Assignment 3

So here it is:
In this assignment I took the last 2 assignments remarks and wrote much more over each photo.

And as well I have added the tutor feed-back. The individual feedback after each photo and the general feedback in the end:

Assignment 3 –Oxford, My Home Away From Home

In assignment no.3 I was asked to take photos of ‘my neighbourhood’. Just go outside and picture the places which I walk everyday but with a different look, a theme to choose for myself which will picture my neighbourhood in a special angle.

I have been living in Oxford for the last 3 and a half years. When I just arrived here everything was so new and different and exciting, it felt nowhere but home, it felt like a very long trip outside of my country.

I came from a country with 15-20º c in the winter to a 0-5º one, I came from a country so hot that the only way to travel, even for few minutes, is with air conditioning to a city that most of the people prefer to bike even if they have cars, I came from a country that the only time in men’s life to wear a suit is when he gets married (and even half of them won’t do that) to a country which a suit can be a school uniform for an 8-year-old child. I came from a vary dry land to a country full of rivers and canals. And so many other differences.

In this assignment I have decided to take the photos that represent some of those differences between my temporary home and the one which waits for me to come back. I do appreciate that that won’t be an easy subject to be presented to an English person which can not understand what is exceptional from a place that he probably don’t know of, but this subject was the most appealing to me when I come to photo my ‘home away from home’ and I do hope I can pass a little the feeling of exciting new beauty and different life.

This are the photos I could not took if I were home:

Photo No 1:

Cherwell Boathouse.

Taken on the last days of January big freeze, from Wolfson College Bridge. The sun has just come out the day before and already most of the snow has melted, but the air and the water was so clear and cool.

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
70mm	7.1	1/200sec	200

Tutor feedback: This is a good starter image with interesting lines and shapes. Just watch that you are able to hold the camera straight on these kinds of shots, as the picture looks a little tilted. If you have editing software you can adjust this a little in Image – rotate.

Photo No 2:

Canal Boats

Taken on a very misty morning on late January, in one of the Thames canal that crosses our city. The sun is just coming up, straggling the clouds to send some beams down. I love the hole mystery look it gives the photo, not only that we don’t have boats or canals that cross are cities, we lack with mist too, which always gives me a theatrical-mystery kind of feeling. As I wanted to capture as many as light that I could I used a wide exposer and a high ISO number.

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
300mm	6.3	1/400sec	400

Tutor feedback: This is a good follow on shot from the first, well done.

Photo no.3:

A worried student

Taken next to the Sheldonian Theatre in the city centre, I capture this student which looks like he’s in a great hurry or just worried. I went to that place deliberately to try and catch bike riders as it is one of the things Oxford had blessed with. Maybe it’s the amount of students or the flatness of the city which create so many bike riders here. I stood in this spot for more that an hour and taken dozens of photos of people riding bikes. It was very hard to choose one photo out of all. The variety of people was amazing. In the end I picked this photo as I liked the look on the riders face.

To catch the rider him-self with a blur background I used a very low exposer and followed the subject with the lens even after pushing the shot button for 2 seconds. For the low exposer I had to ‘pay back’ with a high f-no. and ISO no.

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
228mm	6.3	1/25sec	200

Tutor feedback: A nice strong movement picture of a man on a bicycle showing a good level of clarity on his face alongside the moving parts.

Photo No.4

A child in a suit

Taken next to the Seldonian theatre, as I was trying to capture bike riders I noticed suddenly these boys in a school trip walking Oxford. I have to admit that even today, more than 3 years in this country a child in a suit is a very strange sight for me. I can blame the hot weather and other reasons that are long to discuss here but we just don’t wear suits. Not to work, not to special events and not to weddings. Just don’t wear them. So to see a teen-age boy with a suit we’ll always be strange for me.

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
228mm	5	1/60sec	400

Tutor feedback: This is a lovely portrait photograph, Orly, of the boys in uniform. You have captured a wonderful naturalness to the boy’s face. Ideally I would have liked to see you use a better depth of field, as the only truly sharp bit of the picture is around the boy’s tie. This may well be deliberate, as I appreciate that you were looking to capture the uniform element.

