On Thursday we visited Canvey Island & Leigh on Sea to do one of our regular marketing jobs on behalf of a developer. Saw this girl outside the hairdressers .. and took a pic (after asking permission). See more pics at our flickr account.
Went to the final session of the photography course last night and we all had to show our project work. Interestingly the group had reduced in size since the first session and by last night there were only about 7 of us left .. Here are a few of the photos I took for the ‘shoe’ project. Might take it a stage further at some point and take pics of other people’s shoes – but these are some of mine ..
Am working on the final project. Hand in date is April 10th. Here’s a shot from it.
Well, we are nearing the end of the ‘advanced’ photography course. I’ve got about a week and a half to come up with, produce & edit my final project – and I still haven’t got the foggiest about where to start – or what to do.
It’s not the course I hasten to add. It’s me. I have had lots of ideas but done nothing with any of them. Even while I write this I should really be working away on the project. If I could get on with it now, there would be much less of a rush at the end.
The course has been great. David is reassuringly calm and knowledgeable and patient. The speakers he organised (Christophe Dillinger and Andrew Jackson) were inspirational in completely different ways. Christophe has a wild and quirky approach to photography. He seems to want to break all the rules, and is taking his own unique path. His results are often strange, non-conformist and sometimes downright weird. It’s not to everyone’s taste by any means but I admire his courage to create his own path.
Andrew, on the other hand, is much more conventional by comparison. His images are still challenging and, coupled with his stories about how and when they were taken, take on a whole new meaning, particularly his South African pictures. It was fascinating to hear his experiences of getting briefs from magazines and papers and then having to think on his feet when doing the shoot – to keep the editor happy and also to fit in with the subject of the shoot who was often difficult, or short on time. Add in the problems of weather, lighting, venue, equipment etc it all adds up to a scary account of the life of this photographer.
Other sessions on the course have included a photoshop overview, a studio session with two models and only the barest of guidance allowing us to get it wrong and then learn how to get it right. Plus David went through various styles of photography and the work of a number of photographers.
All in all – it’s been good fun. And I’ve met one or two people who I hope to stay in contact with when the course is finished. And I’ve finally taken my camera off Auto.
I just need to think of a theme for the final project. Better get on with it!
Wanna do a photography course and live within travelling distance of Birmingham? Here’s the link:
http://www.fotofilia.co.uk/
We’ve had to present our first photography project on David Rann’s Advanced Photography course.
I spent a while trying to decide what to do. I thought about doing photos ‘in the style of’ Michael Hughes. He buys cheap souvenirs of tourist attraction and then holds them in front of the actual thing and takes a picture. I thought I could try it with things nearer to home e.g. substituting a toy car for my actual car. It did work but it just didn’t look that good.
I mulled over the other themes (Heros, The Circle, Me Myself I, Blow Up etc) and decided to do it ‘in the style of’ Robert Doisneau. The main things that struck me about his photos were that most of them are square, black & white, of people, taken in his home town, and tell a story. So I got up really early on a Sunday and went into Worcester (in the rain) and took a few pics. You can see them on the Photography > Photo Projects page. http://www.markwakefield.com/project-photos
Hope you like them. (Unfortunately this page only shows rectangular images)
Last Wednesday I attended the first session of a 10 week Advanced Photography course in Birmingham at David Rann’s Fotofilia Studio. ‘Why choose advanced?’ I hear you ask. Good question. I suppose the answer is that I am much less concerned with the equipment and more interested in the ideas behind the picture.
Luckily this is exactly what the course is about. There is much less emphasis on the equipment and more on the thought process behind the creation of the image.
For our first project we have to produce a series of pictures based on a theme. Currently I am trying to decide which of the themes to adopt – and then I’ll have to work out what photos to take.
So it’s not a case of wandering around hoping to spot a good photo. It’s all about planning & preparation in advance of creating the photos. A more methodical and deliberate approach. See – I’ve leant something already!