Reaching the end of EYV seems like a long road, but of course it is just the start of an even longer journey.  In preparing my materials for submission, I have had to retrace my steps through all of the exercises and assignments and this has made me realise how far I have come.

I am pleased to say that I completed every exercise in the course and these are recorded within my blog.  But, I feel that it is the assignments that show my progress.

In particular, Assignment 1 and Assignment 5 stand in stark contrast to each other.  Assignment 1 was The Square Mile and was an exercise in capturing the environment around my home.  For Assignment 5 I chose to capture the working environment around the home that I have moved to whilst carrying out this course; in a way, it is my new square mile.

Looking at Assignment 1, I chose a set of images that at the time seemed for a reason but now I realise, I had no sense of purpose in my shot capture or editing.  Assignment 5 is very different; every aspect of my submission had a purpose which I describe below.

• Subject – my assignment was framed around a specific subject, industry in the West Cotswolds. In particular, I wanted to show that industry does not have to mean heavy industry and in fact, the industry here shapes the whole environment to be the ‘countryside’, essentially it is the countryside, not something that is done there;
• Lighting – I timed my shot taking to achieve a consistency of lighting and weather across the full set. I would not have considered this at all before EYV;
• Framing – I have a mixture of deadpan and classic 2/3 compositions, but gone are the popular magazine style aesthetic framing techniques.  Previously, all of my shots would have had popular magazine style compositions – somewhat formulaic with low level compositions, random foreground interest etc;
• Colour – I made a deliberate choice to retain colour in order to convey a sense of the present.  My choices in this area in the past would have been driven by the ‘norm’ for example a street shot would automatically have been presented in black and white.  Now I realise that this choice must be for a reason and should be a considered part of shot capture and editing.  In my Assignment 5, the shots are muted, as this was the light at the time of the assignment, I chose not to boost the colour and leave them looking exactly as they were shot;
• Influences – My work takes on what I have learned in my research (as documented in my blog and particularly my reflection for Assignment 5 along with an update on this in my response to my tutor’s feedback).
• Editing – I think I have progressed a lot in this area. Creating a set of images that combine to form an even greater whole is something I had no experience of before this course.  I think that Assignments 4 and 5 in particular show my progress in this area where I have produced a wide range of images which as a set powerfully evoke the feeling of the area.

It is this sense of purpose in approaching an assignment, a purpose to every aspect of the image and set, that is the biggest transformation within me.  As much as I now apply this to every image I take, I have also noticed that there are many images I no longer take.   Images that might have caught my eye in the past seem to lack an intent or meaning and no longer interest me.  I think this equally demonstrates my progression to date.

I am pleased with what I have learned and I look forward to learning and improving even more as I progress through the remainder of my degree.