Joining the RPS

Well, what a surprise! I got home on Friday to discover that my wonderful parents had bought me a gift membership of the Royal Photographic Society, and waiting for me on the doorstep was a lovely glossy introductory pack from the RPS. Wow!

I’ve had a little time to peruse it, and had a look at what I get for my membership. I was excited to find that I can choose one of the ’special interest groups’ to join for the year (I’ll be going for the Nature group), and I’ll automatically become a member of my local Regional Group – and that my Regional Group seems pretty active, with plenty of events organised fairly locally.

I’m hoping it’ll be a great opportunity to really push on and improve my photograpy, keep me inspired and motivated, and broaden my photographic horizons. And of course, there are the distinctions.

On the OU T189 course, it said that those who do well in T189 may want to consider submitting a panel for the RPS Licentiate (LRPS) distinction. I’d already looked at many of the successful LRPS panels on the rps website and was in awe of them – they seem to far above where I am at the moment. But, having looked again, and looked at the support and encouragement offered by other RPS members, as well as the opportunity to attend local assessment days, I’m starting to think that this could be my major challenge of the year: To put together a panel for the ‘L’ distinction, attend an assessment day/workshop, and finally submit the panel to see if I can achieve the Licentiate distinction. I wonder….? What do you think?

T189 : Time to reflect

So, results have been out for a while and we’ve had time to reflect on them.

I was totally shocked by my results. I was hoping for something between 70 and 80%, and for some decent feedback on what are my next steps to improve.

my thoughts on the my results are:

• I’d have liked an explanation/definition of what the ticks, blanks or crosses meant, for each of the categories.
• I got crosses for one image that the marker didn’t feel worked for them (image 7, the colourized berries image). I wonder, given that i got crosses, how could 100% be justified? Or was it that it was technically OK, but just that the marker didn’t like it? Even so, i’m surprised at 100% given the evident dislike for that image, or what i did to it.
• I’d have liked a little more general feedback on ‘what to do next’ – how to improve my images, do i have a ‘developing personal style’ that i could work on? (i don’t think i have yet),
• I didn’t understand the blanks/ticks/crosses for “Digital Artefacts”. It perhaps would have been clearer to break this down into two categories : “Good use of digital manipulation” (ticks for good use, cross when it should have been used and wasn’t, or was used badly) and “No Evidence of Digital Artefacts” (ticks when it was digitally sound, and crosses when there was evidence of unsolicited noise, bad cloning, etc)
• I’ve had flickr comments back from a couple of members who also mark on T189 (but didn’t mark my panel) who suggested they might have marked differently… I really appreciate them having taken the time to look at my images and comment. But I do wonder how consistent the marking was?
• The detailed feedback made a comment that “this feedback doesn’t reflect upon your overall score” (or words to that effect) – I don’t understand how it can be separate from the overall score – i’d have liked a bit more of an explanation of this.

I originally took the course because i wanted to improve my photography. I wanted a motivation and purpose for taking photos, and I wanted to be able to see where I was going wrong, and how to capture those stunning images we see so often in explore.

Did the course achieve this for me? Yes, for definite. I now am much more critical of my own images, and can go some way to explaining why some photos ‘work’ for me, and others don’t. I feel i’m still lacking the artistic skill to produce really outstanding images, but I suspect much of that is down to some innate artistic talen, ‘an eye for it’, that i’m not sure i have. But i’ve definitely imrpoved my technical skills and ability to look critically at my own images, and those of others. And i’m definitely more motivated. For me, it was £165 well-spent.

The course had its problems, and there were definitely areas for improvement. But the course team are keen to hear feedback and use that to improve the course for the next lot of T189-ers. In a year or two’s time, it’ll be a fantastic course.

And…if there was to be a T289 (second level) course, i’ll be signing up for it like a shot!

T189 Results are out

The T189 results came out, and to my extreme surprise and delight, this is what i got:

Overall Examinable Score : 100%
Visual awareness: Outstanding
Technical quality: Outstanding
Written component: Outstanding

We also got some slightly more (but not very!) detailed feedback last week.  My panel is on flickr, and I’ve put all my feedback against my ECA panel (set), along with the general comments as well. www.flickr.com/photos/kate-and-andrew/sets/72157603310882…

Basically, this is what i got.
For all images except image 7, i got ticks in every box except Decisive moemnt, horizontals/verticals, and evidence of digital manipulation (which were all blanks)

For these two images, i also got ticks in ‘decisive moment’

For image 7 (below), I got crosses against light/colour/texture and colour/tonal properties (guess the marker didn’t like colorization!), and ticks for composition, background, exposure, foxus, and DoF (blansk for decisive moment, horizontals, evidence of manipulation).

The general comments on the panel were :
These are all stunning images with great visual awareness. The only image that doesn’t work for me is shot 7, about which i would ask ‘why’? However – you have a supervb visual style – very well done

And, for Technical quality
First class. Well done

Week 10 : ECA Panel

The task for week 10 was to put together a panel of 10 images for the ECA, and complete the written part of the ECA. I spent lots of time with friends on the T189 Flickr Group looking at images, and asking them to critique my images – I gained huge amounts of help from them, which helped me to look at my images more objectively.

My starting point for putting together the panel of images was to read, and re-read, the information about the ECA and how it would be assessed. It seemed to me, that the key information was:

This ECA has been designed to allow you to demonstrate that you have acquired skills and knowledge taught in T189.

the instructions also listed a number of aspects on which we would be assessed -

(i) Seeing (visual awareness) (30 marks)

Here the assessors will assess the panel of ten images as a whole, using the following criteria:

• Composition and cropping – Do the images demonstrate skills and knowledge of composition (using form, pattern, texture, colour, lighting, cropping, cloning)?
• Visual creativity – Do the images show some imagination and creativity with good use of light and colour in sympathy with the subject?
• View point – Have suitable or interesting view points been chosen?
• Decisive moment – If the images include live action or photojournalism-type grab shots, do the images reveal skilled choice of shutter release moment?
• Variety in use of camera/image editing – Do the images communicate different moods, ideas, narratives (for example different lighting conditions or digital darkroom techniques)? Repetition of similar images should be avoided.
• Overall impact – Is the editing, selection and sequencing of the material well considered to display the material to its best advantage? Repetition should be avoided. Do the images/panel communicate with impact?

(ii) Technical quality (30 marks)

Here the assessors will assess the panel of ten images as a whole, using the following criteria:

• Exposure – Is the exposure appropriate (are highlights burnt out or do shadows lack detail?)
• Colour and tone – Do images display appropriate control of colours or colour casts?
• Focus and sharpness – Is the main subject sufficiently or correctly in focus? If there is movement in the frame is this handled correctly for the intent? Does the image suffer from camera shake?
• Depth of field – Is the control of depth of field appropriate for the subject or intention?
• Digital artefacts - Is there evidence of over-sharpening or poor cloning or any other digital artefact?

Technical creativity – Is there creativity in the use of basic photographic techniques taught in the course, and has this been handled well?

I decided to find 10 images that fitted as many of the above criteria as possible, and also demonstrate a range of photographic styles and techniques.

These were the 10 images I selected: Kajo’s Flickr Panel

Week 7, Assignment 7:

Upload some of the images that you have created as part of your work in Activities:

• 7.3.2 – Composing images in the frame to alter their meaning
• 7.3.4 – Visual narrative
• 7.5.1 – Exploiting conventions

Upload six images in total. You should choose images from at least two of these activities.

I enjoyed this week’s experimentation immensely. it’s something I have never, ever, done before, and it was rather fun to see what the results might be.