Evaluation of my Performance

Yesterday I had my final presentation. overall, I can say that it went well. I tried to give as much information as possible in order to make sure that I have included everything that was required. I also tried to stick closely to the mark scheme and follow all assessment criteria. I think that I was able to present to my tutors my product (magazine) professionally. The fact that there were no questions from my tutors, proves that my presentation was clear enough to them.

Have my objectives been met?

Overall, I am happy with my final product. I met my aim and all my objectives. I created a high quality online photography magazine for the specific target audience.

What problems have I encountered?

The most difficult thing for me was to decide what I really want to do for my final project, and what I can potentially do with what I have ( budget, knowledge, experience, equipment, time). Speaking about time management, at the moment 99% of work done. I only need to tick the final stages of the project, such as ” to upload the Gantt chart to X-stream”. The overall “cost” of my project is  2 588,02 pounds. That includes my “salary”, which is 6, 31 p. per hour, it also “includes” all travel expenses and total costs of all props, which I have used for the photo shoots.

In average, I used 30% of my time on this project. Here is evidence that I have set baseline every week. That enabled me to track my progress. Nevertheless, as you can see from the screen shot below, almost in every phase there was a slippage. That means that in order to complete some of my tasks I needed much more time than I was initially planning. Firstly, that happened because I didn’t think over some very important details at the very beginning. Secondly, there were some moments when I needed to rearrange some of my tasks. Also, I wasn’t able to update my project plan when I was on holidays. And, finally, the fact that the deadline for the final presentation has been changed also caused some delays.

The most critical phases of my project,  could potentially affect the project finish date. Fortunately, my project plan initially assumed that the final date for the presentation would the 5th of May. So, the fact that this presentation has been changed, didn’t affect the finish date. My mistake was that I have allocated myself a lot work to do during holidays, and in fact I wasn’t able to do everything that I was planning due to the personal reasons. That experience helped me to understand the importance of doing each task in time in order to avoid any delays.

What have I learned ?

My personal goal was to improve my photography, design and photo editing skills during this project. I can say that I have definitely improved all these skills. Particularly, I learned all important basics in Photoshop and some complicated techniques, such as working with layer mask and many others. I improved some very necessary skills for my future career or job, such as planning, problem solving, organisational and personal development skills. I also used my knowledge, which I have learned during this semester, when my group was designing posters for the exhibition. Three years ago, I knew nothing about Photoshop, DSLR camera and graphic design, but now I think there is a huge progress in this field.

What would I do differently

This project is very personal, but I think that it would be better to include someone else’s photographs as well in order to diverse the content of my magazine and make it more professional. As for me,  it looks a bit ridiculous, because there is only my name everywhere as I am the only author of the photographs. Nevertheless, as I have mentioned before, it is a special edition and this issue is  like a promo of the future “product”. Also, if I had a chance to do this project again, I would use more professional macro lens for one of my photo shoot, because I am not happy with the quality of the lens, which I used. Generally speaking, I am pleased with this module. It was a chance for my to do what I really want to improve and to practise in future.

Reflective Journal Week Fourteen

I have just finished my magazine. Below you can see some screenshots of the magazine layout and design. The full magazine can be seen here: http://shoommag.tk/ or alternatively here: http://issuu.com/anastasija123/docs/shoom_issuu. The design of the official website is minimalistic, so nothing distracts the viewer from the content.

There you can see an “about” page, “contact” and “contribute” pages, where everyone who wants to be published in a new issue of SHOOM magazine, can send me his artworks. So, according to this, the magazine potentially has a future and a certain commercial value as well.

By pressing at the image, the viewer automatically gets to the Issuu site. I decided not to upload the magazine in PDF format, as I was planning before, because I think that it is much more comfortable to view the magazine from the Issuu website. So, in general, the concept of the magazine is to expand all existing photographic boundaries and present to the reader the possibilities created by digital technology. In other words, this magazine is created to showcase the works of emerging photographers and graphic designers who are passionate about digital art and Photoshop. This issue is a special one; it doesn’t have a strict theme, as I simply wanted to show the varied photographs on different topics, which are important for me at the moment

Information & contents page

First of all I created a series of digital photo collages, using my own photographs. I can say that I have never done something similar like that, and I have found the process of creating these collages very interesting as it offered me quite a lot of artistic freedom.