Photo no. 5

The sun rise after a stormy night

Taken in the back of my house after a very snowy night, my family and I went outside to see how the world looks like after it was snowing. The sun just began to go out so the upper part of the photo is brighter than the lower part. Well, this could never happen in my back yard in Israel…

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
29mm	7.1	1/100sec	200

Tutor feedback: You have given strong reason for the snow shot, and captured it well.

Photo no.6

A barbed wire after the frost

Taken in Wolfson college grounds, I was taking a walk to try and catch this beautiful place after the snow and freeze when I saw the hair caught on a barbed wire with the drops of the melting frost. To give it a more cold feeling I have edit it to black&white photo.

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
55mm	5.6	1/80sec	400

Tutor feedback: This is a stunning picture, Orly. The black and white conversion is appropriate here as it helps us to look at the more interesting elements of the frame. You have captured the water droplets of the frosty weather perfectly. Well done.

Photos no.7 and no.8

A tourist taking photos

Oxford is one of the most toured cities in Britain. Being an hour drive from London and having so much history and interest (and very good public transportation from London) make Oxford a tourist target for all year round. Even in this time of January-February I have spotted tourist all weekdays, and in summer days you can’t really walk the streets. Sadly I can not say the same thing about my home, even tough the weather is inviting and the country’s beautiful, the politic situation left us with a small amount of tourist.

Taken in the Sheldonian theatre, I was following groups of tourist for few days, and taking their photos while they are trying to get to the perfect photo. I loved this subject (photos of people taking photos) and while taking the photos one lady noticed me so we end up taking each-other photos. I love this photo especially with the 3 other tourist in the back-ground standing as if they were modals…

Technical details photo no.7:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
148mm	4.5	1/200sec	200

Technical details photo no.8:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
88mm	5.6	1/160sec	400

Tutor feedback: These images are very similar in subject, composition elements and purpose within the collection. They both work very well as images, but I feel that it would be best to choose one or other of them here to illustrate your point about tourism.

Photo no. 9

A black cub

Taken in Richmond street in the city centre, this photo might look to obvious but the black cub and the red brick Victorian houses in the back ground looked like a must photo in such a subject.

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
70mm	5	1/100sec	200

Tutor feedback: The black cab picture is interesting as we tend to associate black cabs with London. The colour of the Victorian building behind adds a nice contrast, though ideally I would like to see the small amount of hedge removed from the top of the cab.

Photo No.10

Observatory road

This is a photo that for me marks one of the basic English architecture – the train houses, but I didn’t want to find only a train house but a renovated ones. I like this photo as you can see the endless raw of beautifully coloured houses but you can still see the red brick chimneys in the end showing the old stage of the house.

Technical details:

Focal length	F-Number	Exposer	ISO
70mm	7.1	1/200sec	200

Tutor feedback: This is a strong picture of the row of renovated coloured houses. The picture is well constructed and has been cropped appropriately to give better perspective. Well done.

Tutor general feed-back:

Thank you for submitting the work for Assignment No. 3, Orly. You are making steady progress on the course and showing strong commitment.

I have continued to break the assessment into the usual four sections, but with a few small changes, in keeping with the project brief.

Communication

Your intention behind the pictures is the key to the success of the images and you have provided excellent detailed information on your intention behind the shots. You have given the theme the title of ‘Oxford, my home away from home’ and this really helps our level of understanding of the pictures. Your accompanying notes give me a strong idea of your new connection to the area and the comparisons that you make daily with your home country.

Design and Selection

The ‘home away from home’ theme as a general topic is apparent through all of the pictures, and the range of people and landscape shots give us a clear picture of the kinds of differences with the life that you have left behind, along with the climate variation. The aim here is to create a body of work that flows from picture to picture seamlessly, and I feel that you have chosen appropriate images for this flow to be apparent. The image colour tones work well together and there is a strong wintery element to the collection.

Creativity and Originality

The individual photographs have been thought about clearly, are well composed and work well in their positions in the set.

Technical Skills

You have used a variety of depth of field throughout the assignment and have been rewarded with an interesting collection of pictures.