Today I finally submitted assignment 1 to my tutor, glad to get that out of the way. I sent a PDF by email but now have to follow it up with a CD and high res jpeg files which I will do later this week.

Now I just have to concentrate on getting the rest of my logbook entries up here on the site. I aim to do this over the next week and then I can continue with project 16 onwards.

This past week or so I haven’t written much in my logbook for two reasons; firstly that I’ve been setting up this site (and still have loads of backdated stuff to add) and secondly because I have been preparing to submit my first assignment. As this is my first assignment with the OCA I am keen to get feedback on my photos so have posted them for comments on both the OCA forums and on flickr (see the link on the right). I’ve had some excellent feedback and have improved a few of my photos in photoshop as a result. I now need only 1 more photo to complete the assignment and then I can package it up and send it off.

I’ve learnt from preparing the assignment that it is very important to seek the comments of fellow student photographers and also to review the photos of others and provide them with comments. In doing this it helps me to be able to critique my own work and improve them next time even before letting others comment. Sometimes when you’ve been looking at a photo for a while you miss the most obvious of things and they only become apparent when they’re pointed out to you!

I will be adding some more entries from my logbook in the coming days and once I’ve submitted my assignment I will be adding those photos to the site also.

So I finally have my site up and running and looking OK, albeit not how I would like. I’m using some software called Wordpress to run the site and although it’s excellent for using as a blog site, I haven’t used it before and it’s not going to be easy to get the site looking how I want it to. However, this blog will be running for a long time to come and I shouldn’t try to run before I can walk. For now I will accept how it looks and start getting my content on here, making any visual changes as I go along.

So far on my course I’ve been using a handwritten log book to record my progress which also includes printing, cutting out and sticking all photos that have formed part of my project work. My first target is to get all the hand written stuff up here on the site and then to use this blog instead.

You will notice that as I copy up logbook content I will change the publish dates to match the handwritten stuff so they will appear before this post and this records the same date that the work was originally written in my logbook.

Note: at the time of posting this I have completed the first 15 projects and am nearly ready to submit the first assignment.

This morning I took a series of 13 photos at varying shutter speeds as part of project 4. Using my daughter as the subject, I set my camera on its tripod and took photos as she ran back and forth in the garden, increasing my shutter speed with each photo. I used the shutter priority mode on my camera for this project in which I choose a shutter speed and my camera chooses an appropriate aperture size to give a well exposed photo (in most cases at least!). I used my remote shutter release aswell for these photos eliminate any blur caused by me taking the photo (and so that I could practice using it).

1/2s - very little of the subject is captured and in the time the shutter was open she had moved across most of the frame.

1/10s - much less blur at this shutter speed but still very blurry.

1/25s - less blur again and this time the subject is clearly a girl running.

1/50s - less blur and now some features are becoming visible. Note the hand that is almost in focus, due to the arms moving at different speeds whilst running.

1/125s - not much better than the last one but the features are clearer.

1/250s - the subject is much clearer this time but the blur is still present, this just looks like a badly taken photo.

1/320s - at this speed some areas of the subject are in focus whilst others (moving at different speeds) are not.

1/400s - slight blur is still present here, its difficult to see the legs clearly because of the exposure.

1/500s - again the blur is still there but slightly less than the previous photo, there is no clear difference in blur between different parts of the subject.

1/800s - some areas of the photo now frozen whilst other areas are still slightly blurred.

1/1250s - this is much better, most of the subject is clear with only some areas very slightly blurry.

1/2000s - at this shutter speed all areas of the photo are clear.

1/4000s - again all areas of the photo are clear. Beyond this setting the camera is unable to compensate adequately for the low shutter speed; the aperture cannot be made big enough to let enough light in.

The shutter speed at which the movement is completely frozen I would say is 1/1250s, this will very depending on the speed of the subject and on the relative speed of different parts of the subject.

After taking all the photos on the boat for project 8 I was in perfect mood for taking more. So when we stopped at the beach en route to our destination I couldn’t resist getting a few shots of the following campervan with a man sat drawing in the back. I think the fact that I had the confidence to take this photo of a random person shows that I am making progress, feeling more confident and am always on the look out for a good photo opportunity.

Today I had a hugely sucessful photo shot during my journey to the Isle Of Wight. Knowing that Project 8 was approaching I used the opportunity of a 30 minute ferry trip to capture the photos for this project. I spent the whole time walking around the boat taking photos of people and objects, sometimes waiting around for the right moment before taking the photo and then moving on. I felt much more comfortable taking today, possibly because I was a ‘tourist’ and people expected me to be taking photos and possibly because I was in an unknown place were I could not be recognized. I suppose I also felt more comfortable because my confidence is increasing with each day I go out to take photos. I was very pleased with the results and many of the photos have been included here with a brief description of each.

This was taken just before the boat was about to leave.

