I'd be interested in medium and large format drum scans (if they were at an appreciatively lower price than other established labs) but the poll only allows one selection.

This has turned into a very interesting discussion since I last checked it.

Thanks for the Vivian Maier link Smeggy, I'd not been familiar with her work before either.

Even though her work was no doubt spontaneous and unstructured, looking through the images there does seem to be some sort of cohesiveness which holds them together as a set and which have her own style about them, though I would struggle to put into words exactly what that was. This is indeed a good example of someone who has a natural eye and doesn't have to make conscious extended decisions about how the image will look before they press the button.

Smeggy's interpretation of 'shooting willy-nilly' is at a bit at a tangent as to what I was getting at. Perhaps I should have phrased it more along the lines of "my best shots up to that point were a disparate bunch which all looked like they had been taken by different people, a bit like a crap version of a 'post your best photo' competition."

Don't get we wrong, I think shooting spontaneously using gut instinct is fine, and a very liberated way to make images, but not being a Usain Bolt or Jimmy Hendrix, I felt a structured course of study would help my development as a photographer, and it has.

I agree photography courses are not for everyone or the answer to everything, some of the greatest 'togs are / were self taught; but for some people such as myself, the benefit of taking the course far outweighs the cost in time and money. To have made so much headway under my own steam could have taken half a lifetime!

Cheers Ronnie, glad to be of help.

Yes, my HND was in photography, but there seems to be scope to get prior photographic experience as well as qualifications taken into account if I remember rightly - though it costs a pretty penny to have your evidence looked at!

By coincidence I was reading the very same book before I signed up, and finding out Micheal Freeman was responsible for the photography courses was one of the things which made me think the course would be worthwhile.

For me, the course has forced me to get out and take photos and given a direction and structure to my work, rather than just snapping willy-nilly and reading gear reviews online which was what I had been doing prior!

Along with all the reading around photographic and art history, philosophy, aesthetics etc which are required, certainly in the higher levels, it has really broadened the way I think about image-making, beacause you really need to study photography, rather than just take pictures on the course.


NJ

Hi,

yes, I'm currently doing the BA in Photography with OCA. It's a distance learning course whereby you are assigned a tutor and are sent the learning materials through the post. You can correspond with the tutor etc and even meet up periodically for face to face tutorials.

Can't speak for the beginning modules as I was lucky enough to get Accreditation of Prior Learning as I already had a HND, so started at their Level 3 modules, the equivalent of the final year at Uni and the ones that count toward your final degree grade. The elementary modules may well be quite basic as it's open entry so no prior quals / knowledge are needed as far as I'm aware. It's worth enquiring whether you could skip a level if you can demonstrate existing knowledge, there seemed to be some scope to do that when I started.

Ok - just looked at the link above and it paints a pretty accurate picture.

It seems to be a very well run and professional organisation and my designated tutor has been really supportive. There are forums etc to discuss the course with so you don't feel isolated, as can happen with distance learning. Michael Freeman (the photography book author) is on the staff, and the course are now accredited by the University of Creative Art who have some notable alumini.

The main thing you would need is bags of self-motivation, as deadlines etc are fairly flexible, it's very easy just to let things be put off for a month or two!

Hi Paul,

Really like no 2.

Can you give a few more details of the process - did you do this yourself or have it done some where?; what sort of cost are we looking at etc.

This is something I have wanted to try out after seeing an artist who paints onto glass using oils, and wondered if it could be done with a photo.

I saw this featured on the Strobist blog yesterday and have been scratching my head over it also.

I haven't got any coloured gels so maybe the Sainsbury's carrier bag I was using wasn't the best substitute.

Used the manual WB function, and managed to make the orange blurred image of the bag over the lens go a neutral colour, but failed to get the camera to use that as the 'base' WB on a subsequent shot when I put the bag over the flash. I just got orange highlights.

I would be interested to hear if anyone can get any further with it. Must admit I haven't consulted the manual yet to see if that helps.

Possibly could be deemed as mis-representative / misleading images - "Your ad showed it in the sand, so I thought it would be OK, mine got sand in it and now it doesn't work" etc. Dunno.

But even then, why pull all of them? I must say I quite liked them as images.

Indeed - it does seem like one step forward then one step back. One can only ponder at the reasons for pulling those images.

If you check out the link below and scroll down to the bottom of the page, the publicity pics are obviously aiming at something different to mud and rain.

Pictures of young people and familiy on beach with K-30


Plenty of fun, sand and smiles there!

I'd like to stick that thing behind my Sinar and see what come out!