Moving on

Katrina's email has given me food for thought.  I knew I hadn't fulfilled the brief completely but hoped by creating an A4 calendar would suffice after I'd spent £6 per A3 print and got it wrong.

I'll have to redo the calendar as I suspect if I don't produce an A3 calendar it will go against me quite badly.

I'm disappointed that only 2/3 of the pictures I used were deemed good enough for Katrina as I thought what I put together showed how a boat was constructed.  Oh well, better luck next time.

Tutor's Comments part 2

Katrina Whitehead

to me

Details

Hi Jennifer

Printing at A3 size shows the assessors the level of technical quality in your work so you have actually done more than is required on that score. It's just that because you did a smaller calendar which has pixillated text, the overall appearance of this then brings down the quality of your prints in the calendar. They ask for an A3 calendar in the brief, which means that your overall images could be a lot smaller in size. i would recommend that you revisit this assignment as I think it was a really interesting area to delve into, but you need to treat it slightly differently. 

You had a lot of the shots similar to 'ribs exposed' and I would like to have seen one of these on the front cover as it is intriguing and the viewer asks questions surrounding what it is or what part of the boat it is. I have also made positive comments surrounding 'Tender'. 

I would return to the boat yard for a re-shoot with some semi-posed images of the individual people next to a boat. Try with them concentrating on their work (playing around with depth of field) and also smiling/staring into the camera, stood next to the boat or their workbench etc. I think that what you are trying to say (through connotation) is that this is a real craft which is quite niche and not many people know about the people who make these boats. They may have pre-conceived ideas about who the 'team' are and may think that they are a lot of old men! What you have done is exposed the reality that there is both men and women working on these boats of differing ages and backgrounds. This is what you need to showcase in your final calendar - the personalities of the people next to the boats. 

Have a look at the work of commercial photographer Andy Snaith who photographed Dry Stone Wallers to see what I mean:

https://andy-snaith.squarespace.com/ 

Regarding Assignment 5, it is just asking you to do a presentation of a genre of photography that interests you. You could do a PowerPoint and record your voice, or you could set up a video camera and film yourself taking for 15 minutes in front of a PowerPoint. You appear to be drawn to Portrait Photography, so I would concentrate on this genre of work, looking at the history and some classic examples. This is an exercise in showing that you have understood the subject and are able to talk about it in detail. Please ring OCA if you do not have a video camera or recording facilities and they will be able to advise you on how to prepare your presentation. 

Hope this helps
Katrina