This assignment, once you get into the practical part of the work requires that you go out and do some really basic shoots simply to establish what it is you're going to choose as your subject or idea.
In an ideal scenario this should be done quickly maybe over 2 shoots at most. Ideally you'll have done some visual research using the internet or books and will have some idea of what it is you might go looking for during these initial shoots. But, don't restrict yourself to one idea you may have seen, be ready to photograph anything else that represents decay, so when you look at the first shoot or two you do where you're just exploring ideas you'll have a range of ideas and themes to consider as the theme/subject/idea you're going to develop.
From your first shoot or two where you're simply trying to come up with an idea you should ideally be able to pick one of the subjects you've shot and say "That's it - that's my subject/theme" and then go with that.
So this might be an example of some of the ideas you've shot yourself over 2 or 3 shoots just looking for your theme/subject/idea.
The important thing is to get this stage done quick. What you now need to do is pick one of the subjects/themes to go with and develop further. So that means scrap all the other ideas and just go with one.
So if this was examples of the things you've shot you might look at these and think "Leaves, there's loads of em, all over the place, they're easy to get access to, there's a massive variety of them, that's my subject/theme".
*(Note these first exploratory shoots can be bunched together with the same plan and Gibbs reflection)
Then, you're on your way - because now you've got to start shooting and developing your idea on the theme of leaves - nothing else, just leaves. What might do is plan to collect a load of leaves and shoot them in a really basic way using a specific camera and shoot them in a specific kind of light outside where you find them. You then get that work into your design sheets and reflect on the work and analyse it in terms of how good it is at this stage and what next could you do/try in order to develop the work as both an idea and a practical task.
Once you've finished the reflection on that shoot - you plan your next developmental stage and simply repeat the process of plan - do - reflect over a series of stages where you improve the idea, your approach, gradually refining and developing the project.
Do not at the end use a selection of images from any of the earlier shoots, the idea is the final shoot must end up being the best set of images and for it to be innovative, ideally you'll have combined a post production technique to enhance the sense of decay, so not only would you have shot something that is simply decaying, but the way you treat and present the images should combine and enhance the decay narrative.
*If you think your other shoots are good there's no reason why they can't be used in the design sheets as A3 images, but they can't be designated as finals.
