rachelfmp-blog1

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FINAL EVALUATION

For my project I had to complete some contextual research as well as looking into photographers for inspiration. My final major project is about mental health in young people so I looked up some statistics to do with mental health in adolescents and children. I also did my own primary research by asking people to use one word to describe how they felt at their lowest moment. I would then use this information to influence my photography and the way I edited my final images. In doing this I became aware of the importance of primary and contextual research as it's surprising how much inspiration you can draw from a couple words.

My concept developed and changed quite a bit throughout the past couple months. I initially wanted to look into multiple mental health issues and present them using creative Photoshop manipulations. However, I wanted to draw more inspiration into my project by doing something more personal to myself and focused more on depression. I think my images that I've created present my theme really well. I wanted to use Photoshop to present each word that was given to me. I think each picture meets that well.

During my secondary research, I gained a lot of inspiration from Edward Honaker and the way he edited his images in a similar fashion to the way I wanted to edit mine. He was probably my biggest inspiration as his own work was very relatable and personal. I also really admired the work of Laura Hospes as similarly to Honaker, her work had a personal aspect to it and I wanted to take some self-portraits that were inspired by her images and style. I think that I completed this to a good standard although I feel that if I recreated it with better lighting I would have achieved better quality images. I also took a look at the work of David Hockney towards the end of the project and used the techniques from his work in my final image titled 'Broken'. In terms of inspiration I got from the world around me, one of my final images was created spontaneously when I drew inspiration from a train. I realised that it would be a brilliant place to shoot for the word 'lost' as a representation of journey. If it wasn't for that I would have struggled to create as good of an image. I personally feel that I have done extensive and sufficient secondary research. I've taken a look at a few photographers that have been inspirational to me and never felt the need to look further. A few times I did attempt to find other artists that inspired me but since there aren't too many mental health photographers that had the kind of style I was looking for I felt that the ones I had already looked into presented my project greatly.

One issue I faced during my project was during my Laura Hospes photo shoot I struggled with the lighting as I was taking the images quite late at night. To fix this I increased the ISO of my camera so that it made the images appear brighter. The only downside of this was that it made the images appear quite grainy. However, this was not too much of an issue for me because I feel that the pictures look good anyway. I also struggled with this shoot because I lost my tripod and was taking images on a timer. To combat this problem, I put a chair in my bedroom and placed the camera on top of it. Although not the best option, it was all I had at the time and pictures still turned out really good.

I planned out my time fairly well as I would plan a shoot the week before and then go out and do it. I wish I had documented this more on my blog though as it would serve as a reminder as well as evidence of what I'd done. I think I was quite well organised because I always knew what I had to do and kept up to date with my targets and feedback. I also kept to deadlines quite well as unlike the last projects, I didn’t feel too rushed towards the end. I think this is because of how well I planned out my time and completed tasks.

I learnt quite a few new techniques during this project including advanced black and white photography. This was an incredibly beneficial workshop for me as all of my final images were in black and white and I used this new technique to enhance them. To create these images, I used a 50% greyscale layer in order to keep the high quality of the image and used the pen tool to dodge and burn rather than the dodge and burn tools themselves as they can reduce the quality of an image.

I got on well with my chosen blog format because I have used Tumblr in previous projects and it has turned out well for me. I also created a brand new blog just for the final major project which turned out to be a good idea as I was able to make separate pages for each subheading.

I definitely did push myself to try new things for this project as one of my main targets from over the previous projects was to be more creative with my final pieces and experiment more with photo manipulation. I think I have achieved this target to a high standard as all of my final images have a lot of editing on to them which work with my project’s theme. I’m really glad I did this as I feel like I have advanced my creative thinking process and can image more ways I can create impactful images in the future.

I have evaluated my work consistently throughout the project in all my posts and more specifically, the blog the week posts. My only regret is that I only did half a dozen blog the week posts as during the last couple weeks I lost myself in my production work. However, I feel as though these posts show my progress well and have sufficient evidence of my constant evaluation. The only evaluation/reflection that I feel I have missed out on is how I managed my time. This is because whenever I make a plan I always change it and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If I plan something for the next week I usually get too excited and do it earlier or don’t have enough equipment and do it later. I find time plans to be stressful and although I tried to stick to one this time I didn’t evaluate it well and talk about what I was planning each week. I think my evaluation skills were quite good as I tend to go into detail with technical language and write about exactly what I’ve done and why I’ve done it.

