Rather lax posting to this page - 7th March 2014

I was trying to blog using my iphone yesterday after I had been to see the Lord Lichfield exhibition at Mottisfort Abbey in Romsey and found that I had not posted here since 2012.  I have found this module challenging but am working through my final assignment at the moment.

My final assignment is not assignment 5 - that of a 'Covering an Event' which I completed last year but assignment 4 - 'A Critical Review' which has had me struggling to get it together.

My two year study period ends in July this year (2014) and I should have this last assignment completed by the end of April.  That will enable me to finish up and tidy up all the outstanding items from the exercises/projects and suggested improvements from my tutor on previous assignments before putting this module to bed for assessment later this year.

OCA Study Day - December 7th

Just noticed that there's a study day at the Hayward Gallery in London.  Sounds like an exciting day but a really early start. Luckily the Axminster line goes straight to Waterloo and the South Bank is just by the station. I love people watching and the time of the only train that gets there in time for an 11.00 am start at the gallery, gets in with loads of time for pictures.

Two of my previous tutors, Robert Enoch and Clive White, will be leading the day so I'm expecting some interesting comments. 

London here I come!


Sorry to say that I never got to this exhibition due to appalling bad luck with train delays .  The engineers decided to do emergency track repairs which entailed long diversions and this would have made the journey a total nightmare so I put it down to experience and look forward to joining another study day next year.

Moving on

Time for new beginnings and I have found my motivation to continue with this module and next assignment. The last few weeks have been very hard what with the poor winter weather, personal grief and other outside influences but now I feel I can put all my energies into completing assignment 3 within a good timescale.

Struggling to get on with it!

Ever since Christmas it has become increasingly hard to focus my energies and time on working on my next exercises.  Life and the universe have a way of interfering.  What with families, life and death and general clutter, I can't seem to produce anything of worth.

I was interested to follow a forum thread on 'has the fun element gone from picture taking  link here

http://oca-student.com/node/100066 

and I can really relate to it.  Sometimes my creative side seems to have dried up and I struggle to link new ideas to the exercises in front of me.  Other times ideas flow thick and fast but circumstances put a stop to it.

Things should get back to normal in the next few weeks and I'm determined to get back on track if it's the last thing I do.  I'm still waiting to hear back from my tutor about assignment 2 and it seems to have been a long wait to hear his comments.  Perhaps today his report will come in the post.

Lacking confidence in myself

I have been struggling with Exercise 5 in part one of the Progressing with Digital Photography, the exercise where you have to read the essay 'Understanding a Photograph' by John Berger.  I've read one or two other blogs but have failed to get much sense from this essay at all.

I was trying to describe my dilemma to a friend that I bump into occasionally and she gave me a real boost to my confidence when she told me that in her opinion I was as able as the next person and was able to work on my own ideas.  She thought I was a person who was very capable and if I was finding the essay critique difficult to understand then that was what I had to say.  Talk about giving me a real boost to say the least, I have real confidence to carry on with this exercise after I have written up the second assignment on creating a book cover.

Thank you Margaret.

Devon December meet up

Finally met up with other OCA students based in the south west. Six of us met at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter this morning. Four artists and two photographers sat in the cafe and put the world to rights. Turned out we had several tutors in common and good to hear that two had met each other at a Bristol meet. Picture to follow.

And here it is:

From left to right - Elaine, Dorothy, Maggie, Jennifer, Teresa and Julie

Good to know that there are others in the same boat as me, struggling to finish assignments and hit those deadlines.

Working on Assignment 2

Whilst I'm working on the exercises for Project 2 I've read ahead to the assignment for this section and am putting together thoughts to complete it. I've always been interested in design work and this assignment - design a book cover - has really grabbed my interest.

When I read all the way through it I realised that I had started off on the wrong tack. I have decided to feature the book "Far From the Madding Crowd" but to pull the design into the 21st century rather than use an old fashioned design.  Then I reread the instructions and it tells you to take your own photographs and this would be difficult as the book is set well in the past.  I know there are set ups depicting how life was then but it's more a question of time rather than place.  I've fallen behind on my assignment completion date and I want to get it finished as near to the end of November rather than let it stray into December and get caught up in the Christmas rush.

I've chosen this book because I know the book so well.  It's been one of my favourites for many years and I could see myself living life in those times so well. Now all I have to do is visualise how I want the cover to look and I'm away.  To see my progress check out the link above for assignment 2.