The next section of the magazine is very philosophical. Here is a series of surreal photographs, called “The problem of the soul of modern man”. In order get the message of the photographs across to readers, there is a short article, which is a mix of my thoughts, reflections and gonzo journalism. So, basically each article in this magazine is like a preface or introduction to each set of photographs. So, the aim of this photo shoot was to show a business-like man in unusual for him place and doing unreal things, like levitation. In all pictures it is impossible to see the men’s face, because he represents a modern man. So, he is a generalised character, who strives for freedom and closeness to nature. He has lost his individuality in a world full of rules and wants to find a harmony and a way out of the daily routine.

 

Next is a series of my self-portraits, where I became a very very small. Here is an article, which is called the “premature aging virus”. By referring to memories from my childhood, I discussed the importance of having a “young soul”.

And the final section of the magazine is about “digitisation” and the influence of modern day technology on society. I took some photographs of my hometown in Latvia as I wanted to capture the spirit of old times. Despite the fact that my country is a part of the European Union since 2004, I believe that there is still something left from the Soviet Union. My aim was to create a contrast between old and new. I have added glitch and VHS effect to all my images as I wanted to show my town through the prism of a computer game. I think that this approach shows a collision of real and digital worlds, which we all are experiencing now.

Back cover

It’s not a secret that there are a lot of similar publications on the Internet. As for me, many of them look the same, because of the style of the images. So, what differ my magazine from the rest? The main difference is that my magazine mostly showcases images, which are visually appealing with the help of photo editing software. So, basically, it is a platform for digital art and other inspiring Photoshop masterpieces. I analysed Twitter and Facebook accounts of some of the similar publications, in order to identify their audience, because there is no such a thing as media kit on the Internet. Based on this analysis, I had a clear picture of my target audience, and the target audience of my magazine is emerging young photographers, general photography enthusiasts and other visual arts professionals from around the world.

According to all these characteristics of the average reader, I assumed that the audience would like to see a great amount of high-quality photographs.  One of the main functions of my magazine is to serve for inspiration, so I believe that everything that I have put in the magazine is appropriate for my chosen target audience.

Reflective Journal Week Thirteen

This week I tried to do as much as I can in order to finish my magazine. First of all I did the front cover. I am the person who like a minimalistic black and white style in design. This style looks very elegant for me. I do not like too busy layout in a magazine, because for me it looks like a mess. Taking everything into account, I haven’t been thinking a lot about the design of my magazine. I have my own style and I would like to keep it in all my works. So, here is the final variant of my front cover. I think I have chosen the right image for the cover, because this photo collage can instantly grab reader’s attention. Overall, I believe that the cover looks professional; the composition looks right, the colors also match each other. The cover also clearly demonstrates my graphic design skills. It is also necessary to mention, that I have never in my life learned anything from graphic design.

Next week I have the exhibition, which is a part of my degree, and a deadline for the extended essay module. Due to this, I did not finish my writing part for the magazine despite the fact that all my articles are short. I do not enjoy writing as much as I enjoy photography, so I only did one article so far. Unfortunately, we all try to leave the things that we do not like for the last moment.As I have mentioned before, I am going to write three different articles in gonzo journalism style in order to accompany my photographs. To be honest. I have never heard about gonzo journalism before. We spoke about this style of journalism only once this year. In order to better know the special aspects of this style I did a research in Google.In gonzo journalism, a journalist is free to participate in events and circumstances which may be considered newsworthy. A journalist usually discards objectivity when he does gonzo reporting. A personal experience is the essential elements of gonzo journalism. Based on all my findings, I am going to write subjective short articles, where I will express my own thoughts about certain issues. The style of my articles will be a mix of my personal thoughts, reflections and gonzo journalism. Each article will be like a preface or introduction to each set of photographs.