I have received a lot of positive feedback for my blog which I agree with. This includes the way I have set up all of my links and my unit 9 work. Everything is really easy to navigate and I think that it presents my work and my theme really well. I went for a more professional look with my final major project blog as I wanted to take this a lot more seriously than the last projects as I really care about what grade I get this time around and I was aiming for a distinction.

I am really happy with my final images. I think they portray the themes behind them amazingly and they are exactly what I had in mind when I was planning out my project. My only regret with this is I wish I had done one more shoot with another subject but either way I’m still really happy with what I’ve done and don’t have a problem with any of the pictures. We are presenting our Summer show work on a website and I’m really glad about this because I think it will show the true quality of the images rather than having the colours altered by a printer which I know a lot of people including myself have had an issue with in the past. If I had more time I would create more imagery to put alongside what I have already done. However, that is just something extra I would do as I am already happy with the amount of final images I have.

I have used my English skills consistently throughout my blog. I go into a lot of detail on my blog posts and evaluations and I use sophisticated vocabulary and check my spelling and grammar as I work. I used Maths skills in my most recent final piece as I had to measure the width of the picture and then divide it by ten. I then had to measure 4.6cm each time I had to cut out another piece of the image. This was a good way to practice my Maths skills and I wouldn’t have been able to complete the image without it.

In terms of the character matrix, respect was an incredibly important aspect this time around. I had to really take into account that people were telling me incredibly personal thing about their lives and I also had to have a certain level of professionalism when discussing it on my blog. I think I managed this well and so my respect was definitely improved upon. My communication skills have been improved a lot as I have found it easier to participate in group activities as my anxiety has gotten a lot better recently. I found it really easy to focus on my drive for this project as I cared a lot about the subject I was doing and this made me really motivated to push myself to do the best I can. I didn’t work too much on responsibility although I feel like it was used when we went to the exhibition as we had to take into account other people’s interpretations of certain topics and behave well and bear in mind that are representative of the college. Working with people was a key part of my project which is something I have really wanted to push myself to do this year. I am happy with how I have advanced my people skills this project as I really feel I have improved on myself a lot. In the past, grit has always been an issue for me as I have struggled with deadlines a lot. However, I found it a lot easier to meet deadlines this time and I think that shows I have gotten a lot better and sticking to certain deadlines.

Managing stress levels wasn’t too much of a problem for me as I didn’t get too stressed since we had a lot of time to do our work. However, whenever things did get too much I’d take a short break to gather myself so that I could get back to working efficiently.

My work met the assignment brief as I completed both unit 8 and 9 to a really good standard. I am happy with the amount of work I did for unit 9 as I feel a lot stronger about my future and what I am going to do after the course. I think I’ve done a lot of blog work to back up my project that is creative and conceptual. In terms of my own brief, I created work that I think presents the struggles of mental health in teenagers excellently and I am really proud of the work I have achieved.

I enjoyed all aspects of this project as it was entirely ourselves and we were able to have our own unique briefs whilst sticking to the units we were set. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was when we did tasks that had nothing to do with our projects as it served as a distraction but if I was to look at it positively I would say that I could look back on it in a future project if it was relevant.

Overall, I am most proud of my final images. They turned out so much better than I had expected and I think it expresses my theme as well as my technical skills brilliantly. In the future I want to look more into mental health through photography as since it was such a personal topic to me I want to expand on it more and create even more imagery.

During my group critique sessions, I got incredibly good feedback that really motivated me to keep working at the level I was at. If anything I think what my peer wrote was too positive as some constructive criticism would have been really useful to help my improve on my work.

[rachelfmp-blog1]

CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH 

As I felt I needed some contextual research on my blog, I googled some mental health statistics to give me a good idea of what the truth is regarding mental health in teenagers. The results that I found are pictured above and they are quite shocking. The statistics about 70% of children genuinely upsets me as I think there needs to be more awareness to help children and prevent them from further issues later in life.

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FINAL PIECE EXPERIMENTATION 2

As I was looking back at my work throughout this project I realised that I hadn’t truly captured how I felt at my ‘lowest’ point with the word ‘alone’. This is because I feel as though there was another point in my life that was equally as difficult for my mental health and my word to describe this would be ‘broken’. I then thought about how I would go about presenting this in my project. I looked back on Hockney’s word and realised that a joiner-inspired image would be perfect. 

