Colour

Ok so I've been looking through the coursework and giving Colour some thought. Like I said, Colour was the section which excited me the most on this course, although I am not entirely sure why. I used to have my own darkroom and printed my own black and white prints from there for quite a few years. Given the choice I would always go for b&w shoots. The family portraits on the walls are all b&w. I love flicking through our old family photos - b&w of course.

However, we lived in NZ for a few years and the light quality there is incredible. And this means that the colours in nature there are stunning, the clarity is amazing. I have never seen so many shades of green in trees. The sky was more blue than I could imagine.

Whilst I am not really one for photoshopping and edits, I am now enjoying using the camera's manual setting to obtain truer colours while shooting. ( Also I have become a fan of Florabella actions, and love the subtle changes which can alter the mood of the image completely.)

I reread the section in the course book which reminds us that there are three qualities which define colour:

- hue (say red, blue etc)
- saturation (pure, intense, saturated -----> dull, weak, unsaturated)
- brightness (very bright ------------------> very dark)

I also gave thought to the Primary colours (red, yellow, blue) and Secondary colours (orange, violet and green) and the subject matter I might use to illustrate these colours in the next few projects. I had a thought that I could also do a "library" of the colours, or create a colour wheel, by using single flowers in each of the colours. I could also create a rainbow effect in this way maybe... As I am now completing the course just for me, I may tailor some of the projects to the kinds of photography that I most enjoy.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Found it

I went out to the garage and, sure enough, in one of the filing cabinets was my OCA folder for TAoP. So I've had a flick through and found that I was working on project 31 building a library of photos for colour. The next few projects are to take photos for the primary colours and then the secondary colours.

I remember that the "Colours" section was the one I was looking forward to, so hopefully it will help that I am on that section as I am starting up again.

We took the dogs out to Sandringham today for a walk and I took my camera with me. Didn't take loads of photos, but a few, and toyed around with composition and exposure. Get me !!

A year on...

... and loads has happened - not all of it good, actually most of it was crap. But I am still here. Well, in a different place actually, as we moved house at the end of 2011. Just a couple of miles up the road, and back into the village where we used to live before we went travelling. I have learnt a lot about myself in the last 12 months, and a lot about those around me.

And I've had a total career change.

Over the last 12 months I barely picked my camera up at all, often I went out without it. We even went for a long weekend in Amsterdam and during the whole time there I only took 4 photos. Apart from that I think the only photos I took were of the kids on their birthdays blowing out the candles on their cakes - a bit of a photo tradition.

I had lots of long conversations last year with a new friend who helped me immensely. We agreed that we knew I would be feeling better when I started taking photos again.

A month or so back I was in the car with my husband, and we were driving down a narrow lane near here, and I said "What a fantastic picture that would be if I had my camera here.". It was simply a view down the lane, with hedges on both sides and some puddles. But the lane was twisty and the low winter sunlight was catching the puddles so beautifully. As we drove on I saw more views that I knew would photograph well. I knew I was getting better.

My husband suggested that I buy the camera that I had been after for ages. A Canon 5d Mk11. After all I had been working for months and we hadn't touched my money. I bought it.

Since then I have been back looking at the OCA website. I'm really drawn to the People and Place course. I have obviously dropped out of the TAoP course in as much as I won't be getting it assessed any more. But I think I shall pick it up again and work through at my own pace. I'll post on here, but I expect it'll be in fits and starts again. I'm not putting myself under any pressure to complete it all. I am going to do it for the fun of it. And if I enjoy it, then I'll think carefully about doing the People and Place one.

So I need to re-read this blog, and then I need to find all my coursework which I've not seen since we moved, and I need to rediscover the fun in photography.

Here goes...