Reflective Journal Week Twelve

I am now a bit behind of my project plan. During my holiday my main task was to take photographs and I didn’t have enough time to do my writing side of the project. Nevertheless, the fact that the deadline for the final project has been rescheduled is lifesaving. I belive that there is enough time for me to finish my magazine in time. However, I need to be very careful in future in order to avoid stressful situations. It would be much better, if I did as much work as I can before holidays. I can say that for me there was not enough time to do anything else for my studies except taking pictures. So, here is a slideshow of all images that I am going to use for my last section of the magazine.

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As I have planned before, I took some photographs of my hometown Daugavpils. Despite the fact that my country is a part of the European Union since 2004, I believe that there is still something left from the Soviet Union. By taking pictures of my hometown, I wanted to capture the spirit of old times My aim was to create a contrast between old and new. In order to achieve this goal, I have added glitch and VHS effect to all my images. I also played around with anaglyph and hariss shutter effects. Below you can see the original photographs that I used for my final section in the magazine about “digitisation”.

Personally I can say that I like the final results, because I believe that all my images are very eye-catching. It was also a very useful experience. I tried to look at my hometown differently. I really love travel photography and this is a kind of photography I would like to practice in future. According to this, a walk with my camera in my hometown was also a great photography excercise, because I tried to find interesting angles of the buildings, which I have seen many times in my life.

Reflective Journal Week Eleven

My next photo shoot is a series of seven autoportraits where I put myself in “miniature world”. My intention was to create a dreamy and fairy atmosphere. I did a series of macro photographs and combined them with photos of myself.

At first glance it seems easy, but I really did a lot of correction in Photoshop. At the very beginning the most tricky moment was to extract myself from the background. Due to the fact that I took pictures of myself using a timer on my camera, my photographs were not sharp and a bit blurry. In all cases it was impossible to select myself using standard selection tools in Photoshop. In order to fix that problem, I have applied all my knowledge about layer mask (I have learned how to work with it from my previous photo shoot). Fortunately, I was able to do what I was planning. I also did a colour correction and cross-processing in order to match colours and create more realistic pictures.

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The second tricky moment for me was to make realistic shadows. Each photograph required its own method. Just because I have got no experience in creating shadows, I am not fully satisfied with some of my photographs. Nevertheless, I like my photographs, especially I like how I did a colour correction and added flecks of sunlight. What I don’t like is the quality of my macro photographs. They do not look sharp enough, but that is not my fault. My 18-138 mm lens is not suitable for macro photography, and because of that it is not a surprise that I have got so blurry images. If I had a macro lens, my photographs would look more realistic. There would be no contrast between myself and the background. Nevertheless, I belive that my images look good for web, and I also really enjoyed the post-editing process, because that gives me a lot of artistic freedom.

Reflective Journal Week Ten

This week I did a photo shoot called “The problem of the soul of modern man”. I am going to upload the edited photographs later, when they will be ready. The idea of the photo shoot was to show the model in a suit and a bowler hat (that is a symbol, which represents every man) in an unusual for the model place. I tried to make my pictures to look surreal. To achieve this I combined two pictures together in Photoshop to create levitation effect.

As a result of post-processing I was able to get mystical and magical pictures. Overall, I am happy with the results, despite the fact that it took longer than expected to take all necessary photographs. It was quite tricky to hold a camera in one position because my tripod was broken. I also reduced the amount of photographs in this photo shoot because I didn’t have enough equipment and props for some of my previous ideas. I understood that it is quite difficult to take construction photographs alone. Normally, all professional photographers work with assistants. Nevertheless, I brought my photo shoot idea to life. Moreover, I improved my skills in Photoshop as well, I understood how to work with layers masks.

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I have added a “light” in every photograph in order to make my pictures more anonymous. My aim was to make my model unrecognisable, because this photo shoot is not about personality. This “light” also made my pictures to look more dynamic and interesting. Overall, I think that everything went smoothly., but if I needed to do this photo shoot again, I would probably buy some more props. If I had a step-ladder,for instance, it would be much easier for my model to take different unusual poses. Nevertheless, I did everything that I could do with what I had.