To create the manipulation I went into Photoshop and opened up one of my black and white self-portraiture shots. I then measured how long the image was by going into Image and then Canvas Size. It stated that the image was 46cm wide and so I decided to divide that by 10 to give me 10 4.6cm rectangles that I could use to cut the picture up. I went onto the Rectangular Marquee Tool and changed it to a fixed size of 4.6cm by 40cm. I then dragged each slice up and down until I was happy with the results. I think this is a really good image for my project as it presents my mental health struggles well and I think the physical broken image works well to present the emotional brokenness I was feeling.

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FINAL PIECE EXPERIMENTATION

For this image, I asked myself what is the one word I could use to describe the lowest point in my life? I chose the word ‘alone’ and I wanted to use self-portraiture and photo manipulation to present it. I thought that a good way of presenting the feeling of loneliness would be by darkening the outside of the image to make it seem like there is nothing around me and to draw the focus point of the image to me.

To create this manipulation I opened up the black and white version of the image I had created before and created a new layer. I then used the pen tool to draw a vignette-like shadow around the photo. I think this turned out really well and even though it was quite a simple edit I am still quite happy with how it turned out. I think it works well for my project and presents loneliness exactly how I wanted it to.

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MY PEER ASSESSMENT FROM JESS

We did a peer assessment task a while ago where we had to send each other our blogs and evaluate them. This is what my feedback was from Jess and I’m really happily surprised about what she’s said. It was really positive as she wrote a couple time that she feels as though I am working towards distinction level. I actually disagree with this because I feel like my work is more at merit level at most. I think there is a lot I could improve on including more visual evidence of my work and more experimentation. However, it was good to receive the feedback and see what someone else thinks about my photography.

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Unit 9 - Politics

Recently, the whole class had a conversation about politics and current events and how we can influence them. We learnt about young voters and how only 43% of young people that were eligible to vote voted in the 2015 general election. This is quite a shocking figure so I’m glad that the college is bringing it more to our attention. As I turn 18 before the election, I’ve personally taken a particular interest in politics this year and done my own research into the parties and their leaders and what and who particularly appeals to me. I’ve been looking at the manifestos for Labour and the Conservatives and during the class discussion this was what people were talking about the most. I was quite disappointed in some of the people in the class though as it seems that they’re only focusing on the current manifestos and not taking into account what the parties have done over the years and how they’ve impacted the country. However, it was really interesting to see what other people think about what’s best for this country and our future and to see different opinions and why they’ve formed them.

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FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT FEEDBACK

A week ago I had my formative assessment with one of my tutors. We talked about my blog and she was quite positive about it which I was happy about. Jen said that I need to do further experimentation and post more on my ‘production’ tab in my blog. I agree with this but I am trying to save that until the end when I am completely confident with my final pieces and what I want to present. Jen also thought that I should communicate with tutors more and expand my friendship group. With this I somewhat disagree as I do talk to tutors when I need support and I am very much an individual worker and like to stick to what I want to do. Bearing this in mind, I also understand where she is coming from just so that the tutors can keep up to date with my progress and make sure everything is going on at a good pace. In terms of my friendship group, I know why she gets the idea that I do stick to my two close friends in the class but there are others I talk to around the class and in other courses outside of college. For example, there are a couple people in the class I am really close with and hang out with outside of college that aren’t in my small friendship group and I met my current boyfriend in a different course as well as becoming close with his friends. Therefore, I don’t think that I need to expand my friendship group any more because I do have a lot of people inside the college that I talk to but sometimes the tutors aren’t there to see.

This formative assessment gave me a good idea of where the tutors think I’m at and how well I’m doing. I was really happy about the feedback I got on my blog work and I will definitely try to include more research and experimentation before the end of the project.

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PEER ASSESSMENT - MY FEEDBACK TO JESS

Today we had a peer assessment task where we were partnered randomly with someone in the class and we took a look at their blog and what they have achieved throughout the project. Pictured above is what I wrote to Jess about her work and it was really interesting for me to take a lot at someone else’s work that I haven’t seen before and give them some constructive feedback. I had to think a lot about the criteria and reflect upon the character matrix and whilst I was providing her feedback it made me think a lot about what I could do to improve my own work.

Overall, the experience was beneficial for me as I got to think a lot about what I can do to improve my own project as well as learn more about how other people have reacted to the brief.

