Week Two Round Up

Well, another busy week of University has passed and by busy I actually mean very busy. A lot has happened, I started my real timetable of seminars, lectures and workshops and have even been given details of my first brief!

I have also been given plenty of 'homework' to be getting on with. I received a lengthy piece of work to do from all but one lecture, but work was needed to be able to participate in it!

So far I have started critical studies, this attempts to get us to see work from a new perspective and helps us to create new and original ideas. Practical work was fun, we learned the proper use of light meters for ambient and flash applications; I am still wondering when to use incident or reflected light, though.

Friday was perhaps the most daunting for most, we had to pick a photograph from our Sculpture Park Trip to present to our group of 50 students in a "Concerned Client Task". I was the last of the day to present and I actually received the best feedback for my presentation style, critique on my chosen photograph wasn't bad either!Below is the image, chosen to represent 'form' with elements of 'tone' and 'line'.

Canon 20D - ISO100 - f/5.6 - 1/400

I'll leave you with some important news. I bought a Filofax.

"School Trip"

Today we had a 'School Trip' to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It took me over four hours to get there, and four hours back, so it was a long day.

It was a good experience, we were asked to take photos based around the basic elements of photography, which was fun. I also got to see what other peoples' work ethics were like. The images that I captured will be used later on in the course though I'd like to edit some now!

The Year To Come

For the very first time the class was given a hint about what we will be spending the next year of our lives doing. We were also given our first real brief outside of creating a profile picture for our Moodle accounts!

Today's course introduction, while telling us about how the year will be structured, also excited us by hinting at the first four tasks. The class of around 70 students was split into 4 groups, each group is going to take it in turns to do Large Format work, Medium Format work and also 2 modules on DSLRs! I'm in the first group to take on the Large Format work so I'm quite excited!

I'll end this post with a short message about my feelings on one aspect of modern University. Why must the emphasis be placed on free alcohol, cheap alcohol and getting drunk? I don't travel for 2 hours to be told where the best bars are or to be given drinks vouchers. I travel to learn about photography.

Induction Week Continues

My very second day at University was the classes' first opportunity to share its work with each other. We shared images with our allocated groups, discussed how they were taken and how it relates to our career aspirations.

My chosen image was my candid shot of a man at the temporary art installation, on Birkrigg Common, Harmonic Fields. It shows a high contrast, photojournalistic style that I hope to develop. Unfortunately the Mac and projector combination reproduced the image far too dark. Feedback was good but the lecturer was quick to point out that a modern photojournalist must also rely on other means to support themselves, unless part of Magnum.

I am pleased to say that the group I have been allocated to has proven wrong my assumptions from Monday, most had produced high level work though still carrying some niggles. Real critique was at a minimum until Ninja John, the wildlife photographer, gave some real insight into industry standards.

Again this was a short day, a half day in fact, so very little happened. I expect even less is going to happen tomorrow so stay tuned!

University - Day One

As hurricane Katya's dying breaths pass over the UK with winds reaching 70mph I had my first day as a photography student at Blackpool and the Fydle College. Cutting out the two hours of traveling, my first day of the three year course was somewhat uneventful.

After an introduction from the staff we moved onto the first photography related activity of my time at the college, a pub style photography quiz. The quiz, while fun, allowed me to get to know some of the students I'll be sharing the college with. Many of the students I teamed up with appear to share the photographic passion, they have interests in most aspects of the field, a necessity if you want to get through the grueling course.

However, there were some individuals that appeared to have no idea what should really be expected of them at degree level. Photography at University or College level has a bad reputation, the fees are extortionate and there is no guarantee of a stable job at the end. This is something shared by most courses. The thing that struck me is lack of knowledge, I have read about students qualifying with barely a basic knowledge of photographic terms and techniques, have I come to work with similar people? As far as I could tell, and in no way am I elitist, they had very little idea about basic abbreviations or even definitions. And since when did camera shake become a integral part of controlling depth of field, a genuine suggestion from a fellow student.

I'll have more stories to some in Tuesday's edition!

Canon 50mm 1.8 EF II - Review

There's a reason why the reply to the the perennially asked question "What lens should I buy?" is usually to go for the 'nifty-fifty'; they're fast, light and a great all around focal length. But should you spend your money on the Canon 50mm 1.8 II? I'll try to make your decision easier with this short review.

With a retail price of just £99.99 in most shops and probably a bit less on eBay it's certainly an attractive prospect. It's actually the most inexpensive lens Canon produces so it should be within the reach of any budding photographer. However, with such a low cost item there come some drawbacks.

Shot at the maximum aperture of 1.8

Undoubtedly one of the first things you will notice is how light this lens is, at just 130g this is one of the lightest lenses you'll come across. There is one good reason for this. Just about everything, bar the glass, is made from plastic. Plastic body, plastic focus ring and a plastic mount. There's no escaping it. As a result the lens feels very cheap and therefore not particularly durable, I know how un-durable the 50mm 1.8 II can be; my first one fell apart after dropping only 2 feet onto a table.

Bargain Find #2

It's not uncommon to see plenty of old cameras in Charity or Secondhand Shops, there's usually baskets filled with generic, no-named 35mm rubbish that shouldn't be bought for 50p never mind what must have been payed new.

My most recent find was one of few that are made where I actually recognise the name of the brand. Nestled amongst the bric-a-brac was a gray pouch reading 'Ilford', a name I associate more with the manufacturing of film. Inside the pouch was a grubby looking Ilford Sprite 35, a strikingly angular camera produced in the mid to late '60s.

 This simplistic camera has only one form of control over exposure , three aperture settings. Using the 'Sunny 16' rule you can choose from f/8, f/11 or f/16 with what I read to be a 1/100 shutter speed in an attempt to make a correct exposure. There was an option of external flash, which probably would have helped, unfortunately there were none to be seen at the recycling centre. 

My Sprite, as can be seen above, does not seem to be fully functioning. The film advance lever seems to have no effect but to cock the shutter. My hopes of running film through it appear to have already been thwarted until further notice.

Hopefully I'll find a way to get it up and working! Until then.