Reflective Journal Week Nine

Today I had my last formal lecture on Project Implementation module before the final presentation week. The good news is that the actual deadline has moved, so I will have my presentation in week after. That means that I will have more time to finish my magazine and prepare for the presentation itself. All changes will also affect my project plan. I need to change the final date in my Gantt chart, so there obviously will be slippage.

Today we also were given some advice regarding all final stages of our module. Our course leader prepared a very helpful guide through the assessment criteria. Personally, I belive it would be much more helpful, if we received this guide earlier in this semester. Before today’s lecture I didn’t know for sure what our tutors are expecting to see from the final presentation. I am also worry about some criteria, such as ” Student should demonstrate excellent journalistic enterprise and skill“. I think that this criteria isn’t relevant to my project, because I am more a photographer than journalist, and I am not going to include in my project any interviews for instance. So, I do not know how my tutor are going to judge me. As I have mentioned before, If we were given such a detailed guide in the beginning of the semester, I would probably change my project a bit in order to demonstrate my journalistic skills.

Next, I also need to think about my audience and show some examples of similar publications. That should convince my tutors that my magazine have “Excellent potential for professional publication“. Fortunately, I did demographics research and I have an idea of the future of my magazine. By analysing similar publications I can show that my magazine is relevant to my chosen editorial market. I really hope that I will get maximum points for the following criteria: “Editorial content shows exceptional creative and technical standard of photography“. This assessment criteria is very important to me because that is what my magazine is about. So tomorrow I am going on holiday, and during three weeks I need to take the rest photographs for my magazine.

 

Reflective Journal Week Eight

This week I had my work-in-progress presentation. Taking into account my previous experience, I tried to include as much information as I could into my PowerPoint presentation. My intention was to make it very informative, in order to be sure that my tutors know for sure what I am going to do for my project. First of all, I  presented my vision of the future magazine by showing all visual materials that I have, such as flat-plan, storyboards and moodboards. Here is a new version of the flat-plan of my magazine, and the detailed description of the content can be found in previous posts.

Flat-plan

The website for the magazine is almost ready now, I only need to add the content to it. Here is a link to it: http://shoommag.tk/
To my mind it is fully functional, and despite the fact that it is very minimalistic it looks professional as well.

Website

In order to evaluate my performance so far, here is the project statistics. As it can be seen I have already completed 65% of all work. However, at the moment I only have 6 images out of 30, and it seems that I have done less than 65% of work. This can be explained by the fact that my planning and preparation phases are much longer than implementation phase, because I am going to do all my photographs during Easter holiday when I will be at home in Latvia. I have allocated myself a lot of time on planning in order to ensure that I will be able to produce the remaining photographs in a short period of time.

The current cost of my project is 2 561,80 p. However, when I will add travel expenses and total costs of all props, the final cost will be slightly bigger.

Project statistics

My current resource sheet looks like this:

Resource sheet

I have set myself a minimum wage that is 6, 31p. because I am a student and not a professional yet. In real life nobody is going to pay more to the emerging photographer. I have also included all tutors in the resource sheet and my boyfriend, because he is doing the website for me, and I am also going to pay him a minimum wage, because he is also a student without any real work experience.

In average, I use 30% of my time on this project. Due to the fact, that there are some days when I am able to work more, Microsoft Project assumes that I am assigned too much work in a given period.  I have tried to resolve the problem with resource over allocation by reconsidering some of my tasks and reducing the time. As you can see from the image below, in some cases it was helpful, because at the very beginning, I have had a lot of these “red jelly babies”.

Resource overallocation issue

Speaking about my current progress, from the Gantt chart it is seen that at the moment 98% of the tasks that I needed to do for today, are done in time. I only have few tasks that require a little bit more planning from me. Here is also evidence that I have set baseline every week.

 

Baseline

Nevertheless, in order to complete some of my tasks I needed much more time than it was initially planned. Here is a screenshot that illustrates the actual time that I needed to complete the certain tasks.

Slippage

This issue with a delay happened because I didn’t think over a very important detail at the beginning. I needed to research the ideas for each section separately. I also started to make images for my magazine earlier in order to be able to show you some examples of my work. This fact also was the reason of the delays.

