Assignment 2: Feedback

I have to admit that I was unsure at only receiving an email response as feedback to my second assignment, so was quite pleasantly surprised yesterday to get my Tutor Report Form for both Assignments 2 and 3.  As both reports were very positive I have been in a good mood ever since.  


First of all a couple of quotes from the preamble to the response for assignment 2:

• "You have provided a selection of bright clear images on subjects which can be interpreted as exciting, provocative, shocking and completely absorbing."
• "I can say that your work is quite impressive at this level and it robs me of the opportunity to write a critique with too many criticisms."

However it was not all good, Alan pulled me down a little for the lack of self critique in my write up.  I normally try to analyze each piece of work from the viewpoint of how I would do it differently, for some reason this time I chose not to.  I think two things happened, first I was in a hurry, for which there is no excuse as I was way ahead of schedule, but secondly this was a very spontaneous body of work and my normal mode of thinking is that to criticize means to go out, rework and resubmit - clearly not an option for images of a one off event.

However, I will take the time here to critique the images:

1. Dykes on Bikes - The main issue with this was distance from the bikers, I think I could have achieved a better angle by being closer and shooting across the front line of bikes, however, this would have lost that spontaneous moment in the image.  Additionally I would have lost the sense of the front of the parade.
2. Guys - I really regretted missing getting more of the guy on the left side of the truck, he was wearing outrageous false eyelashes.  Better thought on shutter speed would also ahve provided greater sharpness in the image
3. Bored - Not much more I could do with this one, the crop was very carefully done and the image was one of a sequence - I simply like it
4. Aztec and Devil - Again I suffered here from issues of sharpness deriving from poor equipment selection that morning, I really needed f/2.8 zooms on a full frame camera, not the slow zooms and APS-C camera I chose for the sake of lightening the load.  I should have suffered some more for my art.
5. Looking at you - No comment, it works
6. sau - Another that would be difficult to criticize.  This was a moment in time captured on the fly and would never appear again.
7. Attitude - The key change I would make here would be perhaps the framing, either out to fully include the spray of feathers or in to bring more attention to the face.
8. Orange - This is the photo that my tutor liked the least and I can understand that.  It is a very conventional portrait of a very unconventional subject.  Alan has suggested a tighter crop to bring attention to the reflection in the sunglasses.  I had also thought about using a different but also very striking close up here.  The two images are at the end of this list
9. Less than Angelic - I still think this image would have been better if there was eye contact, however, it did not happen and the image presented is still intriguing, what is he reading, why the feathers.\
10. Preacher -  Difficult to improve as it is a spontaneous capture, perhaps more of the guy with the red shirt in the background to increase the context of the image.