This was a video feedback session.

I described how I have taken what is evident currently in the ancient woodlands and used this as a metaphor for my feelings about the harmony in the woodlands as the antithesis of discord in the local human community. This concept of something physical as a metaphor for something invisible to the subject of my CS work.

I adapted my photography to use the predominant feature in the woodland at this time, moss. Moss covers most other plant species in the woodlands during the winter, protecting, absorbing, and stabilising the ecosystem. My intention was to showcase its important role in its community.

I shared how I researched poetry and photopoetry as a possible method for signposting my work, and that this also led me to thinking and behaving like a poet when photographing, being self-aware and stimulating my imagination.

Technically I explained that I took on board previous advice to crop to a 5:4 ratio and so when shooting I allowed for later cropping to this ratio. I share that the low sun and the lack of foliage made the harsh light a challenge to photograph with the softness that I prefer – however I worked around this.

I used a padlet to edit and share with my tutor as previously suggested and this was very helpful to myself during the process.

We discussed some of my thoughts about the next and last assignment.

Tutor’s comments:

• Images are good

• we worked through my editing process, and she suggested that revisit one or two of those I dropped towards my final edit. Firstly to change one or two images that have an amount of brown leaves in them for others that are more predominantly green (amount of green pixels). Interestingly this is something I began then I edited and then moved away from.

• We discussed my use of poetry. My tutor thought my poetry good in itself but invited me to consider:

–    Does the second couplet in each verse that refers to the community elsewhere confuse the narrative of the photograph it is placed against? Are the references too oblique?

– I should check whether the words and images are working together well?

– I could experiment with other approaches such as a wall text which explains the background to the images and text. Or placing a poem ahead of the images and leaving each image in the series without accompanying text, leaving the images to express themselves.

-Review Alec Soth’s work sleeping by the Mississippi

Actions post feedback:

• I edited my images, changing 2 of the images see my submission padlet: https://oca.padlet.org/nicola514516/bow-a4-submission-edit-uoaqo6chhde8rt5r
• I will return to reconsider the use and formatting of my poetry