Growing up as an Artist, I decided to pursue my passion with the BAMS program, and looking at the list of subjects/courses created a light inside me that allowed me to feel excitement to eagerly improve my current skills and acquire new ones alongside my college journey.
I entered MMS 173 with fair expectations such as acquiring at least the basics of photography. As I did not know what the course would contain and how it would be run, I ended up slightly nervous and scared as I did not have prior experience with photography that would help me get through the course. Apart from not having prior experience, I was also unsure if I had the required materials or devices (e.g., a professional camera) for photography. However, despite my worries, further enabling my worries will not help me feel at ease and therefore, I entered with the mindset “I will try with what I can”. This mindset allows me to learn without stressing about how I will pass the subject.
A few weeks have passed, and I have learned UNIT I readings and advanced reading UNIT II regarding photography such as elements, principles, compositions, exposure triangle, case studies, and more. These readings unexpectedly have given me a new way to look at photos as well as a new way to take photos. This newly acquired knowledge made me look through my gallery to try and evaluate my pictures using the principles and compositions of photography even though I know that most of my pictures are taken randomly.
Aside from the readings provided by the faculty-in-charge or the university, another learning method I acquired was through my coursemates’s submissions. Assignment 2 allowed me to view other submissions than my own and through this, I realized how bland my submissions are, and how they lack meaning and life especially since the colors are plain even if it was post processed to change colors or composition. Furthermore, this also ignited a series of questions in me:
How do they know when to take the picture? When not to?
What time?
How many do I need?
As well as new worries such as if I will be able to hastily improve during my time in this course, knowing how far I still have to go. Despite these worries, I knew that my improvement would solely depend on my perseverance to continue and get out of my comfort zone. As the saying goes “wala kang mapapala kapag puro antay lang ang iyong gagawin”, words need to match with actions.
Moving on, I would say that I am doing fairly okay with my current progress with the course. As I am writing this, I have already finished Assignments 1 and 2 while also planning for game photography. But looking back, maybe my progress is a bit slower as I do not really participate in the discussion forums because I do not know what to share. However, I do love reading the submissions on the forum and have fun looking at how different people understand the same field of knowledge.
Besides the formal and semi-formal stuff from the course, I am passionately excited and worried about the future schedules or projects that I still have to encounter. An activity that I am currently preparing for the game photography, although I have some ideas on what game I want to use and what I will capture, I am still worried if my ideas will be the same as how I expect it turn out. Besides this, I am also excited for the upcoming f2f session around next week. It is definitely rare to encounter a f2f session in UPOU as it is an online university dedicated to distance learning but I am glad that I will be able to attend one for my major course. I believe and expect the session to be fun and full of insights.
As for the other projects, I am more so just curious and nervous about what other projects we are expected to submit. However, I am ready to take in challenges even if I am unsure if it is something that I am capable of doing with my current situation.
Lastly, I am pretty satisfied with how the course is being run, it is strict but for a good reason. Given how many times the professor had to remind the students what the rules are, and what to do and not to do, is a clear sign of how previous classes went. I am sure though that I absolutely love the synchronous sessions; the class is interactive and there are activities for students to do to practice our current knowledge. Though, I do regret not being able to attend the first synchronous session given that the second session was fun.
These are my current thoughts, opinions, and experiences for the MMS 173, I look forward to gaining more insights and experiences in future projects and sessions.