OCA - Assignment Five (and Final Submission) Feedback

My tutor’s comments were, once again, well received and have helped to finalise the images for my exhibition. The OCA’s ‘Submission Advice’ does not allude to sending the actual exhibition images for assessment; however, were there that requirement, I would utilise the advice given, in that:

1. I would change Image 11 to ensure that the landscape format was adhered to, to ensure that the ‘middle’ images between the ‘bookends’ of each line followed a strict visual pattern. For Example:

Instead of:

2. I would ensure that all images were ‘tweaked’ (in terms of utilising ‘dodging’ and ‘burning’ where appropriate to maximise the images impact).

3. I would present the images as outlined in my Assignment 5 feedback – A3 is certainly the minimum image size that I would like to present for this work.

It is important to note that the restrained use of blur within the first 2 lines of the exhibition (as noted by my tutor) was a conscious decision on my part. I wanted to align the images with the poetry, leading to an eventual ‘explosion’ of camouflage in the final line, accompanied with the words ‘slipping and sliding’ to describe a scene awash with ambiguity. All of the images for the exhibition can be viewed on my 'flickr' webpage.

Overall, I feel extremely pleased with the results for the exhibition. I still feel it is a work in progress, and with a future trip to Afghanistan planned within my work, I feel this will be an opportunity to further develop this body of work.

Istanbul Photo Trip

I had a long weekend with my wife in Istanbul, the weekend before Christmas, to indulge in a travel photo shoot. The weather was pretty poor (with rain for most of the time), but this didn't detract from such a fabulous city. It provided everything that you could wish for: friendly, open people; spectacular scenery and architecture; an absorbing and eclectic history; and (always my favourite for capturing social interaction) two outstanding bazaars. This time of year was great to travel as there were few tourists (so cheap hotels and no crowds or queues - barring the locals doing their Christmas shopping, which was wonderful to get involved in). The best thing of all (from a photographer's perspective) were the willingness of the Turkish people to allow me to photograph what I wanted (including them), without asking for money and being obstructive (of course I was always courteous and polite, and they rewarded this by being extremely helpful, open and honest - as well as having a wonderful sense of humour). It was a real pleasure to wander around and to be left (relatively) alone to absorb the sights, sounds and smells and capture the beauty of the place on camera. I will certainly be travelling throughout Turkey again in the near future.

First Book Publication

I'm absolutely delighted to have finally published my first photobook, called Sandringham: Walks With My Human. I self-published it under the 'HaVe' name, using the online publishing company, Blurb (the book can be viewed online by clicking on the Blurb link). I have been working on the images for the book for several months (a bit at a time - fitting in the work around my day-job, studies, and other photographic projects), so it was in some way a relief to finally see it in print. Blurb have, once again, delivered an excellent product, and the book now holds pride of place on my bookshelf (albeit over-shadowed by the exhalted company of the 'professional' photobooks on display).

The completion of the book is a key moment in my life. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and to sustain a project for a long period of time in order to collect the images was a real lesson in concentration and dedication to an idea. It was also an incredibly useful exercise in choosing what images to display, in what order, and in what format/size. I'm not saying that I have got it completely right, but it is certainly the first step on a long ladder of learning on which I wish to climb. Whilst the project may never see the light of day (in terms of an exhibition), it has provided the motivation to work on future, long-term projects, which I hope to one day exhibit and publish professionally.

Wedding Shoot

It's been an incredibly busy couple of months, during which I have completed a large piece of work for my Master's degree; however, that doesn't mean that I haven't focused on my photography. As well as putting the final images together for my OCA course (which will be sent to my tutor in the next week), I have also spent a good deal of time putting together a wedding album from a shoot I did in late October. As always with weddings, it was incredibly hard work, but I am delighted with the results. The album was published through the online publishing service, Blurb, who once again delivered an outstanding product. The album can be viewed by clicking on the Blurb link.

OCA - Printing Experimentation

One of the biggest challenges I have faced throughout this course (as I begin to look at the professional presentational aspects of photography more seriously) has been accuracy in printing colours and tones. It has been an absolute minefield, although I have taken steps to try and get the best results that I can with the equipment that I have.

My tutor gave me some excellent feedback on my last assignment, to point me in the right direction (which I have taken ‘on board’), but I decided to take it a step further, in order to ensure my prints were of a quality and standard that I would be happy with for my final exhibition (and final assignment submission).

I use an iMac (or MacBook) computer, attached to a HP B9180 Pro printer for all my prints. I have recently calibrated the monitor using a Spyder 3 Pro. The paper that I normally use is ‘Lyson Archival Quality Pro Photo Gloss’ (265 gsm), which was chosen some time ago after some experimentation using a variety of different papers from different manufacturers (Canon, Kodak and some lesser known makes). This has always given me good results, with the exception (as has been pointed out by my tutor) that there is a slight lack of ‘deep’ black (although this has often been overcome by tweaking the ‘blacks’ slider in my Camera Raw software).

