Okay, before I share the photo I meticulously selected, I want to first answer the guide questions for this assignment - they were put in the instructions for a reason! Might as well get them out of the way (it’ll also help me reach the minimum word count faster, not that that’s really much of an issue, have you SEEN how lengthy my other assignments are?)

I doubt that I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my goals was to put myself out there and challenge myself both personally and professionally. I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and explore new subjects and opportunities, rather than sticking to what was familiar; I wanted to TRY. Additionally, I aimed to get out of the house more, which I am VERY pleased to say that I managed to accomplish through this course. This experience has pushed me in ways I would have never even anticipated a year ago.  

I proactively reached out to friends for assistance - whether it was borrowing equipment, asking for tips or coordinating locations and transportation. I also asked for feedback on my attempts at editing my pictures, and I even requested an acquaintance to be a model for me!! That’s still such an insane experience!!! 

I could’ve chosen to remain on the sidelines and take the easy way out, but I am so grateful that I chose not to do that. And because of that, I have genuine results to show from my learnings, though I still see much room for improvement. Seeing what I was capable of accomplishing in my previous assignments particularly motivated me to continue growing and learning; in my eyes, there’s no way but up from here!

However, I do believe that I could have improved from being more decisive and consistent with my work. Don’t get me wrong, I like - even love and am proud of - my outputs, yet I recognize that they are still lacking in some way; some photographs would have one thing (a certain quality) and others wouldn't. There have also been a few times when I’ve already chosen a specific concept to do but ended up doing something completely different on the day of shooting. These sorts of last-minute changes are not fun. Very challenging, actually. I understand that this insecurity is not something being in class would fix, but rather a personal development aspect to work on in my own time, but I still thought it was relevant enough to mention.

A surprising development during the semester, outside the obvious process of planning and shooting of pictures, was an offer (multiple, actually) from a friend to serve as an intern for a photographer. While a very tempting offer, I declined due to my current circumstances. I just might revisit that option in the future, who knows? The future is still a clean slate, like a film negative waiting to be developed. I’m really trying with these photography metaphors. On a related note, I would definitely love to one day learn how to develop film photographs. I have a film camera of my own with a full roll that needs to see the light of day, metaphorically speaking, of course, because that would just ruin the negative exposures- y’know what I’m just gonna move on).

Unfortunately, I personally do not have much to say about the course itself. Despite participating in a few of the Zoom sessions, I would say that the course was less immersive than I had initially hoped, primarily due to its relatively low level of engagement. While I did learn a substantial amount of knowledge, much of it was outsourced from my own research. Throughout the course timeline, my interactions with classmates were actually pretty limited, most of them occurring during introduction week and during the completion of assignments 1&2. I admit that some of this limited engagement (whether by reluctance or inability) was influenced by my own circumstances, including being overseas, which affected my ability to connect with others. Of course, there were also other factors contributing to this; other, more demanding, courses took up much of my time, leaving just enough time and focus for planning and producing the outputs.

Throughout this course, as an online learner, the most important takeaway from this course was adopting the mindset to try and take action; don’t overthink it, just try. Try out your ideas, even if you think you’ll hate it, because you won’t know it for sure unless you do it. Even if your output isn't the best, the fact that you recognise that is a sign that you can and will improve!