Formative feedback
Student name Penelope Merrett
Student number 514985
Course/Unit FiP
Assignment 5
Type of tutorial (eg video/audio/written)
Written
Overall Comments
It’s good to see the continued experimentation paying off here. You’ve managed to turn a visual idea into a consistent series of images about a living experience of nature. It’s also good to know there’s consistent thinking behind this experimentation too: to build up impressions of place by using more that one image together. This is about the experience of being immersed in a large natural space exemplified in your title “Having a lonely time”. In some way your pictures reflect the paintings of Marc Chagall; the dreamy, colourful, layered surfaces with multiple subjects combined. Certainly the overall effect is painterly with colour and texture having a powerful effect. A good final assignment.
I know you intended these as postcards (small) but they would be far more absorbing as large prints (like paintings). Why? Because the pictures are somewhat like colour fields, in the tradition of late Monet. Choose one or two to print out quite large – at least A2 size, or 30” x 40” inches. I think once you’ve got them on your wall, they’ll begin to resonate in a way you just can’t perceive in a tiny print. Have a look at the Metro website (they’ve done a lot of my prints):
https://metroimaging.co.uk/professional-photo-printing/
Actually, I’d like to see these a double this size on your blog too. Let them really fill the screen.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Nethy Bridge
Strong single point composition drawing the eyes to the two walkers in the lower right corner. And the texture you’ve created here layering yellow gorse flowers over the tall pine trunks creates a beautiful sense of immersion in the scene. This kind of layering of nature can be hard to get right aesthetically but you’re on the right track because you’ve got an authentic feel for the experience of nature and you’re bringing that into the pictures so you’re avoiding the over-romanticized or purely picturesque.
Also good experimentation with the Layer Blending Modes in Photoshop to find the most effective blend.
Granton on Spey
It would have been good to send me the layers as individual images here because I may have adjusted this a touch. I reckon you need a bit more of the texture and flow of the running river around the fisherman. Also, I wonder whether more watery textures could have worked here.
I’m not sure whether you’re using the Eraser to rub out (or Layer Masks to do the same thing) parts of the image. Perhaps the layer on top of the fisherman could have been reduced just to bring him out a bit more clearly. But it’s really your choice. Clarity may not be your aesthetic.
Ballindalloch
I’m not sure exactly how you’ve achieved this effect, but it is really nice. I think you could even remove the two cows lower left and focus the attention purely on the amazing blur of green hues, forms and textures. The path itself is the key centre subject here, like a metaphorical or allegorical way.
Craigellachie
Interesting that bringing in a very man-made structure like this stone bridge changes the nature of the aesthetic. Maybe it’s somewhat brutal in relation to the flowers and the greens.
The gate beyond also affects the mood, bringing it all ‘down to earth’. I think it could have worked better if the arch was very distant in the frame.
Fochabers
This high viewpoint brings in another element of distance. You may want to selectively blur some portions of the view – particularly bottom right corner – which snag the attention for being so sharp in a very mixed focus field of vision.
I think you should continue to experiment with the high views and how to combine them with other images. It may be fruitful. A high viewpoint can give you a lot of texture and patches of colour but you need to find a way to effectively combine them. The difficulty is that such a big view has various small frames or graphic points of interest in it, and in the most successful images here you’re dealing with only one point of clarity in a colour field.
Buckie
This is one of my favourites. Maybe the act of slightly obscuring the view of the sea and that winding tidal inlet works as a signifier of memory. I think this may become a key ulterior subject matter if you pursue this project. Something about partially obscuring, deemphasizing, mixing or “distressing” the main image, has a psychic resonance.
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
I liked your daffodil deconstruction a lot. Really well lit and well sequenced.
Research
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Some good relevant research into photographers using layers and multiple exposure. And some really good, clear thinking about this final assignment.
Learning Log
Summarize how you have applied what you’ve learned from the course to your assignment photographs. Also note down what you’ve learned from other photographers in executing the assignment.
Your blog is fine. Really good to see the comments you’ve had from other students and the connections you’ve made to them. It’s so important to get different viewpoints, different opinions and appraisals of your work. Note that one also made the connection to Monet!
Suggested reading/viewing
Context
In text.
Pointers for the next assignment
You’ve definitely begun to express a visual, tactile, almost sensuous relationship with nature and landscape. This is something worth building on. Congratulations on finishing FiP. I hope you will continue to study with the OCA and develop your artistic vision.
Foundations in Photography 