Take 3; Why do I want to do the OCA degree.... ?

Along came digital... I had an early dabble with a Casio , in the late '90's that took VGA size images and decided that it was creatively unworkable, but I had started to rediscover the joy of some of my older images when scanned and manipulated using Photoshop as a digital darkroom tool.

Prior to a holiday in 2004 a point and shoot Fuji digital camera was obtained. I liked what I could do, the immediacy of the small format. The clarity of the images in good light and the Fuji vibrancy made something start to smoulder.

I took the film kit out less and less the small silver box in my pocket becoming the main tool, then half way up an Alp in a thunderstorm it died. I tried desperately to find a replacement but I also knew that the limited controls available on a point and shoot would be a stumbling block... I wanted to be able to have greater control and to create images again.

The Canon 400D was obtained in 2008 and with it a new found passion for photography... but I still felt that having a small portable point and shoot made for an handy sketchbook" and invested in a large mega pixel Fuji.. but this time I was very disappointed. To keep up with the consumers the image stabilisation and face recognition software made for great snapshots but lousy landscape and fur and hair capture. Noise was a big issue and the lack of control after using a Canon D-SLR led me to a Canon G9 as a bridge camera. all the fun of a fixed zoom lens "point and shoot" with aperture , speed and even flash control.

Once I had decided to take the OCA courses I decided I had to get my hands on a larger sensor so the 5D Mk II was obtained and the course signed up...

So why do I want to do this degree...?

First off I want to make myself believe I am capable of what everyone else tells me; I have to quantify it by a result.

Secondly I want to find my true "voice". There are times I feel like a three year old. I have a good photographic "vocabulary", I understand the meaning of things but when I try to string a pictorial sentence together I am often frustrated as my meaning is not always clear. Perhaps I am trying to say the wrong thing... or not saying enough..?

Time will tell.

Enough of this blather, on with the course.