5 development points

So the five different things that i have focused on in this PDP are learning how to use Adobe Premiere, reading more books, updating my portfolio, keeping up to date with blogging and better organisation.

Software - Adobe Premiere.

This was the first point on my PDP and also the first development that i completed. I managed to achieve this development point quite early on as I had to use this software to produce a video for another module that was running at the time Like i have said within the posts previous that discuss the software use I now feel confident in using the software to put together, but obviously there is always new stuff to get to grips with on software. The main reason for including that point was because i don't really know how to use any software accept to Photoshop and I want to expand on my existing skills by learning how to use different software which will definitely come in handy in the future!

Reading more book.

I wanted to include this point because even though i read, i don't tend to read enough. This is something that I have realised since starting back in September, I guess i'm not as clued up on everything as I should be for a third year photography student. The reading of books and research is something that I will be doing forever within the field, there is always room to gain new knowledge and understanding and this is why i have left the point as a continuous one, one that I will be expanding on in the future. Through the period of this module I have managed to learn more about different photographers and learn to put names to photographs - this is something that I tend to struggle with purely for the fact i find it hard to take in information sometimes, so reading books is definitely a good point to be in my PDP and one to carry on with!

Updating my portfolio.

Again this is a point that I am going to continue to work on as I am not at a point where i am happy with my current portfolio. I currently have a physical one but i am most probably going to turn it into a digital one that is easily accessible via the Internet. To do this i need to decide on the space that i want to use to host my portfolio, one that will work the best and one that i can make my own and have it exactly how i want it. Again this is a point that i am going to continue working on until i finish university next year, hopefully i will have it completed within the next few months!

Keeping up to date with blogging.

This is one development point that i have found very good, it has prompted me to keep up to date with posting all of the work and things that I have done, i have definitely been updating my blog more often because of this point being on my PDP, and it is now something that i have started doing regularly so i will find it easier to keep on top of posting for future assignments. I think i started to get a little bit lazy with blogging and now it is something that i will do when it needs to be done rather than letting things bulk up and accumulate over time.

Organisation.

Putting this as one of my development points in my PDP has been rather useful, at the start of uni i tended to be quite organised and good with everything but i kind of stopped and didn't have the best organisation for quite some time. It's safe to say that now i am back to being organised with everything, i know exactly what needs to be done and when, i'm more aware of the time frames that I have to complete certain things and I have started forward planning a lot more and setting my self times to do certain things and days to focus on certain assignments so that i can get everything done for when it is needed.


Final PDP!

What are my development objectives? [what skills, knowledge or experience am I missing?]	What activities do I need to undertake to achieve my objectives?	What support/resources do I need to achieve my objectives? [what can the course offer?]	Target date for achieving my objectives	Actual date of achieving my  objectives
Developing skills on different software - Adobe Premiere	Learning how to use the software and the way it works. Experimenting with the different features it has and learning how to develop my own videos.	Basic training on how to use the software and then the time to experiment with its features.	1st November 2013	30th October 2013
Reading more books.	Read different books with different subject matters to gain more knowledge.	Access to books from the library, lots of books with different subject matters.	Ongoing(In progress)	(In progress)
Update photography portfolio.	Go through all of my photographs, get them printed to see what will work to showcase my work.	Good quality prints to go within a decent portfolio.	July 2014 (graduation)	July 2014 (graduation)
Keeping up to date with blogging.	Regularly update my blog's keeping them up to date with  the work that I am doing.	Getting online more often and updating my blog' frequently adding the different things that I have learnt.	December 2013	2nd December 2013
Better organisation with work	Writing myself notes and to do lists on what I need to do work wise.	Checking these to do lists and completing the things that need doing to keep on top of my work load and to make sure that I complete it to its best standard.	12th December 2013	5th December 2013

digital portfolio...

I started thinking a little about the best way / place to put together an online portfolio. I want to find an online space which i am able to persionalise and make my own. I'm not sure at this point whether the best way to do this is to actually buy a domain name and create my own website from scratch, or to use a website that will host a page for me.

I came across a website called Portfolio box (http://www.portfoliobox.net/) which is a site that you sign up to and they host your site, there is also a few different sites that i could use, I could use something like word press - but ideally i want something more professional.

I still have  a lot to think about to do with my portfolio, this is why I am going to take the next few months to put together and create the best portfolio that i can before i leave university.

Digital portfolio vs Physical portfolio

I have been thinking quite a bit about the type of portfolio that I would like to have put together by the time I leave university next year. Initially I liked the thought of having a physical portfolio that can be handled and passed around and well looked at, but maybe that is not the best way to go in considering the type of photography that I intend to produce once I have graduated and am out in the big wide world.

Even though I say this, I still want to have a physical one as well, as different types fit different situations, people prefer different things so its better to have both over just one. But with the physical portfolio the thing that I need to decide is how to show my work, things like the size's of the images and how they will be displayed.

My photographs are nature and landscape based imagery and art sometimes quite arty and abstract to i think they could possible look better in digital format rather than print. 

Feedback session...

The other day we had a feedback session on portfolios, I found this session very useful in respect to giving me a bit of information on what type of portfolio I could do with having to present my work to its best standard.

I listened to all of the feedback that was given to all of my peers and noted the different types of portfolios and ways of presenting their work i.e online blogs and websites.

