PPP1 - Reading Week Task - Do a good deed for someone

DOING A GOOD DEED - THE LOST LICENSE

Whilst walking from university on my way home to Liberty Park I stumbled across a drivers licence which was sitting on the pavement on Woodhouse Square. I decided to pick this up and firstly see who the identification belonged too.

After doing so and recognising that the driver license belonged to a female of a similar age to me who was from Oldham near Manchester I decided to take the drivers license home with me. Once getting home my initial thoughts were to located the nearest police station and hand the license in there. However after being in possession of the license I thought that the girl of whom the license belonged to would probably be at university in Leeds and be in frantic panic of losing her license.

So instead of handing the license into the police I thought it would be a better option to post the license to her in the post to her home address- that way I would be at piece of mind that the license would be safely returned to the right person and so that she wouldn't have to play goose-chase around Leeds to find the police station to pick it up from.

Once doing so and posting the drivers license back to the girls house along with a little note which just addressed where I found the license and the day in which I found it along with just my name I received a lovely message back from the girl via Facebook messaging that simply thank'ed me for being kind enough to post license back her home address.

A simple yet good deed that left me with a warm feeling inside and that left that girl happy to have received her lost license. 

PPP1 Reading Week Tasks -VISIT AN EXHIBITION

Exhibition Visit to Nottingham Contemporary:

JOHN NEWLING 
ECOLOGICAL VALUES 
26TH JAN- 07 APRIL 2013

During reading week I decided to visit the "Nottingham contemporary' situated in the centre of Nottingham by the train station. Not only was this visit convenient in distance, the Gallery itself is one of my most favoured galleries in the Midlands area of the United kingdom, I have visited this particular gallery a fair few times. 

During my visit I particularly found the exhibition 'Ecological Values' by John Newling fairly intriguing and interesting. John Newling is a 'pioneer of public art' who now retired as a Professor of Installation Sculpture at The Nottingham Trent University.

His work at this particular exhibition reflected and explored the natural world and its ecological system (which is stated in the title of the exhibition. Although Newling had two exhibitions on at the Nottingham Contemporary; one them focusing on the subject area of money and religion I felt as though this Ecological Values exhibition was much more touching as it was not something I would normally be drawn too, its organic route and concept in terms of the way that the exhibit was depicted showed the lifespan in the form of nature age'ing in a obscure yet artistic form. 

One of his pieces consisted of a sculpture of over 80 Walking stick cabbages over the lifespan of the exhibition this sculpture was shown to erode and have some what of a physical change in state. I found this fairly interesting to look at and although I do not have photographs of this piece within the exhibition the placement of an outdoor substance showing to be almost declining in an artificial environment was interesting to think about, this   juxtaposed the way it would flourish in the outdoor environment. The connotation that has been created here and the amount of reflection that has been created through responding to this piece is a clear reflection of the power of the pieces exhibited. 

PPP1 Reading Week Tasks- READ A BOOK

TASK 1 

1. Get a book out of the library relating to your subject specialism. (If you are keen on lots of different media, choose one – this is also an option to double-up with your research for SDP). Read the book and list the top 3 things you learnt from it and how this will help your work progress. 
   
   
   The 35mm photographers handbook
   Julian Calder, John Garrett
   ISBN: 0 330 26035 9
   
   
   
   The book I have chosen to read from the library that will assist and influence my working in progress for my self directed project (SDP) is the one shown above called: The 35mm photographers handbook. As my SDP subject area focuses on film photography I feel that this book went hand-in-hand with the basic technical elements that I needed to cover in order to gain detailed knowledge on the equipment used within film photography. 
   
   Not only did the book cover heavily on technical aspects it also touched on the ideas of having to experiment and be patient with your experimentation in order to perfect and learn the photographic skills to prosper within the discipline. 
   
   
   
   
   I feel that I was immediately drawn to this book after reading the first line of the introduction which stated 'The first million pictures were the hardest to take. But we have taken them, and lessons we learned along the way are distilled in this book'. As soon as I read this line I felt as if this book was infused with knowledge, experience, wisdom, logic and most importantly creativity- the five upmost important attributes to have in photography as taught by my father.
   
   3 THINGS LEARNT FROM THE BOOK:
   
   1. The brand of equipment does not matter greatly, photography is about using the right tools for the right job.
   
   2. Preparation in photography is equally as important as taking the photograph itself. Maintenance of equipment is influential on the clarity and outcome of the photograph, the craftsmanship of the photo is therefore dependent on the care and respect given to the equipment.
   
   3. Photojournalism moulds and shapes our opinions on subject areas raised within society, what is captured in these photos therefore has great importance as these images are depicted and discussed on old (news papers, tv) and new (blogs, forums, social networking) media platforms.