Assignment 3 - Tutor Feedback

My Tutor has been busy so it has taken a little longer than usual for him to get back to me.  The wait was worthwhile as he was most complementary about the majority of my work which is available here.

Without going into too much detail he was pleased that I had managed to produce a number of striking images.  The ones he highlighted as being my weakest were:

Yelow Peril, where he felt that the photograph didn't explain itself well enough.  He thought that I might have tried to take more control of the shot to get a better image.  The trouble with street photography is that the only control that is usually available is a quick movement to change angle a trifle, a zoom to frame the shot, a setting adjustment and the moment when to press the shutter release.  I don't often try to pose my street subjects unless they initiate a dialogue and make it obvious that they are amenable to being positioned.  For me the expression of the spiky haired girl was a moment captured and probably not repeatable.

Bad Hair Day, could have been better framed around the second girl with the blue hair.  In this, my tutor has hit the nail on the head as I have re-looked at the photograph and realised that the gap between the two girls was too big and/or I should have given her a bit more room to the right of the image.

Floating High, suffered from slightly bland colours and the composition wasn't as strong as the others.  I also felt that this was my weakest image also because of the lack of colour both in strength and area.

Where's my Super Mum, was a good image but we both felt that it suffered from having a subject that was a little too large for the frame to be a strong colour accent.  I had my 100-400 mm lens on and was working the crowd from above so was zooming in tight onto my subjects.  When I took the shot I didn't really have a colour aspect image in mind which is a shame as I could have easily backed off a little to get the desired effect.

The shots that were singled out for praise were:

Travelling in Style, which was considered a striking image but it was suggested that I might have cropped out the top of the bus to create a more surreal image,  I don't actually agree with this as I think it would have just looked like a taxi going past an advertising board and the inclusion of the people at the top of the image gave an extra dimension.

Petal Pushers, an orgy of colour.

The 3rd Encounter, where the colours worked particularly well against the jet-black background.

Orange Box, where the composition was complemented.

Gardening Shoes, was considered vivid and an excellent observation.

You Looking at Me, was thought to be a great image with 3 simple elements coming together well.

The Colour of Coffee, showed elegance, good geometry with great balance.

Life Preserver, was thought to be the best of the bunch providing an incongruous juxtaposition.

I'm chuffed that this assignment was so well received particularly as I found it so hard to discover the colours that were needed in real life situations.  I probably worked through three months of work to get the images I chose and was pleased that my efforts weren't wasted.

Other areas of comment included my blog which showed plenty of good work, particularly as I had managed to get to the Henri C-B and Capa exhibitions.  

Finally it was suggested that I should keep my assignment captions simple, just place and subject rather than trying to enforce the narrative.  I guess they would also appear more professional that way... point taken.