NCFE Photography – The Result
Posted: Wed 1 July, 2009 Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), NCFE Course, Photography, Resolutions Leave a comment »So, ten months after starting the course – three terms of ten weeks each, plus breaks for half-term and between terms – I’ve now passed my NCFE Level 2 Photography certificate.
I’ve written about the course on odd occasions over the last year, and it’s been a pretty good course all told. I wouldn’t say I’ve learned masses, but that wasn’t necessarily my goal for the course – it was more about getting more motivation for going out and taking photos, which was more what I needed – and in that way, it’s been pretty successful.
There’s a fair number of the final portfolio images in this set on my Flickr pages although I haven’t added all of them yet.
All told, I’m pleased to have successfully completed the course, and to have built up the portfolio project, and it’s another thing to add to the CV. All the people on the course have decided we’ll continue to meet up on a regular basis, and keep our motivation going in that way, creating in effect our own photography club, so we’ll see how that goes.
And for further further education? I don’t know yet – Norfolk’s Adult Education has apparently been hit hard by budget cuts, so there are nowhere near as many courses for 2009/10, and even more annoyingly it looks like the NCFE have also stopped doing the Level 3 certificate completely. So we’ll just have to see what I decide to do on that score.
For now, I’m going to enjoy a summer off, and take some time to think about what comes next.
NCFE Completion
Posted: Tue 23 June, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, NCFE Course, Photography 2 Comments »Tonight, I get to hand in my final printed portfolio for my NCFE Photography course. And that’ll be it, I’ll be done except for finding out how I did.
In a way I’m glad it’ll be over – I’ve had to get out more to take photographs for the course, but at the same time my time has been horrendously crunched and I’ve had significant levels more added pressure while doing it, which I could’ve done without.
As it is, I’m just pretty pleased that I’ve completed the course – I’ve doubted I would several times, where there just didn’t seem like enough time to get things done, and particularly when I got let down on not one but two project/portfolio ideas before finally settling on the one I’ve done.
As for next academic year, I don’t know if I’m going to do any courses or not yet. We’ll see.
Norfolk Safety
Posted: Thu 18 June, 2009 Filed under: Creativity, Photography, Weirdness 1 Comment »I saw this a while ago, and completely forgot I’d taken a photo of it until I went through the photos on my phone today.
Yes, use a forklift as one support for a ladder
Well, it’s one way to do it, I suppose…
NCFE Completion
Posted: Sat 13 June, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, NCFE Course, Photography, Thoughts Leave a comment »As regular readers know, over the last year (well, nine months or so) I’ve been doing an NCFE Level 2 course in Digital Photography + Photoshop. It’s been OK – I’ve learnt a few things, although nowhere near as much as I hoped to – but it has meant I’ve been getting out and taking more photos, which really was the prime reason for taking the course.
There’s a larger piece being written about me, motivation and other issues, so I won’t go into them too much here, but suffice to say that my motivation has been distinctly lacking over the last year or so, so I’ve been working along the way to do things that get me doing more. And the NCFE course was one of those things.
Anyway, it’s coming to a close, and the main thrust for this term has been the assemblage of a final portfolio, which needs to be done by the 23rd June. We’ve all known about needing to do this portfolio, and in truth I’m actually on the third iteration of it – the first two project ideas fell through due to a lack of available opportunities and/or time (in fact the idea for the first one still wouldn’t have been available for me to do ’til next week, which is cutting it just a little bit fine…) so I’ve ended up with one that I’m happy with, but that’s completely in my comfort-zone, which isn’t the ideal for this course. But there we go, them’s the breaks.
But it’s now completely done, with everything being printed and assembled by Photobox. In some ways it’s a relief to have it all done and out the way, but in others it’s more a case of “OK, so what’s next?”
GPP Group shot
Posted: Wed 15 April, 2009 Filed under: Creativity, Photography, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over at Zarias, Zach Arias writes about the process he went through to get the group shot for GPP (Gulf Photo Plus) this year.
I’m always interested in seeing how (and why) photographers take on certain challenges – in this case, taking individual shots of each person in the group, then merging them together into one composite image – and to look at the techniques used, just in case I can find a way to use something similar at some point.
In this case, I don’t know that I’ll ever be in the same sphere as Arias – or the other photographers in the GPP group shot – but it’s still something that’s interesting to see, read and think about.
If nothing else it’s another example of why t’Internet is grand, granting you access to far more of the details of a photographer’s life (or whoever’s life, really) than you ever would do in “normal” life.
Five Year Plan – Half Way!
Posted: Sun 5 April, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography, Writing 1 Comment »Back in November, I made a more basic list of what the plans would be for 2008/9 on the Five Year Plan.
I’m now halfway through – both the 2008/9 year, and the Plan itself. Which also means that in 2½ years time from today, I’ll be 40. Shite.
Anyway, here’s the list from November, along with progress comments.
- Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April)
- Write and Launch the main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see how they do
- Daily Word Challenge : launched
- Creativity Merger Site : done
- Two Three other primary sites : under development
- Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential – probably going to sack this one off
- Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course – ongoing, 2/3s of the way through now
- Redesign my photography site – considering a significant change of theme on this one
- Promote the photography and site more – working on it
- Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last – getting there
- Possibly redesign D4D™ a bit – I know, I’ve been talking about it now for years
Oh yeah, and… - Lose some weight, as my plans for doing so in 2008 have emphatically failed – primarily due to zero motivation to do so, but also due to life over-riding gym etc. Ahem, yes, well, absolutely bugger-all done on this one.
Rationalisation
Posted: Thu 5 March, 2009 Filed under: Creativity, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Photography, The '09 Writing Project, Writing Leave a comment »Over the last few months, I’ve decided that in some ways I’ve been spreading myself too thin – and particularly with regard to the more creative side of my life, the photography, the writing, and so on. Up ’til now I’ve had separate sites for all the bits – plus D4D™, of course.
Equally, while the photography site is currently connected (by name) to the business site, I’m not overly happy with that, or the name that came about because of the connection. To my mind it just doesn’t fit, doesn’t connect properly.
So now I’m working on bringing it all into one site, and rationalising it all a bit.
D4D™ will stay here and separate, for a number of reasons I’ve written about many times before. The company site will stay separate, because it doesn’t fit in with the “branding” of the new concept.
However, all the creative bits – primarily the writing and the photography stuff – will move to the new site.
I’m still not going to overly publicise the connection between the new site and D4D™ – I prefer to keep them as separate as possible, and don’t plan to change that separation anytime soon.
The new ‘brand’ for the creative bits also fits in with my avowed intention to get my finger out and get on with doing the stuff. I’ll no doubt write more about the plans as they come closer to happening.