Again taken before the boat leaves

I took this photo because it depicted "many" which is one of the contrasts that can be used for assignment 1.

This was taken shortly after the boat had set off. I took this for assignment 1 but have included it in this set. I tried to capture the curve of the boats. I will later try editing this photo by cropping out the boats on the left and straightening the horizon.

I was still looking over the sides of the boat at this point and hadn't turned my attention to the people on the boat. I waited until the moment when the yellow boat line up with the yellow and red of the timber posts. Unfortunately I think the white boats make this a weaker shot than it would otherwise have been.

As the boat was turning I saw the shadow of the steps creaping across the wall. I moved quickly and managed to capture this photo. The shadow was gone shortly after I took this photo.

My daughter copying me at taking pictures of anything she sees!

This couple were enjoying the sunshine on the deck and were unaware of a keen photographer lurking.

I like this photo, it gives me the feeling of a scene from a movie.

This was one of the men working the boat, he was taking a quick break.

I'm sure this black dog will have been feeling the heat.

The bright orange lifeboat looked like an interesting subject but I don't really like the way the photo turned out.

This is a similar boat to ours going in the opposite direction.

I thought it would be interesting to take a picture of this sign but it would have been better if I could have captured it while someone was climbing on the railings!

I had to wait a while to take this photo because children were playing in front of it, once they had gone I moved in and captured the bright orange lifering against the blue deck.

A mother and child came out of a door ahead of me but I was unable to get them in focus as they moved away from me.

This little girl was enjoying herself dancing on the deck.

I thought man pointing would be interesting but he put his arm down before I had chance to take the picture. I waited around and luckily he did it again.

In this photo I tried to capture the bright yellow paint that stood out against the yellow.

My attempt at being abstract, this red valve stood out against the plain white wall behind it.

More people enjoying the sunshine. I'm sure the lady in sunglasses was watching me!

These are the funnels on the top of the boat.

I tried again to capture the bright yellow paintwork and I prefer this shot to the earlier one.

The final photo in the set. As we were heading to our car on the lower deck this girl was the only one left in her seat.

Today the two filters that I had ordered have arrived; a UV filter to protect my lens and a polarizing filter which I can use to minimise reflections off surfaces such as water and glass. I have added these two filters to my equpiment list.

They have arrived just in time because I am going to the Isle of Wight tomorrow which will be a great opportunity for taking photos.

This evening I took some photos for project 3. I set my camera up in the garden on the tripod and took some photos of a bench at different aperture sizes using the aperture priority mode on the camera. The three photos are given below:

f/5.6

f/22

f/36

In the first photo you can see that the central rail is clearly in focus but those that are nearer and further are out of focus, this shows a narrow depth of field. In the second photo there are three rails in focus and the rest are out of focus, there is a greater depth of field than in the first photo. The final photo shows all of the rails in focus and has the greatest depth of field.

Today I set out to take some photos for project 2. This was largely unsucessful for two reasons; firstly because I could not understand why everything was appearing in focus when I only wanted part of the view to appear in focus, even when I was shooting at the lowest f-stop, and secondly because every photo I took had a blue tint.

To address the first point, I later realised that everything was in focus because I was using the default zoomed out 18mm focal length which has a good depth of field, for this project it would be useful to use a longer focal length). The second point I realised was because of the white balance setting which I later changed to auto.

Having been faced with the above difficulties to overcome, I took the following largely uninspiring photos on my way back to the office just to satisfy the outcome of the project.

Focus on near object

Focus on far object

Both photos were taken with a focal length of 90mm and an aperture of f/5.6. It is clear from these photos that the eye is clearly drawn to the area of the photo that is in focus whilst the eye discards the area that is out of focus. This can be used by the photographer to choose where the eye looks within the frame and how much or little of the subject or background is in focus.

For this project I decided to use “Urbis,” a modern museum building in Manchester, as my subject. I took three photos with different focal lengths.

The first photo was taken with the lens zoomed fully out (18mm focal length):

18mm Focal Length

At this focal length it was possible to capture most of the building. The building appears smaller than it does when viewed by the eye. The photo has a good depth of field.

The second photo was taken with a standard focal length (50mm):

50mm Focal Length

At the standard focal length the building appears the same size in the photo (when printed) as can be seen by the eye when held a short distance away (30cm). It wasn’t possible to capture all of the building at this focal length and it wasn’t near enough to make the architectural detail the main focal point of the photo.

The final photo was taken using a focal length of 135mm, using the full zoom of the lens:

135mm Focal Length

At this focal length the objects in the photo appear larger than they are in reality. The zoom has allowed a photo to be taken that would otherwise be difficult to capture (due to the height of the building). The narrower viewing angle means that much less of the building is captured in the photo.

Each of the photos has a very different feel to it. It is clear how the focal length and angle of view can used to completely change the photo that is taken and each focal length will be useful for a given situation.