After discussing my ideas with Amanda, I have decided to go with my original idea of using music as a base for my experimental portfolio. I have chosen this concept for a number of reasons, firstly, i have always enjoyed photographing live bands and I find the excitement, spontaneity and liveliness of gigs and live events a thrilling environment in which to work. This is also an area in which i wish to work in in the future, hopefully having my photographs used in popular music magazines such as NME as well as having the opportunity to shoot some of the greatest musicians in the world and hopefully achieve an image that will one day become iconic in the way Pennie Smiths photograph of the Clash did, used on the cover of London Calling. i would like to experiment more with my chosen field, trying different ideas and playing with innovative concepts. I have already started this in the form of a live band i photographed before Christmas and portraiture I worked on for a friends band which has since been published in the Wakefield Express.

I have been advised to research different artists such as Caroline Coons, Linda McCartney and Terry O'Neil in order to look at work that has already been done and what is famous. Along with this I have a few books dedicated to music photography, including documentary photographs of the Rolling Stones, which I can use as reference. Also this evening I am planning on attending a live Gig in one of the music venues in Wakefield in order to practice a few techniques and experiment with ideas.

This term we have been asked to create an experimental portfolio based upon a genre of our choice. After researching many different genres including landscape, still life and documentary i was required to give a brief presentation on my findings, along with this i included photographs that are relevant to each genre.

For a long time I was unsure as to which genre to adopt. At first I was leaning towards music based photography such as live gigs and musician portraits, however one of my fellow students suggested that they were unsure as to whether that particular genre would be acceptable. Following this advice I decided to experiment with one or two other genres including documentary, street, cityscape and architecture and some still life photography.

I also visited a couple of photography exhibitions such as the "China Through a Lens" Exhibition at Mersyside Maritime Museum, which displayed a large number of glass plate prints, taken by John Thompson during 1868-1872, of his journey though Asia where he set up a professional photographic studio, capturing various images of landscape, people, architecture, street and domestic scenes. He worked especially to capture the culture and traditions of this new world as they fascinated him so much with a fascination with the women and the fashions in which they wore their clothes and hair.

I found this exhibition very interesting as it showed a wide variety of different genres all at once as it basically paved the way for photojournalism. I was surprised by the amount of information that was carried in these images, not only in the way the photographer had labeled each slide with in depth information on the subject, date and location, and without this information we would not have been able to learn so much about the photographers travels and also the history of Asia. But I was also surprised by how much information you got from just looking at the image, events that would have long been forgotten can now be remembered and kept forever.

Another exhibition I attended was Black Britannia held in the National Slavery Museum. This series of photographs by John Ferguson is a collection of portraits of successful black British people taken especially for this exhibition. Ranging from Firemen and Doctors to celebrities such as Lewis Hamilton and Ms Dynamite. The purpose of this exhibition is to celebrate the overcome of prejudice and racism and also to hopefully inspire young black people to see beyond the stereotype, develop a stronger understanding of what they can achieve and to help them find positive role models.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, each person was well portrayed in their portrait, often showing each person in their working field along with a brief description of why they have been included in the display such as Charlie Williams, the first stand up comedian of African decent, and Samantha Tross, the first black British woman to become a consultant orthopedic surgeon. As well as an impressive display of good quality work i noticed how many of the images had been printed on a silvery paper, creating an unusual light effect on the photos themselves and making them jump out and grab your attention as well as look stylish and unusual. This is something I may bear in mind for the future when displaying my work.

Learning style, strengths and weakneses.

Earlier today we were given a few exercises to determine our learning styles and our strengths and weaknesses in the learning field. This series of short tests were statements which we were required to number depending upon our feelings towards them and also questions with two separate answers to find out which side of our brain is more dominant.

I discovered that i learn kinaestethicaly, which means i prefer to practice by repeating them and physically doing things in order to learn how, also using rhymes, word links and poems in order to remember things.
I also discovered that the right side of my brain is more dominant which means I have a more creative nature and prefer to learn through free exploration. however it also means I can have difficulty concentrating and tend to be a daydreamer often becoming restless during long verbal explanations. I have noticed this often in the past and now understand why this occurs.

Upon completing the tasks i found out my strengths and weaknesses, strengths being presenting ideas, assertiveness and ICT (Information Computer Technology) and weaknesses being Writing and analysis and Time management with a particular problem with distraction. In order to rectify these problems i hope to improve my note taking skills and learn how to skim read, also attempt to become more organised and try to improve my timekeeping, especially when studying or doing homework.

One think i believe I have to do is push myself a little bit harder and when i feel i can't be bothered or I'm bored of a task, to force myself to do more. A lot of this can be as simple as overcoming laziness and lethargy, something I can do to get myself more motivated has little to do with learning and actually do more physical activity. I plan to go swimming at least once a week in order to increase my energy levels and therefore help my concentration.