Archive for the ‘PH 601: Photography-Concept’ category

“A” Student!

December 30th, 2009

 

A is for Abstract
A is for Abstract

 

The short news:  All A’s in my classes.

Longer version: For those of you not familiar with AAU online (and why I have this blog) there are 4 grading milestones in the long/regular semester.  These happen every 4-5 weeks.

  • First Progress Grades
  • Midterm Grades
  • Second Progress Grades
  • Final Grades

There are also other grades you can look up :

  • Assignment Grades
  • Test Grades

In my PH601 class the grading policy is:

10% Quizzes
20% Discussion
25% Assignments
15% Midterm
30% Final Project

 

And my PH612 grading policy:

10% Quizzes
30% Discussion
20% Assignments
15% Midterm Project
25% Final Project

 

My 601 professor Marc Ullom gave out A’s for all the milestone grades whereas my PH612 professor Jim Sienkiewicz only gives out B+’s as the highest grade you can get for the first 3 milestone grades.  Given that I got a B on my midterm I was concerned about getting an A or a B+ for a final grade.

A fellow student in one course got a B+.  She did very good work and followed along on assignments and submitted exemplary work.  The only problem was she didn’t participate in disucssions over the entire semester.  I’ll post about that later.

Happy Christmahanukwanzaakah!

More assignments

September 12th, 2009
Yay!

Yay!

Yay!  More assignments.  I’m sure by the 4th or 5th semester I’ll be tired of assignments.  So when I read back to these first days I hope it reinspires me and kicks some motivation in my ass.  Right now, I’m really glad for assignments as I get to go experiment with specific objectives.   Here’s another assignment for PH601.

Description
In The Photographer’s Eye, John Szarkowski writes about the impossibility of factuality in an image, regardless of the photographer’s ability to be convincing. Please take two photographs of a person or object that follow these guidelines:

  1. The first image should be as objective as possible.
  2. The second image should display an intentional or overt subjectivity. Please identify the subjective elements of the second photograph.

Discuss the images you took for this assignment. Do you feel that your first image was truly objective? Please explain. Be sure to review your classmate’s assignments and participate in the discussion of the objectivity/subjectivity of the posted assignments.

Purpose:
To demonstrate understanding of the photographer’s influence on the objectivity/subjectivity of an image.

My first week

September 8th, 2009
01-2007-04-07_WEAVER_v2

The Original 'Original' Alamo Drafthouse

I’m enrolled in PH 601: MS: Photography-Concept and PH 612: MS: The Nature of Photography at the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco.

My PH 601: MS: Photography-Concept course  is being taught by Marc Ullom.  I’m taken by his bio:

After graduating from the Academy as the valedictorian, Marc Ullom now works as a professional photographer and educator. Ullom is currently teaching full time at Andrews University, a small private institution of higher learning in Michigan, where he was awarded Teacher of the Year. His work has been exhibited across the country and can also be seen in an upcoming issue of B&W Magazine as well as in the Artists’ ShowCase Portfolio, Second Edition, published by the Center For Fine Art Photography.

I’ve got 12 classmates here.  10 gals and 2 guys.  This seems really unusual to me for an MFA course but I’ll give credit to online courses that allow a greater segment of women to take these courses.  It will be a nice change too.  going through MBA school was a 70/30 guy/gal split.  So I’m really going to welcome the change.

My PH 612: MS: The Nature of Photography course is being taught by James (Jim) Sienkiewicz and his website is http://www.jimsienkiewicz.com

In just a week I’ve seen some really thoughtful replies to questions.  There is also a lot of class activity.  Jim asked for 10-15 portfolio images as part of the first week assignment.  The rest of the assignment is basically an introduction to everyone else in the course.

I’ve got 12 classmates here and again 10 are women.    This class seems to have a lot more discussion traffic in it.  Maybe it is due to this class not necessarily being a first semester course whereas I think my PH601 course is what everyone gets in the first semester.

So some introductions and some show and tell fills out the first week.  This is pretty much what happens during the first week of most graduate and undergrad programs.

More soon!

PH 601: Photography-Concept

September 3rd, 2009
An assignment shot

An assignment shot

I’m taking this class online during the Fall semester of 2009.  For a list of courses  I’m taking or have taken please visit My MFA Schedule.  This class is generally referred to as ‘Concept”.

Note: While this information is subject to change it came from the AAU online catalog.   Courses and material should an do evolve over time and this is my historical record that shows what the course description was at the time I took the course.

PH 601: Photography-Concept

In this interactive studio course, students develop and sharpen their conceptual and technical abilities. This course guides each student toward an individual artistic style and aids students in the preliminary exploration of concept as it pertains to their ongoing photography classes and Thesis Project.
Course Learning Outcomes

As a result of successfully completing this course, students…
Will be able to:

* Articulate their concepts.
* Translate ideas into memorable and compelling photographs including strong, graphically resolved images.
* Have heightened knowledge of relationships between mood, lighting and subject matter.
* Combine current technical abilities with personal vision to personally communicate who the photographer is through their work.
* Create sequences of photographs that represent variations on a theme.

Will be familiar with:

* Conceptual thinking in relation to visual imagery.
* Editing for presentation.

Will display the following attitudes/professional behaviors:

* Meet assigned deadlines.
* Professionally present their work.
* Accept and apply meaningful critiques and feedback.
* Discuss and evaluate work using industry terminology and standards.
* Interact professionally with their instructor and peers.
* Prepare for, attend and contribute to class activities, assignments and discussions.