As I am using a HP printer, I thought it might be beneficial to use HP paper, especially with the inbuilt printer/paper profiles available with the B9180 Pro. I therefore took a single photograph and printed it using the following papers (which I obtained in small index sheets from the Photo Plus Show at the NEC last year) (some of which were specialist papers, for the sake of experimentation):

HP Professional Semi-Gloss Contract Proofing Paper (235 gsm)

HP Hahmemuhle Watercolour Paper (210 gsm)

HP Aquarella Art Paper (240 gsm)

HP Artist Matte Canvas (380 gsm)

HP Premium Semi-Gloss Proofing Paper (240 gsm)

HP Everyday Pigment Ink Gloss Photo Paper (235 gsm)

HP Professional High-Gloss Contract Proofing Paper (200 gsm)

HP Hahnemuhle Smooth Fine Art Paper (265 gsm)

HP Professional Matte Canvas (430 gsm)

HP Universal Instant-Dry Gloss Photo Paper (190 gsm)

HP Advanced Glossy Photo Paper (250 gsm)

HP Premium Plus Gloss Photo Paper (286 gsm)

HP RC Matte Photo Paper (200 gsm)

HP Professional Satin Photo Paper (300 gsm)

HP Premium Instant-Dry Gloss Photo Paper (260 gsm)

HP Premium Matte Photo Paper (210 gsm)

HP Premium Vivid Colour Backlit Film (285 gsm)

I also experimented with another manufacturer’s paper, printing on the same paper but using two different printer profiles:

Ilford Premium Satin Inkjet Photo Paper (250 gsm) – printed using (1) HP Premium Satin Profile, and (2) using Other Inkjet Paper Profile.

What struck me was the incredible variation in both print quality and tonal range. I was very disappointed with all the Matte papers, the colours and tones within which I felt were very subdued. The speciality papers I also found very disappointing, although the HP Artist Matte Canvas gave quite an interesting finish (although unsuitable for the intentions of this project). Despite the wide variation in brightness and contrast, I felt that the best results came from the Satin and Gloss papers, with the Ilford Premium Satin (printed using the Satin profile) giving me the most satisfactory results. 

OCA - Assignment Four Feedback

I received my feedback for Assignment 4 a few days back, and am (once again) really pleased with the feedback. It’s extremely useful getting constructive criticism in order to propel me into new ways of thinking (or simply to encourage me to pursue avenues that I have only ‘dipped my toe’ into). I have been working hard to try and ‘define’ what my project is about, and through experimentation and tutorial guidance, I have honed it into something that I now feel passionate about.

Despite my deep interest in photojournalism, I have become more and more absorbed in the ‘fine art’ side of photography (not least of which because of the theoretical studies that I have done on the course), and this has really focused my final project. What started out as a very generic idea – ‘Workers’ – which was to be done in a photojournalistic style, has been modified and changed into an artistic ‘idea’ of marrying poetry (in a written sense, through the means of the haiku) with a ‘syllabic’ photographic interpretation of the poem. Through this method, I am hoping to portray the ambiguous nature of warfare, with its multitude of meanings and feelings for those involved (both directly and indirectly) by photographing those whose work will (and has) brought them into contact with it. The uniform they wear (camouflage material, known as DPM: Disrupted Pattern Material) is symbolic of warfare, but this in itself is ambiguous; the very nature of camouflage is to make it appear as something different. I have tried to display both the ‘blending’ (and almost ‘dreamlike’) nature of camouflage, but also the strangeness that camouflage can bring to a scene, when worn within a manufactured environment.

My photographs are therefore meant to provoke discussion, and encourage interpretation of meaning within the viewer, whatever that may be. My tutor has (throughout the course) encouraged me to let my images tell their own story, rather than me forcing the point to the viewer, and I hope I have managed to achieve this in my final selection of work. All images are captured moments, but I have included both sharp, intimate detail, interspersed with ghostlike patterns strewn across the frame by the use of long exposures and movement.

The ‘Haiku’ is a poetic form (originated in Japan) that has 17 syllables (5, 7, 5 over 3 lines). The images for my final ‘exhibition’ were therefore chosen to represent a single syllable (the metric as opposed to the actual word) within the poem (and would therefore be hung with 5 images in the top row, 7 in the middle, and 5 images on the bottom row). The poem is written below:

                                    In our dreams we wade

                                    Through a sea of camouflage

                                    Slipping and sliding

Elegy to Havana

I have recently come back from a trip to Cuba, which was a truly fascinating experience. Havana especially was remarkable, but I have to confess that I didn't feel quite the way I had expected about it. Friends who had been there were hugely complementary of the atmosphere and the culture, but my experiences of the city were quite different. I spent 4 days photographing various elements of the city, including the people, the buildings, the cars (very cliched, I know) and for a while I couldn't quite put a finger on why I felt a certain negativity, until I happened upon a scene outside an old cinema that had the title 'Elegy' written on the hoarding, with a man sweeping up below it. That was it! The city felt like an elegy; a lament for the dead. It seemed to me as though Havana was in mourning; the buildings crumbling, the cars coughing and spluttering and the people repressed and desperate for air, for life. I may be wrong, and as a tourist it is so difficult to see beneath the surface, but Havana felt like its soul had been taken and it was waiting (longing) for happiness to arrive.