It was recommended a notebook is kept to record various aspects of my course and photography in general. I have kept this with me and I have found it very useful to jot down things that spring to mind that I don’t want to forget. I have also listened to photography podcasts on my journey to work such as one called “A Small Voice, Conversations With Photographers.” I have gained a huge amount from listening to these and have noted interesting things in my notebook.

Colour coding – my notebook has been highlighted so I can easily identify different types of information at a later stage :

Ideas

Unit 1 5th Feb to 15 March

Travel to work each day so there will be down time waiting at some point in the routine : take a photo so you keep practicing and keeping composition skills alive – if at the same place each day you could evaluate the change over time

On my way to work there is wall art which would be good to photograph regularly because the plant at the top of the art changes with the seasons and therefore changes the art

A tree with daffodils underneath is also an image that could be taken regularly during my early morning commute and observe the change over time

iphone has the technology to produce long shutter or slow shutter speed silky water shots in a much shorter time so you don’t need a tripod or technical knowledge

When in a snowy scene (recent trip to Norway) shoot images that look black and white but arent, and have just a bit of colour in them

Pauline Goyard fine art portrait photography – create geometric portraits – create a big black cirdle in the middle of a white backdrop – dress the subject to complement this background

Tunnel photos – this could be created with family portraits for something different to display on the walls

Bradford dull winters day in the park, colours are very dull browns, greys and little foliage, this could form the backdrop and contrast to the amount of bright blue painted objects in the park such as sign posts, fencing and park benches and buildings

The architecture of derelict stark buildings that show their form ( recently saw these in Bradford) are a great theme for a series of black and white photographs

When I travel back to Zimbabwe, gather flame lilies ( my mother’s favourite flower) and recreate an image with the flower petals forming a frame around a printed photograph of my mother and re photograph this – inspired by the Nalini exhibition produced by Arpita Shah

Photographers

Unit 1 5th Feb to 15 March

Emil Pakarlis: runs a phone photography school – a mobile phone can be used to concentrate on, framing, teh subject, light and composition so you can practice on this – it frees up the distractions a DSLR camera brings. “editing is like applying make up, use it to enhance the natural beauty”

Robin Maddock (Our Kids Are Going To Hell, 2009), Engerland 2017 – British Documentary Photographer. The work was of drugs busts etc as he followed the police doing their work in the UK. The photos taken then would not be allowed or would be a lot more difficult to make nowadays with safeguarding policies, compliance and overparenting

“People like to look into a world/life that is not normal”

Pauline Goyard, fine art portrait photographer “you can spend so much time finding your style that you then end up being trapped in it” Has a great Instagram account for ideas. Her inspiration is Sue Bryce, her favourite photographer.

John Blakemore : a British photographer who held a book making workshop which a fellow student attended

Shona Grant is a photographer who has a very useful website full of resources and has been very helpful to a fellow student making a tunnel photo book

Aaron Schuman, John Clowe and Karl Blosfelt (nature and architecture) were mentioned by students at a study day I attended in Bristol

Daniella Zalcman – a documentary photographer based in London. She made work on the government operated Indian residential schools in Canada – interestingly she shot the photos on a phone and a film camera. It is called Signs Of Your Identity and they are double exposure portraits She also mentioned that only 15% of photographers are women which is a shocking statistic

David Alan-Harvey (Magnum Photographer) “Tell It Like It Is” done aged 23 and he lived with a black family in Virginia to document their lives. Growing up in a middle class family with a maid he became empathetic to their plight of apartheid and the injustices.

“Most people haven’t got a creative eye, you have to show them the product and give them a good service and show them”

“Art often stems from a personal struggle – so always be in a state of struggle to be creative”

“complete your work! only a few do this and you may fail and make mistakes several times but dont give up – it’s the small percentage success that defines you”

Mark Power (UK photographer) Magnum. 26 Different Endings (2007) London landscape – the Treasury Project (2002) restore a 19th century historic monument “A gallery collection of images is different to the images you would choose to make a book about the work”

“You can only really sequence about 6 images at a time, then take a break” In a series – can’t all be amazing wow photos – too shouty! You can have blank pages in a photobook. There is always that Mount Everest photo, the one you really struggled to get so you really want to include it – but no one else knows or cares so you need to be objective. You need filler images between the great ones.

Annie Collinge – fine art portraiture – her advice from Martin Parr : “when photographing strangers, do it really quickly for a more natural and less awkward situation for them”

Arpita Shah : Nalini Exhibition : the use of video for the artists statement was great for me as I like to take on information in this way rather than reading. Lots of great ideas about how to exhibit in this. Ie the social media wall, a huge image of the Taj Mahal.

Questions/Things to Think About

Unit 1 5th Feb to 15 March

Image storage : dedicate time each week to organise and structure images in a naming convention and tagging

Should I use my iPhone for serious photography work? Are the photos produced from my phone ok for printing?

How do we get candid shots of children nowadays in a world of overparenting, safeguarding and compliance?

Resources / Practical Stuff

Unit 1 5th Feb to 15 March

Get an underwater case for my Phone for holiday

Snapseed is a good app for editing

Pauline Goyard website is very good and full of resources – so is her instagram

Procreate App, drawing on a tablet with an epen

Snap Mad : large prints cheap 270gsm

Bristol Bound : book binders ( Tobacco Factory)

Womanphotograph.com : directory of female documentary and editorial photographers available for freelance assignments (all have a min of 5 yrs experience) – created by Daniella Zalcman