My first experience in the darkroom for my photography was when I first started exploring "Photograms." The darkroom is almost always an engaging occurrence especially for first timers and I was none the different. I enjoyed having the liberation of choosing my own objects and compositions to create and X-ray like image. I remember being fondly proud of a festive photogram I made which was the first time I truly felt as though I was successful of achieving something within this theme. Moreover, I thoroughly enjoyed researching Man Ray, a photographer who uses photograms and usually intertwines elements of nature within his images which was really interesting to me as it creates a combination of the darkroom which is solely man made with the pure essence of nature. Truthfully, I do not feel as though "Pinhole photography" was the most successful subject I encountered. However it is my personal belief that we will all have topics that we like and dislike and pinhole photography was one of the ones that I didn't enjoy as much as the others. However I still maintained my effort throughout and tried hard with the topic, remaining disciplined. I'm glad that I did study this theme because I think it is important to stay persistent regardless of your opinion towards the topic. In honesty, when I was confronted with my new subject title of "edges," I was not too enthusiastic and I was quite unsure of how I might approach this task. However, in the end it was definitely a learning experience and as I explored the theme of "edges" further, my interest towards it began to heighten and I gave it all I could. I'm pleased with my outcome and I can most certainly say I tried my best which I think is probably the most important thing when it comes to photography. Dolores Marat was the base of one of my artist research projects and I was positively captivated with her work and the meanings behind it. I can say with certainty that Marat's photography sparked an interest with me which led me to develop more of a eagerness towards the "edges" concept. "Abstraction" was the subject that challenged my personal boundaries and encouraged me to be inquisitive. It allowed me to question both the actual nature of abstraction and also the way in which I was going to present my opinion on it through my photography. It was both unique and exciting to play around with shape colour and imagination. "Openings" was definitely one of my favourite topics and I strongly feel that I invested all of my time and passion into it and I have no regret in doing so. I looked at a vast range of photographers to inspire my work and my creativity certainly developed whilst persisting with my page. Furthermore, I found an artist who's work that I really love by the name of Rinko Kawauchi who usually uses a pastel colour scheme and intertwines notes of femininity into her work which is something that really inspired me in my photographic experience as a whole. Also, I got to make mood boards using the website Pinterest which helped me to convey my thoughts and ideas visually prior to actually capturing photographs which helped me feel more organised and allowed me to understand which path I wanted to take within the topic of work. I feel that my "Journey" topic was the most enjoyable within component one. It seemed to me that it was the topic with the most freedom and it allowed me to take photographs with limited restrictions. I loved being on a foreign place and taking images opposed to the usual school setting. It was probably the most eye opening experience as it encouraged me to be observant towards the world around me as I was constantly on the look out for aesthetically pleasing layouts and things that were not what I would typically think to take photos of. I liked documenting my journeys visually as I think that it almost tells a story without using words which, in my opinion is truly wonderful.