A new path

I'm now starting my third week in college, of my photography course.

In those short few weeks, I think I've learned a lot already, and not just in terms of the curriculum.

My year group is fairly large - certainly more than I'm used to being around. So we've been broken into four classes. Already, one person has left my course after two days, a couple have swapped for another group (to get more days off in a row - which is only really guaranteed for the first term). And I'm starting to learn pretty quickly who turns up and who doesn't, and who turns in course work and who doesn't.

It annoys me a little, since I have to pay for my fees, that people who are having their fees paid for them by the state, have already missed most classes in the past couple of weeks, and the same with deadlines. Apparently, there was a lot of competition for places on this course, and I'm sure there were people who narrowly missed getting a place who would have put in a bit more effort. It's also quite surprising to see such attitudes surfacing so early on - particularly when the workload is reasonable, and when most people would still have a fair amount of enthusiasm and drive. I think the tutors and quite a few of my other (attending) classmates feel pretty much the same.

My course certainly keeps me busy. I'd not really known what to expect before I began. My timetable accounts for twenty hours of classroom based time. This is already twice as much as the hours I spent in class during my degree.

During my spare time, I still find myself working hard towards my coursework behind the scenes. Effectively, I put in the same amount of hours, if not more, than when I was working. After classes, I usually head off to the library. I also read on the train to and from college - which at an hour long commute is quite a good opportunity to do some background reading. I also still enjoy reading photography books and magazines in my spare time, as a means of relaxing.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my course so far. There are no exams, the assessment is based on coursework. So a missed deadline is not a good thing. We have to successfully pass all the units throughout the two years to obtain our HND. So there's no last-minute-swotting here, but a need to keep the studying momentum rolling. This is why missing a deadline is a bad thing. You miss a deadline, you then get marked as not having completed the unit, and you need to be reassessed. I'm sure if it were operated in a similar way to exams in degrees, if you charged for the resits, then that might help to focus the purse, if not the mind into meeting particular deadlines.

There's also a lot of group assessment going on, rather than specific tutor assessment. This is beneficial on many levels. It enables me to hear lots of different perspectives. It also means that I don't end up "catering" my coursework to please one specific person's tastes. So far the course is rather good at hitting all the major points of photography: the practical exercises coupled with the planning and psychological thought processes; the side where you need to learn how to be a business person; the IT development side for post-processing; and the theoretical side of understanding f-stops from ISO numbers.

Interestingly enough, it's the photography section of the library which is the most used, and most messy. I suppose this says quite a lot about the students who are there (the ones that show up) and suggests they spend time in the library working hard.

I've also been learning more about how to take photographs. I still subscribe to the idea of when you see it, shoot it (in the non-animal violent manner). However, I've also learned about how to respond to being set an assignment, and work through various stages and processes before I even pick up a camera and produce a final shot. Although at times it does feel a bit forced, it also makes me look at my work in a different way, and have a different appreciation for what I am doing - a greater sense of self-respect for my photography, I suppose.

So far, so good, and so far, no complaints. As usual, as with all first impressions, I find my views changing from what they were of a particular course, or what I was doing or am doing and where I'm going. Financially it will be a long two years, but in terms of enjoyment, there's something special about waking up and being happy about getting up - even if I have had a restless night's sleep, or have woken up late (I'm a night owl). Going to class is not a hardship in the slightest - all I want to do is to go, and absorb information in a new format, as opposed to reading a book or a magazine or browsing the internet.

It's a lovely feeling this, of having found something I enjoy and studying it. Photography is an extremely competitive market, but that's a challenge I'm willing to take on. This feeling though, it reminds me of being a teenager again. The first time I heard a music track which worked for me - my first indie track, as opposed to listening to the latest chart hits and boybands with my classmates at school when I was 14. Back then, I'd gone along with the idea that chart hits were ok - but they never meant anything to me, they never made sense. I just didn't know any better. In fact, I rather assumed that I wasn't going to be a person who'd be all that much into music. But then, I heard my first track from an indie band, and it triggered off something in my head where finally I'd found music I liked, that I related to, and which made sense.

Doing this course feels rather the same. I'm no longer doing a nine-to-five job - leaving it all behind as soon as I walk out the door. I want to learn more about it, to read around the subject as well as within the areas I'm studying. Which ultimately should only really benefit me.

Any money I get at the moment is also going right back into photography. I've bought quite a few books - some recommended text books (although strictly speaking we don't have course specific texts) as well as some more broader photography based books.