It is obvious that the last few weeks before the deadline will be the most important.  So, if everything goes well during my holiday period, I will finish my project in time. However, I need to plan each photo shoot in details and watch all necessary Photoshop tutorials in advance.  In order to stay on track it is important to keep an eye on the critical path. Here is a screenshot of the critical phases and the most critical tasks that can potentially affect the project finish date.

Critical path

Due to the fact that this project is very personal I was not able to present a wide range of different kind of evidence during the presentation. Nevertheless, the development of my final product is clearly illustrated in my WordPress blog. Here you can read my weekly reflections and see an additional content research with supporting visual materials.

Unfortunately, I cannot fully evaluate my performance and the quality of my product so far, because I haven’t started the implementation phase yet. However, I set myself some very challenging photo shoots that should improve my photography and editing skills, because that was my initial goal in the beginning of this degree.

Overall, I think that my presentation was good, at least I have mentioned there everything that was required in assessment criteria table. Moreover, comparing with the previous presentation, this presentation was less stressful for me. However, the only comment that my tutors made to me was about the content of my magazine. I was told to avoid clichés and pay more attention to the visual communication. According to this, my action plan for the further weeks is to work really hard on the content for my magazine.

Reflective Journal Week Seven

In addition to the article that is called ” The problem of the soul of modern man”, I am going to write a short article (350 words) in gonzo journalism style that is called ” The premature aging virus”. Here I am going to discuss the importance of staying young forever. I will present my own interpretation of the word “grown-up”. I will also emphasise the fact that our imagination is a powerful tool, which should be used throughout the life in order to make yourself a little bit happier. To illustrate my article, I will make a series of  images called ” My little world “. It will be a series of six self-portraits, where I am going to put myself in miniature world using digital photo manipulation. In other words, I will combine my portraits with macro photographs of nature and different objects. Here is my storyboard..

Zev aka Fiddleoak is a talented 15-year-old photographer that is well-known for his amazing photo manipulations. He creates miniature scenes that are full of fantasy. His photographs inspire me, because I am planning to do something similar.

 TwistedSifter (2013) Teenager Splices Portrait and Macro Photos into Miniature Fantasy World, 26 November [Online blog]. Available from: <http://twistedsifter.com/2013/11/miniature-fantasy-world-photo-manipulations-by-fiddleoak/&gt; [Accessed 23 March 2014].

My next and last article will be dedicated to modern technologies and how did they change the world. We are living at the beginning of a remarkable time. Just a decade ago we could not even imagine that the information will be distributed with such speed. I believe that the world is now changing very fast, and for me it is different already. In order to stress the influence of modern technologies I will take nine random photos of my hometown in Latvia, which I am going to edit differently. However, they will all have a common feel of digitalisation. I will try to make abstract images with blurred boundaries, that represent our fast-changing world. Here is a list of the effects with which I am going to experiment with in Photoshop and mood boards.

*Digital pixels effect and Stretching pixes effect

* 3D (anaglyph effect) and Harris shutter effect

* Glitch art + VHS effect

* Double and multiple exposure

I think that the idea to produce a set of different images that are associated with digital and technological revolution will vary the content of my magazine and visually enhance my portfolio and increase my employability skills in photo editing.

Reflective Journal Week Seven

After careful thinking I decided that I want to make surreal photography for my next section of the magazine. I have always been a fan of a famous Belgian painter Rene Magritte. I like the simplicity of the composition in his pictures and the philosophy behind them. I believe that Rene Magritte wanted people to look at ordinary things in different ways, that is why he sometimes painted everyday objects, that are not typical for surrealism, in places were they didn’t usually belong. Magritte is also well-known for including men in bowler hats in a lot of his paintings. Due to the fact that Magritte often wore a bowler hat, there is a common belief that these paintings are thought of as self-portraits of the artist. Rene Magritte considered his paintings to be a ‘defiance of common sense’, in the same way as he thinks the world as we know it is. Magritte wanted to show objects as they aren’t , to provide a mystery, not a symbol, and to frighten the viewer into not understanding his images. In his paintings he intended to reflect his real life and its events. In addition to this, it also was a chance to create a weird and wonderful set of imagery that doesn’t occur in real life.

