Final lap for this Course

Began reading the material for part 5 of the Course "The Art of Photography". What a change from the earlier parts of the Course. From the relatively simple basics you find yourself faced with a totally different type of challenge where your interpretation and skills, or lack thereof, are the key components. Another series of firsts in my experience of photography and a whole new way of looking at photography.

The only time that I have put a number of pictures together on one panel was for my submission for the Licentiateship of the RPS. Whilst there was the need for the pictures to work as a whole they were not required to tell any story or to have a direct relationship one with the other.

On page 142 of the Course material we are asked to consider two different types of photograph.

Given the inquiry into the 7/7 bombings in London the Press have taken to showing again the images taken on that day by people who were present by chance. The image of the London bus with its roof blown off and the devastation revealed inside could not be described as a photograph where consideration had been given to composition or the effect of light or any of the other elements we are asked to think of as photographers. As an image that starkly tells, without words, the horror of that day it cannot be beaten.

I was browsing through the October 2010 copy of National Geographic when I came across the special advertisement "Expert's Eye  LANDSCAPES".  This invites you to visit the Web site of Michael Melford (www.michaelmelford.com) which I did. On the site there are a number of quite stunning images a number of which would qualify as a photograph where the subject is of little importance, but the image making skills paramount. The one which for me had the greatest impact was a 'LetterBox' image of a shore line in the foreground, a number of yachts in the mid foreground and a beautiful sky that was in the 'Prints' section. The section as a whole where the subject was of little importance was in the National Geographic section - "Grand Canyon". I have visited the Grand Canyon and seen photographs of it by the hundreds but these were just breathtaking and a offered a whole new perspective