I have all of my photographs on an online space which is Flickr, I pretty much use this as my online portfolio and if someone wanted to see my work this is where I would direct them too, I no know that this is not something that I should class as an online portfolio as its not very definitive and there is a variety of different things on there  - although everything is nature an landscape based which is where my interest lies within the photographic field.

Something that I noted when receiving the feedback on my portfolio was whether a digital portfolio would be better presented than a physical portfolio. I have always liked the idea of having a digital portfolio as it can be easily updates and alteres just as quickly if not quicker than having photographs developed. But for some reason I have always been drawn to a physical one, I think this is mainly because I like to get a proper feel for the photograph and see all of the little details which sometimes can't be seen as much when a photograph is just in a digital form.

As well as this I feel that different people prefer a different type of portfolio, one may prefer a physical one and someone else might prefer it in a digital form, it just depends on the persons preference.

I am definitely going to think a lot more about my portfolio and the different types that I could have whether it be digital or physical, I may end up coming to a point in which that I feel both types are necessary for different reasons.

A lot more organised!!!

One of this points stated on my PDP is that I want to be more organised when it comes to my work and getting things done, over the past few weeks this is something that i have been working on. In the past I have usually been quite organised but throughout the past few months since being back at university I have been finding it hard to get back into that routine that I normally have with my work.

One way that I have been being more organised is by writing my self to do lists every few days or weeks to see what different things I need to do and the work that needs to be done in certain time frames, I find that when I write the same to do list over and over again it prompts me to do things. These to do list have definitely helped me to keep on top of everything which is really good!

With organisation of all my work papers and things not being the best I have become more organised in that respect as well. I have done this by regularly going through all of the different papers and things that I have for all the different modules that I am doing and organising them into piles and separating them so I know what is what and where everything is.

The module that this has been most beneficial for is my dissertation, I have a huge amount of papers that I have printed out for research and they have accumulated into a massive mess of papers. But that is no longer a mess as I have organised them into different categories such as journals, articles and books so that I know what is where. This is definitely better that having everything all over the place like they were before.

Organizing my time is also one things that I have started to do more of, I have started to set myself certain times in which I need to do work so that I can keep on top of it all and not let the work load get too heavy at one time. It's been beneficial because there has been a lot of research to do for my dissertation, by setting myself times in which I need to do work/ research I have been able to get to a point where I have a nice decent amount of research so I can start getting on with my dissertation. Organizing my time has been a general thing with all modules, I feel it has been beneficial putting it on my PDP because it is something that I needed to do to ensure that my work is getting done, and by having it there on my PDP it has prompted me to do it.

Development plan..

I have updated my PDP with another point that I feel I can benefit from, this being better organisation. I used to be really good with my work and really organised with everything but I have started to become a bit lax with everything and I feel this is a good point to develop on at this moment in time and it is something that I will benefit from. My new pdp is below.

What are my development objectives? [what skills, knowledge or experience am I missing?]	What activities do I need to undertake to achieve my objectives?	What support/resources do I need to achieve my objectives? [what can the course offer?]	Target date for achieving my objectives	Actual date of achieving my  objectives
Developing skills on different software - Adobe Premiere	Learning how to use the software and the way it works. Experimenting with the different features it has and learning how to develop my own videos.	Basic training on how to use the software and then the time to experiment with its features.	1st November 2013	30th October 2013
Reading more books.	Read different books with different subject matters to gain more knowledge.	Access to books from the library, lots of books with different subject matters.	Ongoing (In progress)	(In progress)
Update photography portfolio.	Go through all of my photographs, get them printed to see what will work to showcase my work.	Good quality prints to go within a decent portfolio.	July 2014 (graduation)	(on going)
Keeping up to date with blogging.	Regularly update my blog's keeping them up to date with  the work that I am doing.	Getting online more often and updating my blog' frequently adding the different things that I have learnt.	December 2013(Also ongoing)	(In progress)
Better organisation with work	Writing myself notes and to do lists on what I need to do work wise.	Checking these to do lists and completing the things that need doing to keep on top of my work load and to make sure that I complete it to its best standard.	12th December 2013

Putting my portfolio together!

I received to photographs that I ordered the other day so that I could put together a new photography portfolio and I really like how these images look when they are printed, i guess its not so great that I haven't had any of my most recent images printed until now!

When I was going through my photos I was aware that some of my photos are quite similar in respect to showing the same type of thing but in my eyes, each image is different and has its own individual qualities.

I lay all of the photographs out on the floor around me so I could see them all against each other and see what images would work on a double page together the best and trying to figure out the best order to put them in so that they would flow from photo to photo and not be all jumbled up and all over the place.

After looking at the images for a good 10 minutes and thinking about different orders and looking at all the colours and things like that I had managed to see what images tended to work better together and come up with a good order to put them into in my portfolio.

The portfolio folder that I have at this current moment is not a proper portfolio as they would say. One thing that I need to do is invest in a proper portfolio for the future but this is something I will focus on later on.

Development - Blogging!!

Over the past few weeks I have been slacking a little bit on keeping up to date with my blogging on both this blog and the blog for a different assignment. I have now got myself back into the routine of regularly signing into blogger and looking over the posts that I have made previously and checking what I can update and add onto the blog pages to keep all of the information and things that I am doing or learning up to date. I definitely feel that it has helped with me setting this as on of the things that I want to develop on within my personal development plan, I have been very good at keeping up to date with blogging in the past but recently I haven't been posting and updating pages as often as I should so it has helped me to keep on top of everything and keep track of all my work better.