Essay of the course

I see photography a quicker version of drawing. Having done both Art and Design and Media Studies at A-Level, photography seemed a natural route to go down, combining the main aspects of both subjects.

I have really enjoyed all the work we've done on the course, especially the  light pictures; my group were able to take some spectacular pictures. Walking around taking pictures has been really fun as well, it's completely different from the structure I had last year at A-Level. The studio work with Dervyn has been interesting as well; last year, for my Media Studies project, the film made was almost all in shadow - we filmed at an old house in Headingley instead of a studio, but learning more about lighting has be fun.

All the teachers are really nice and don't seem aloof, like teachers normally seem to; none of them are intimidating, although willing to still tell people off for being late etc. They seem to prefer creative teaching, or letting us teach ourselves a bit, which is good for a creative course. I have always found actually doing what I’m supposed to be learning much easier to memorise than being told how to do it.
The fact that most of the teachers are working or have worked professionally is also very encouraging, knowing that they are speaking from experience, and not saying what they have just been told to say.

I have enjoyed learning about the different camera functions and more about how cameras work. Knowing more about cameras and picture taking has changed what for and how I tend to use my camera. Its also been nice to learn through trial and error as opposed to being told what and how to do something by a textbook, and not being able to test it. Its also very different to learn in a group after 2 or more years of working solitarily, its more useful than I expected, as well as a bit more fun.

So far we have learnt how to use aperture and shutter speeds; and how to use them to our advantage. Such as a slow shutter speed will leave light trails and needs a small aperture otherwise it will overexpose; a fast shutter speed will capture split seconds of movement, and is used extensively in sports photography, it uses a large aperture so that the photograph does not underexpose. A large aperture is also used for macro work, the larger the aperture, the closer to the object the camera can be; the smaller the aperture, the further away the camera has to be, this is often used for landscape work.

I quite like that we have been told how to take photos, but that we’ve not been pushed in to any specific objective - other than to help us learn the how of what we’re doing. That has been fairly open to personal preference - although it has been made clear that our own freedom of choice will be limited in the working world.

I would say that so far the course is for me. Hopefully it should get even more interesting after the half term when project work starts.