyone use to draw the scales and show the balance?
Also can you use skitch to draw triangles? Thanks
 
gercam said:
I am doing the balance exercise(i am finding this really difficult) and am using skitch to draw on photos. What did everyone use to draw the scales and show the balance?
Also can you use skitch to draw triangles? Thanks
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I used MS paint, keeps things simple
 
gercam said:
I am doing the balance exercise(i am finding this really difficult) and am using skitch to draw on photos. What did everyone use to draw the scales and show the balance?
Also can you use skitch to draw triangles? Thanks
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I know what you mean, i don't really get balance, being not that artistic, i struggle with things like this.

I used skitch to draw the boxes on the image to show the main subjects, then went into ms paint to do the scales. Takes a few goes to get it, but i managed, here is a link to mine, so you can see what i did.

I received feedback from my tutor for assignment 1, better than i thought and he did pick up on the fact i was using the literal meaning of the words for my images and not thinking outside the box. I knew that this would be a problem as i don't class myself as the creative type, so i now have to readjust how i think about the images i will be taking.
 
Russ MCR said:
Would anybody have the Art of Photography materials they'd be willing to sell?
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Pretty sure that's breaking their t & c.
 
Managed to get the photographs done for a few exercises over the weekend, despite doing a moron moment and trying to manually focus the lens even though it was on auto (i now have a lens that feels like it has grit in it when i try to manually focus and sticks, but ok on auto at the moment).

To those of you that use wordpress, how do you put a border round your images? I have seen it done and looks alot cleaner, but as you know, i am an idiot, and no idea what i am doing......:help::help:
 
Put the border around the image first in your photo editing package?
 
Reidy36 said:
To those of you that use wordpress, how do you put a border round your images? I have seen it done and looks alot cleaner, but as you know, i am an idiot, and no idea what i am doing......:help::help:
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If you just want a basic border, then it's probably easier to do it in Wordpress than to go back and re-edit your images.

This video shows you how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J82tgrbpd2s
 
Lucy, thank you nice and easy.

Sorry to be a pain, tried looking but can't find this next bit either, want to put the exif data just below the image in the border. Any ideas?

Thanks again
 
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Reidy36 said:
Lucy, thank you nice and easy.

Sorry to be a pain, tried looking but can't find this next bit either, want to put the exif data just below the image in the border. Any ideas?

Thanks again
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You just need to add a caption underneath the image. It's one of the fields underneath the title when you add/edit an image. I'll let you Google for more details ;)
 
lucyb said:
You just need to add a caption underneath the image. It's one of the fields underneath the title when you add/edit an image. I'll let you Google for more details ;)
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Can't you do it for me.......lol

Lucy thank you very much
 
Honestly, how difficult can it be........

Google searched it and of you can do CSS or stuff like that, then great. I have a playing around blog, went into advanced settings and put text in all the boxes, but still nothing.

Getting annoyed with it now :bang::bang:
 
Have you got the image in already?

If so click the image. At the top left corner is a picture frame and a red no entry circle. The red circle is to delete the picture, the picture frame is to edit the image properties
wp2.jpg


Once you've clicked it you'll have a properties box like this where you can enter captions.

wp1.jpg


Hope that helps
 
And that was an excerpt from Assignment 4 which I've just finished, having worked all weekend on it and **** images for the last month (or tried).
 
I am just about ready to start writing up my assignment. Can someone tell me what I include? eg do I write more when I send to tutor than I write on my blog or do I write everything in blog and then send hard copies to tutor? Any help would be gratefully received
 
gercam said:
I am just about ready to start writing up my assignment. Can someone tell me what I include? eg do I write more when I send to tutor than I write on my blog or do I write everything in blog and then send hard copies to tutor? Any help would be gratefully received
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I think it depends on what you have decided with your tutor. Mine is happy for me to put the assignment in Dropbox along with the images separately (I put brackets with the image name/number, where i want them), so he can see where they are meant to go.

If you haven't had this chat, give your tutor a ring, find out what suits.

I did things alot more formally, header and footer etc, don't forget your name and student number.
 
gercam said:
I am just about ready to start writing up my assignment. Can someone tell me what I include? eg do I write more when I send to tutor than I write on my blog or do I write everything in blog and then send hard copies to tutor? Any help would be gratefully received
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I put everything on my blog, this is what my tutor wanted. Best to contact your tutor.
 
just got an email from my tutor saying he has resigned! a bit annoying as its right on top of the next assignment and i quite liked the bloke. I guess nothing will be sorted out till after xmas now.
 
gercam said:
I am just about ready to start writing up my assignment. Can someone tell me what I include? eg do I write more when I send to tutor than I write on my blog or do I write everything in blog and then send hard copies to tutor? Any help would be gratefully received
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Email the tutor. I sent prints of all the images 12x8 suited my camera, remember to have a border around the prints, and Matt is good. Gloss gets fingerprints over them. I email my tutor with a remind to my blog, and then send the prints.
 
gercam said:
Have just had my assignment returned for my tutor and am really happy with the comments. Seem to be on the right lines - here's a link
http://gerricampbellphotography.wordpress.com/category/assignments/assignment-1-contrasts/
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You have some nice pictures there Gerry and it must have been great to get some well-deserved good feedback. I keep an eye on your blog as we signed up on here around the same time (although I'm not starting TAOP until 1st Jan) and I think we have the same tutor. So I'm looking forward to following your journey through TAOP.