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PASTORAL TUTORIAL FEEDBACK

Today I had a 1 to 1 with Chris about how I am doing in the course. It was good to express my opinion of the course and what I think about the current project. Looking back on what we talked about I am more aware of how much progress I have made mentally since the beginning of the project. Looking at the character matrix it is evident I have progressed a lot regarding my communication and people skills. I noticed this because I feel a lot more comfortable being in class and around people that are just acquaintances. As someone who has previously struggled with bad anxiety problems this was something that was really difficult for me at the start of the year. I think due to having the opportunities to share my work with other people in group crit sessions I have improved my communication and people skills greatly and feel a lot more confident when I am in college. I also feel that this is due to a job I recently got at Tesco which is very customer based and requires me to talk to complete strangers which is something I have always gotten worried about doing in the past. However, I am now finding myself able to talk to people with ease and not worrying about what they think of me. The progress I have made throughout this course has been most evident in this project and I think this is due to the creative freedom we have to choose our own theme and since I chose a really personal subject I feel as though I am able to express my inner feelings a lot more and not have to be worried about what people think about me.

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PREPARING FOR MOUNT EDGCUMBE PHOTO SHOOT

On Tuesday we will be going to Mount Edgcumbe to do a commissioned shoot. We will get a briefing on what to do when we get there but beforehand I thought it would be useful to do some research into the history of the estate so that I have a good idea of what to capture when I’m there.

‘Mount Edgcumbe is a stately home located in the grounds of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park. It enjoys a magnificent setting in South East Cornwall and overlooks Plymouth Sound and the River Tamar.

Mount Edgcumbe House was originally built c.1550 by Sir Richard Edgcumbe and its collections encapsulate the story of this fascinating English aristocratic family. The Mount Edgcumbe painting collection reflects the individual tastes and idiosyncrasies of the Edgcumbe family as well as demonstrating traditional collecting patterns. Notable works include paintings by the Dutch painter Gerard van Edema, Willem van de Velde II and two paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds.’

One of the first photographs ever taken was taken at Mount Edgcumbe by William Henry Fox Talbot which was over 100 years ago.

Mount Edgcumbe is owned by Plymouth City Council as well as Cornwall council and recently the funding the put towards Mount Edgcumbe has halved which means that they need a lot of support from tourism for upkeep. This commission will be really beneficial for the estate because we will be able to encourage visitors to the area through our photography as if some pieces are good enough they will be displayed on the Mount Edgcumbe website.

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FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY - BA (HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY

Whilst looking into Bournemouth university I decided I wanted to explore my options a bit more and take a look at what other universities could offer me. The first one that caught my eye was Falmouth. It is rated one of the best universities in the country for photography and the number one university for creative industries. This makes me feel quite confident about picking it to study at. I looked at some of the other courses the university offered besides BA (Hons) Photography including the Press & Editorial Photography BA (Hons) course but I didn’t feel as though it would be as beneficial for me. The tuition fees are likely to go up next year so although I have screenshot the tuition fees as being £9250, they are likely to be over £9,500 by 2018 as well as additional costs for compulsory trips etc. This isn’t too much of an issue for me as most universities cost around this much. I really like how Falmouth included a year by year of what we’re likely to do in the course which is detailed and informative.

Overall, I’m feeling quite confident about Falmouth and am really considering going there next year.

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BLOG THE WEEK - WEEK 9

The past week has been quite chilled out and so I didn’t do too much. We had a progression workshop where we got to see the courses that the main college offers that we can do once we finish this course. I was surprisingly underwhelmed by the workshops and was quite disappointed. However, recently I have been thinking about other universities I could go to so it wasn’t very useful to me overall. 

Also in the past week I took a self portraiture photo shoot for my project. I’m really happy with the way the images have turned out and I am also happy that I completed one of my targets from the previous Blog The Week which was to get more imagery done. I still plan on doing one more shoot if I can in the next week to really put the finishing touches on my project. I also want to explore other university options and courses that I can do after the course.

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LAURA HOSPES INSPIRED PHOTO SHOOT

After looking into the work by Laura Hospes, I found a lot of inspiration and really admired the themes in her imagery. I felt that this kind of style would work well with presented what I wanted to portray in my photography.

To create the images I put my camera up on a chair as I had lost my tripod. I then set the shutter release mode to self timer and set the timer to 5 seconds. This gave me just enough time to press the shutter and get into position. I found it quite difficult getting into position fast enough but I felt like 10 seconds would have been too long. The room I was in was quite dark but I still wanted the images to be good quality so I set my ISO to 200 which meant my shutter speed had to be about 1/30. This was not too much of a problem because I had the camera still on a surface and this prevented any unwanted movement.

