Year Evaluation

This year in photography has been very new and very different to anything that I have done previously, it has helped me develop these different skills that have helped me develop a passion that I have had from childhood. I started off the year with a slight thought that this subject would be a breeze, I would be spending my time photographing and it would be relatively easy, however as the year went on I realised that actually, there is so much more to photography, and there is so much more to taking a good picture than just aiming and pressing a button. I have learnt how to tell a story through something, I have learnt how the saying 'A picture says a thousand words' is actually so accurate. I have learnt how to express myself in a different and creative way. This project at times has pushed me to my limits, with the sheer amount of work, and at times the emotional attachment that I have had to the topics that I have been shooting have made me think about myself and how I have grown as a person. The amount of contextual work was also very heavy, therefore I have also developed my evaluation skills. Unit 1 was hard to start off with as I hadn't used cameras in the way that we now do, so not only was I finding my feet with photography as a subject but also with my camera skills. The topics in this unit were very basic so this was more developing my skills rather than looking at the story behind what I was shooting, this came when we started adding developmental topics into this unit and going onto Unit 2, where I chose to do Issues, I took this topic very seriously and connected with it well, this is why I feel that this project was a turn around for me not only with my photographic skills but personally, and I think because of that my passion for photography grew and I learnt about myself and put everything that I had into the pictures which made them possibly show more emotion. Photography has also made me grow in confidence, having to work with others and ask models to act in certain ways has made me more confident around people, in my unit 2 I did a very exposed shoot which also meant that I came out of my shell with the people in my group. The work in the studio was so much more fun in my eyes as I like the control and the almost social aspect to the shoot. Going out and shooting on location there are so many more aspects that need to be controlled and so much more could go wrong, and you can do much more sensitive topics in the comfort of the studio. I think that in photography I have just loved spending time doing something that I just enjoy doing and making myself better at it, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and when setting tasks for myself I strive to do everything I can to make it to the best of my ability, so by doing this course I have meant that I can make my photography better and use this to my advantage in everyday life, however with photography I haven't liked the amount of contextual we have had to do, this obviously wasn't the area that I was most passionate about and it was very time consuming, however I still learnt from this and it has helped me to become good at juggling time pressures and developing my evaluative skills because although I find it easy to criticise my work I haven't ever really been able to compliment it, and these skills will help me personally as an individual but also with my other A Level subjects because there is always room to evaluate in your work!