Carol
 
Carol S said:
You have some nice pictures there Gerry and it must have been great to get some well-deserved good feedback. I keep an eye on your blog as we signed up on here around the same time (although I'm not starting TAOP until 1st Jan) and I think we have the same tutor. So I'm looking forward to following your journey through TAOP.

Carol
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Thanks carol I was really pleased with his comments and am looking forward to getting started on next one.
 
First of all.

Happy New Year to all of you that are and have done the course, hope this period has allowed you to get some quality time to get some work done.

Well i am at the point of doing the second assignment and i messed up again (yes, need to slap myself). I went out for the TP Xmas meet at Trafalgar square, with the intention of hopefully using it to get the photographs for the Elements of Design, due to the dire weather though, this didn't work.

A few days back i went to the British Wildlife Centre, thinking that i could get what i wanted there (my tutor has told me to find my own style, and like the outdoors kind of thing, so pushing that), got some great stuff and went to the folder to re-read the critieria.....oops. In my desire to take outdoors stuff i totally missed the word Similar Subject (no idea how). I was going to use some of the animal photos for the single point dominating and other bits like that, and then the buildings there for others, only when i sat down and thought about it again, did i realise that my subject group box was rather too wide and buildings and animals are so far apart, they would laugh at me :bang::bang:

Anyway, i feel i am back on track, i have been out this morning and done building fascias in Putney (i hope this is similar enough for them), it is amazing what you see when you have the time to stop and look at your surroundings.

To those just starting, when it comes to exercises and especially assignments, read what is requested of you a few times, not all in one go.

On the plus side, at the centre i managed to get things like this:

What, I missed it by Smallbreamboy, on Flickr


I'm watching you by Smallbreamboy, on Flickr

So it wasn't all bad.
 
Don't forge to add all the failure attempts in your learning log or assignment notes.erhaps include some contact sheets of what you shot and why it didn't work. It shows progress and thinking so not all wasted.

I've been working on assignment 5. I need to get it in to my tutor, back and everything in for formal assessment soon. So nearly finished DPP.

I've been out today shooting purely for pleasure as I've just bought a 5D mkIII body.
 
Happy New Year everyone.

Having signed up for TAOP before the prices went up and before our house move (and resulting chaos) the starting flag has now dropped and I'm now on my way with TAOP. I've spent most of today setting up my blog - my head has nearly exploded on a number of occasions as I haven't blogged before, let alone set one up - and the advice I've seen on here really helped. Next stage will be to actually load a photograph ...

Here is the link in case anyone is interested. Still in its infancy and with the odd test post ...

http://carolstreetphotography.wordpress.com

Reidy36: love the wildlife photos. We have moved next door to a nature reserve so I'm looking forward to taking pictures there once the weather is warmer.

Byker281: congrats on the 5d mkIII - enjoy!
 
Hi Carol,

Just had a quick look at your blog, very nice and you will find that i am following your blog, and also liked you on Flickr.

Thank you for the comment on the animals, i have seen a dramatic improvement since starting the course, even if i am not always able to do the outdoors stuff.
 
Over the last few months I've fallen really far behind. So far in fact that I got a letter from OCA saying I needed to get in touch because I hadn't submitted anything for ages. If I didn't get in touch they were going to mark my account as dormant.

Anyway, I managed to get Assignment 2 completed just before Xmas and I'm now waiting to get the feedback from my tutor. She replied saying she was away over the holiday period so it might take a little longer than normal which is fair enough.

I've started looking at the 3rd section on colour. There doesn't seem to be as much to this part as section 2 so hopefully I'll get back on track a bit this year.
 
I've been there, just a week off after an assignment went into a month and I had to drag myself into it. Now I try to ensure I do something every week, even if it's just research into a photographer. I've been shooting for assignment 5, a personal project, for the last 3 months whilst doing other work as well, but it probably doesn't look like I was doing much. However having been made redundant 3 months ago I had a couple of months to concentrate on the work before I got another job, so I don't think my tutor knew what hit him :)

Hang in there, try to at least do a little very week, then the spark comes back and you fully engage again.
 
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