The first image is definitely my favourite. I know it could be quite a controversial choice because of the fact that it is out of focus but I feel as though that is one of the things that makes the image what it is. It shows an unclear and foggy image of myself and I think that is really good at showing how I feel inside. As I have done with all of my subjects I asked myself to use one word to describe myself at my lowest point. The word I chose was ‘alone’. Another thing I quite like about this image is the fact that it doesn’t have a strong composition or apply to the rule of thirds. I did this to present a lack of structure in my life and how I don’t feel as though I fit in with society at times.

The second image is quite cliché but I’m quite happy with the way it turned out. I enjoy the range of tones in the image that range from quite bright to extremely dark and I’m happy with how I was able to create this tonal range whilst still maintaining the dark undertone I was looking for.

For the third and fourth image I was really thinking about the work of Hospes and tried to emulate the way she does her compositions. I used a sunken and relaxed pose to make the image feel more real and raw, seeming as though I am not caring about my posture and appearance which is really vital in showing the effects of depression on the way someone holds themselves.

Overall, I am fairly happy with these images. I think that they present the style of Hospes quite well whilst still maintaining my own style. I believe that it is quite obvious I was inspired by her work in this shoot and I think it has been really beneficial in pushing my project forward and presenting the themes and ideas behind my project.

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PROGRESSION WORKSHOP

Last Wednesday, we had a progression workshop up at the main college building to help us decide what we want to do when we finish this course. I signed up to the fashion media and marketing course and the commercial photography course.

The fashion media and marketing course involved us going around the college ‘trend spotting’ and just finding ‘flicks, kicks, macs and sacks’ that we thought were ‘trendy’. I didn’t really know what to think about this course because I kind of felt like I was judging people based on what they were wearing and I feel as though people should be able to wear what they want without being critiqued.

The commercial photography course was the one I was most excited about. However, I was really disappointed with the workshop because I thought we’d receive information about the course when in reality I left the workshop with no more knowledge about the course than I’d had when I’d entered. We were just given an expensive camera to take in turns taking pictures with that some of us didn’t even get to use. I felt like the lecturers thought that we weren’t very good at what we do as I often felt belittled and heard them question other students about why they were even doing the workshop if they weren’t a photography student. It all just seemed a bit rushed to me and I wasn’t impressed with this workshop at all.

Overall, the workshops have kind of put me off going to do further education and Plymouth College of Art. The pre-degree course I am currently doing is amazing but I think I’m going to branch out a bit more when I decide to further my education as I don’t think the college is offering what I’m looking for.

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BLOG THE WEEK - WEEK 8

This past week has been quite slow as I’ve not been able to get out and take the pictures I need to do. I’ve scheduled to do a shoot or two this Tuesday and Wednesday to progress my project even more. 

One thing I did manage to do last week was take a look at universities and what points I need to get to meet the entry requirements. I now have a strong sense of what level I need to push for and although I’m only required to get a merit grade I’m still going to push myself for a distinction as I want to do the best I possibly can.

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UCAS TARIFF CALCULATION

When I was looking at what universities I want to go to at the end of the course I discovered that a lot of them had a requirement for a certain amount of UCAS points. I looked up online how I can calculate my points and found this website called https://www.ucas.com/ucas/tariff-calculator that does it for you. I included my one AS level that I managed to get at Kingsbridge Community College and also my current course I’m doing. I put the grade as merit because I realised that this is the minimum grade I can get if I want to get into a lot of these universities and most of them require around 100 UCAS points and a pass only provides 72. This has given me a good idea of the kind of grade I need to aim for and although I only need to get a merit, I’m still going to push myself for the distinction grade.

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BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY - BA (HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY

I’ve been looking at universities and courses recently that I’ve taken an interest in. One that has really stood out to be has been Bournemouth University and more specifically the BA (Hons) Photography course. I’m interested in Bournemouth as it seems to offer a really strong photography course and isn’t too far away compared to some of the other universities I’ve been looking at recently.

 As pictured above I have screenshot the entry requirements as well as some key information I may need to know. One of the most important things I need to take note of is the fact that I need 96-104 UCAS points. I’m going to calculate what points I currently have and need to get in order to meet the requirements for this course to see what I need to aim for before the end of this year.