....?

After just being back for a month, I feel like we’ve been given a lot of information to get our heads round and I can tell that this next semester is definitely going to be a lot busier and more hectic. I feel that I have been managing my time better and after knowing what we need to do is definitely a good thing because I know that I can’t get behind on anything. I’m finding that I’m making the most of the days that I have spare to either catch up on written work and research or I’m out photographing various things, either personal or for the assignments. This is something that I wasn’t generally doing that much in the last semester, I‘m really happy with the way things are going.

:D

Mentors etc

We got given a lot of information today of things like mentors, a photography information pack and also something named ‘do you really want to do this? . I found all this information really useful because it shows what you need to do to try and achieve our dreams. These are all things that we need to know if we want to make it into photography.
This is what I’ve been looking forward to hearing and reading because its more on the business side instead of producing images for nothing. I’ve realised that there’s more ways to make money out of photography than I first thought.
Before today I hadn’t realised we would need a mentor, and I haven’t got a clue who to ask, and I think I’m going to find it difficult to get anyone.
I really enjoyed finding out all the information today and I’m going to enjoy the lectures were going to receive on these. This is the information to help us find out how to get a career in photography.

Product Shoot

Today I was in the studio shooting for the product shots for Hoar Cross, and Steve didn’t like my idea of using shattered glass so I had to compromise and use some glass beads that he found in the studio. I’m very proud of the results of the images that I produced, and the glass beads link in with the products that I choose, which was quite lucky really, as I’d already decided on the products I was going to use.
When everything the lighting and the products were set up I knew exactly what I wanted from the shoot, and I feel that I achieved exactly that. Steve was helping to make sure the lighting was how I wanted it, and also to get the right exposures, as I still don’t know how to work the lighting yet. It’s something I would definitely like to learn.
I played around with the positioning of the products to try and achieve to right layout. I also photographed the products together and singularly as the clients want a group shot and also the products on their own. After I had photographed the group shot and the products on their own I decided to squirt water to create water droplets on the products and I feel this worked well.
Overall, even though I wasn’t allowed to do my idea, I feel that the shoot went brilliantly and the results in my opinion are fantastic.

Silent Spring Competition

We got given the silent spring and the world skills competition before Christmas, and I just thought they were optional, but I’ve now come to realise that they aren’t, they are our assignments for the new term. I wish I’d realised before because then I could have been out taking photographs to fit the brief over Christmas. I am slightly annoyed with myself, but there’s nothing I can do about it now, I’ll just have to start photographing as soon as I can.
I’ve starting thinking about ideas, and some of my ideas are quite vague of how it links in towards the story and also towards the title, but I think if I explained why I’m doing it then hopefully it will be ok. I’m going to explore into a few of my ideas, just incase some of them don’t work well enough.
One of my ideas needs a full moon for it to work, so I’m going to have to find out when the next full moon is, I’m hoping it’s soon.

Hoar Cross Hall - New Assignment

Our new assignment is for Hoar Cross Hall, this is quite exciting really because it’s a huge company and they want the help from us at Burton College. I think this is going to be a fantastic opportunity for us all, and we’ve got to be very thankful to them for giving us this opportunity.
The first project is to do some product shots with products that there’ve provided for us, this is something I’m personally going to enjoy because you can be as creative as you like or not like.
I’m also going to enjoy it because I’m going to be using the studio again, and I feel my first shoot in the studio didn’t really go as I would have liked so it’s going to definitely improve my opinion and feeling of the studio.
I also think that by us shooting in RAW, and us not being allowed to use Photoshop is a great idea, because you find that people can be fantastic at Photoshop, but the original image wasn’t very good at all. So this is all about shooting an image, and the image coming straight from the camera that doesn’t need any Photoshop adjustments. This is how photography should be, but it’s getting more into Photo shopped images, which to be fair can look fantastic but it just isn’t real, and with the type of photography we are shooting it needs to be real.
This assignment is definitely going to test some people who are used to Photo shopping all their images.

New Year... New Deadlines.

Looking back at the last assignments and how I managed my time I realised that there’s certain things I need to improve on in this term and with the new assignments, these are a few things that I will do this time;

• Spreading my time evenly between assignments.
• On my days off and as soon as I finish work make sure I find time to complete some work, even if it’s only an hour at a time. This is better than having to spend days before the deadline trying to complete everything.
• To the above I could write down when tasks need to be done, and write down times I should be completing the work.
• Set myself deadlines before the real deadlines.
  Take more photographs… considering I’m on a photography course I feel I don’t take enough photographs especially in my own time.
• Update my portfolio. I feel my work isn’t at a high standard at the moment, and there’s a lot of improvements I can make.
• Try and be daring with my photography, I don’t feel I have an individual style to my images whereas some people know what they like and don't like.