I've done it. Set up a blog for the OCA Art of Photography course. I had a look at the website yesterday and got in touch with my tutor who responded comfortingly quickly. I read about learning logs and sketch books (I don't know if a sketch book is relevant for me - perhaps a book of photos I've taken? I need to think of a way to print them easily). I must also think about backing up my work to avoid an IT disaster...... and keep an eye out for local photography/art exhibitions. My first reference here is an article I read in the Observer about a man who lives in Paris called JR who transforms all sorts of buildings and scenes with huge pictures of women. Utterly inspiring. I need to work out how to link to this now. Back in a mo........http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/mar/07/street-art-jr-photography
I don't know how to do this. Does this link mean anyone looking at the blog can look at it?
Well, I've just done my first Exercise which involved looking through the camera with one eye and at a scene with the other. I found it incredibly difficult to know when I'd got it right - so that the scene through the viewfinder and with my naked eye were the same. That's the bottom picture. In fact even now I don't know if I've got it right. And again, having printed off the photos knowing how far to hold the picture from my eye so that it was about the same size as the scene. It was helpful knowing that it needed to be a comfortable viewing distance and that did feel about right. So maybe I'm not so far wrong. The other two - looking through the zoom at its widest view and then through its furthest telephoto setting - didn't feel difficult. I don't know how to lay out pictures how I want them on this blog. So that's the next thing to do. The other thing is, there's no way of knowing on my camera where the standard focal length is other then remembering roughly where it is when looking through the viewfinder. The lens does not change its protrusion as it zooms in and out and there does not seem to be a setting (other than the one inside the viewfinder). I suppose that's why I'm doing this course and it's only the first exercise so I shall keep calm and carry on to the second one.
