Final Image

Photography has not ceased with sending in my work for assessment.  We have had some exciting weather this week, despite not having the snow experienced by the rest of the country.  Earlier on in the week I went out into the Lincolnshire Wolds looking for some dramatic light and stormy skies.  I was not disappointed.

Final Reflections

It is amazing that I am already at the end of another module and now wait for my assessment result and look forward to starting Level 3.  In my second reflection, after I had received the results for my previous module, I noted that I was disappointed with my result having hoped for 60% and only gaining 56%.  I concluded that, as I had only had positive comments for my assignments, my actual photography was at least OK and I suggested that my weakness, perhaps lay in the contextual side of my work.  During this module I have worked very hard to redress that imbalance, whilst at the same time maintaining a high level of photography.  My tutor has been very supportive in this and I hope that there is a distinct improvement in my work.

I have enjoyed all aspects of this module, despite finding the assignments at first reading daunting. They did prove to be challenging.  Assignment 1 gave me the opportunity to improve on the similar assignment from my Landscape module and I enjoyed doing this.  My tutor felt that the standard of photography was high and agreed with me that the contextual side of the work as weaker.  To this end I spent time and effort improving my self appraisal for the assignment.  I found assignment 2 quite daunting but in the end achieved a great deal of satisfaction from my completed book cover for Far From the Madding Crowd.  I particularly found Assignment 3 satisfying and enjoyed working with my tutor to arrive at a suitable brief and then fulfilling that brief to my tutor's exacting standards.  Assignment 4 proved to be the greatest challenge for me and, in retrospect, perhaps I did not select the best of subjects for my review.  In my reworked essay I worked hard to incorporate my tutors suggestions to improve the work.  This is an area of my practice that will need concerted effort at Level 3.  Perhaps Assignment 5 gave me the greatest satisfaction and I thoroughly enjoyed photographing the Tour de France as my event.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this module, gained much experience and, hopefully, improved the standard of my practice.  I now look forward to Level 3.

Assignment 5: Covering an Event; The Tour de France. Response to Tutor's Comments.

Yet again I was delighted with my tutor's comments for this assignment.  It began:-

A great assignment Mike, your passion for both the event and the photography comes through clearly. You've meticulously delivered to the assignment brief and the interest in your shots by a potential client gives a nice finishing touch to the assignment.

You've got great coverage, key moments and a lot of human interest. You've set a high standard for yourself in your selects and it’s abundantly clear that this is the outcome of a lot of dedicated effort. 

It was felt, however, that some images had been over-processed although it was commented that this was purely a matter of opinion.  To this end I revisited the images and decided on some to reprocess.  In Lightroom I made virtual copies of some of my shots in order to save the original processing and then began from scratch with the originals, apart from the cropping.  This time I only set the white and black points, adjusted the exposure, reduced the highlights and opened up the shadows slightly if necessary.  I didn't adjust the clarity, vibrance or saturation at all this time.  I think that, personally, I prefer my original processing, but, as my tutor says it is a matter of personal taste.  I actually think that it might have been the quality of the light on the second day: it was the middle of a very bright day and I did have problems with highlights and shadows.  For this type of photography I prefer the soft light of a bright but overcast day.

I include my reprocessed images below.  The originals can be found in my previous blog and I shall submit both for final assessment.