The Son of Man, 1946

Golconda, 1953

The Mysteries of Horizon, 1955

Magritte’s man in bowler hat is a very inspiring symbol for me, that is why I decided to use this character n my own photography. Below you can see an initial storyboard for my set of image. I also revised the amount of image is each section of the magazine. I decided to do nine photographs instead of six, because I believe that this will enable me to fully explore the topic. The main concept of this topic is to show the problem of the soul of modern man. This set of photographs will be also accompanied with the short text (350 words) in gonzo journalism style, where I will present my thoughts about modern man.

Referencing:

ReneMagritte.org (2009) Rene Magritte: Biography, Paintings, and Quotes  [Online]. Available from:< http://www.renemagritte.org/&gt > [Accessed 22 March 2014].

The surrealists (2003) Rene Magritte [Online]. Available from: <  http://www.surrealists.co.uk/magritte.php&gt >[Accessed 22 March 2014].

My storyboard..

In order to achieve a surreal look I am going to add levitation. Levitation photography is a kind of photography where objects or even models are hovering in the air. Here is an example: 

Hayashi Natsumi

本日の浮遊 Natsumi, H. Today’s Levitation (2012) [Online image]. Available from: < http://yowayowacamera.com/&gt >  [Accessed 22 March 2014].

I would also like to present some great surrealist photographers that inspired me.

Rodney Smith is a photographer who still uses old-fashioned photography methods. Rodney Smith shoots primarily with film forgetting all modern digital technology. To my mind the fact that Smith doesn’t use Photoshop to create his surreal images is amazing for me. His photographs have a romantic look of the past, because he uses black and white for most of his atmospheric pictures that are full of classic gentlemen in suits and fedoras and women in long gowns. I really enjoy his composition because for me Smith’s photos have a beauty classic that lasts over time.

Rodney, S. (n.d) Rodney Smith  [Online]. Available from: <www.rodneysmith.com>  [Accessed 22 March 2014].

Starr, B. (2012) Surreal Simplicity: Captivating Photos by Rodney Smith. Visual News [Online], December. Available from: <http://www.visualnews.com/2012/03/13/surreal-simplicity-captivating-photos-by-rodney-smith/&gt; [Accessed 22 March 2014].

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison is a family duet that consists of a husband and wife photography team. Architect’s Brother is a a series of photographs based on a concern for the environment. Here, the main character is a man who is dressed in a dark suit and white shirt. His interaction with the natural landscapes reveals the disturbing theme of nature and human responsibility for the impact on her.

“I want to make images that have open, narrative qualities, enough to suggest ideas about human limits. I want there to be a combination of the past juxtaposed with the modern. I use nature to symbolize the search, saving a tree, watering the earth. In this fabricated world, strange clouds of smog float by; there are holes in the sky. These mythic images mirror our world, where nature is domesticated, controlled, and destroyed. Through my work I explore technology and a poetry of existence. These can be very heavy, overly didactic issues to convey in art, so I choose to portray them through a more theatrically absurd approach“. Robert ParkeHarrison

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (n.d) Architect’s Brother [Online]. Available from: < http://parkeharrison.com/architect-s-brother > [Accessed  22 March 2014].

As I have mentioned above, my series of surreal photos will illustrate my short article about modern man in gonzo journalism style. Overall, the idea of this photo shoot is to show the prototype of the modern man, who has lost his individuality in a world full of rules, but who still does not get rid of the temptations of life and the desire for freedom. I am going to use a symbol of a man in a business suit that will symbolise an ordinary modern man steeped in prejudice and the routine of everyday life. In all photographs it will be not possible to see the man’s face. Anonymity of my model shows the whole modern society. My character is impersonal a man who strives for freedom and harmony with nature. He wants to find a way out of the captivity of modern society and find harmony with the soul. In my photographs I would like to show the world which is full of desires, fears and dreams.