Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on my presentation for work related learning. I have been finding this quite difficult as I was unsure as to what to include and what to research. I decided to start from the very beginning and discuss British creative industries as a whole, leading on to facts regarding the economic market of the creative industry including facts on estimated growth.
I also included information on some of the top British exports such as Tomb Raider and the BBC, I wanted to talk about these as it shows the world wide creative opportunities England really has.
The Northern way and Yorkshire Forward are two large agencies based in the north of England are initiative there to help creative businesses in the north so i made sure I talked about these agencies as they are becoming a major part of the Yorkshire creative incentive, also including the fact that the national media museum is based in Bradford.
I then went on to mention photography in general, including the rough total of photographers based in Yorkshire and Wakefield and the wide range of specialist subjects they work in.
Finally I discussed what I hope to achieve in the future, such as alternative, gothic and burlesque photography and working with live music venues. I also included how i hope to achieve this by contacting other photographers and practicing my skills in local ventures whenever possible.

Also this fortnight my practical task was to achieve an ambient photograph of candles. This included finding a location, collecting props and creating lighting. I decided to create a scene to give the impression of a proposal at a restaurant. However, although I had gained permission at a local Indian restaurant, i was unable to gain entry until after 4:30. this meant that my tutor would be unable to visit me on location to give me assistance. I managed to create some good images anyway using red candles and red and white flowers, using an engagement ring as the main focus.

Over the past month I have gained a lot more experience and skill. We visited the royal armouries as a group before reading week to photograph the building. The task was to gain at least ten images, then edit these down to just five and using lightroom and photoshop, we had to make these five images look as good as possible. We then continued this task as idividuals during reading week, taking shots of an old building of our choice. I chose St Lukes Church in Liverpool.
We then showed our final ten photographs to the class and discussed what made the photo good or could be changed or done different.

One of our main assignments during this year has been creating a portolio for years one and two of the HND Dance students. For the first week we met with our dancers, of whom we were assigned two or three, to discuss what they would require and any specialist shots they would like. That afternoon we spent a few hours in the dance studio while the dancers were rehersing, I took quite a few shots to get the feel of what theey could do and what settings to use on my camera.

The folowing week we met up with our dancers from year two. I took my models on location to newlands, normanton. I chose this area because there are a lot of old, broken down buildings that I thought would make an interesting backdrop for some photos. I also took some more shots in the dance studio, positioning the models more. Finaly, we spent some time in the studio taking portraits.

Initially I found it quite difficult to pose my dancers, I was a little shy to give direction and the models were unsure of what to do. However by the second week, working with the year one group, I had gathered some of my own knowledge and found my models easier to work with. Belive it or not, I found that by watching the television programme "Americas next top model" and watching how the photographer worked with thier models and how they directed them incredibly helpful, I also suggested to my first year dancers to do the same before the shoot and watch how the models worked with the camera.

Our project in Photographic industry studies this month has been based upon food. Deciding to attempt something a little different, I wanted to have a go at a harvest festival / wild theme. My origional idea was to collect wild mushroom, apples and hopefully a shot rabbit or pheasant to complete the image. Unfortunatly I was unable to get a rabbit or pheasant so I used three whole fish instead. For a background I used a collection of logs and displayed my food on them.

At first it was a little difficult to get the lighting right as it was coming out too cold on the image. I ended up using a longer shutter speed to allow the model light to warm up the colour temperature slightly.

Myself and many of my fellow students have been finding our Work related learning studies quite difficult to grasp, this could be due to this part of the course being more based on business studies. We have however been given the oppertunity to host our own exhibition at the old coach house in Wakefield. At first we were all very nervous some of us worried about failure. We could not decide on a date, or name for the exhibition at first. I attempted to create a flyer that could be used.

However not many people liked the idea. Eventually we decided upon the name "Sync Photographic" so I attempted another mock up of a flyer.

I explained to the group that this was just a mock up and my initial idea was to bend the title to fit around the image of the lens and because this picture of the lens was ripped from another website we would have to recreate the image ourselves.

Things are starting to get easier, I am slowly beginning to understand the technicalities of photography.
Last week I got the opportunity to use the studio as part of a small group. Our task was to create three different images using only one item and background brought from home. I was very pleased with the outcome of my photographs and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working hands on with lights, products and backgrounds to the point of myself gatecrashing another group just to assist and see how others worked.

We have also learned a little about working with RAW files in photoshop. This included emphasising detail, altering lighting and colour balance etc. Using one of my older photographs I practiced using this programme to create a newly stylized picture. This has helped me gain extra knowledge regarding post production of photographs.

Yesterday we were given the challenge of "Bracketing" this involved finding the aperture and shutter speed for a perfect shot and then also capturing shots using shutter speeds three stops faster and slower than the original. Using silver based materials, this would help us understand the use of shutter speeds and how it alters the image, these pictures will be kept for use in our research and technical manual. I had quite a lot of trouble during this exercise as the light meter on my camera didn't seem to be reacting correctly and after changing batteries and spending far too much time trying to get it to work and still not having taken a single useful shot, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to work no matter what so attempted the task anyway and the results will show in the development.

After following advice from my tutor I have changed the font colour of my blog to make it easier to read.

The first few weeks.

I am currently having some difficulty involving my Photographic Practice. After spending the past 6 years shooting on automatic I am now having to re-learn how to use a camera properly. With everyone talking about f-stops, ISO and RAW files, I feel like everyone else on the course knows so much more about the technical side of this art form and everything is going over my head. On top of all this I broke my camera last week due to me being an idiot and not stabilising my tripod properly. this can be looked upon as a good thing as well as bad. Bad because I am now camera-less, having pushed the lens into the camera body and broken the mirror, but also good because a new camera was needed anyway as the old one was not an SLR and was very difficult to use, plus having learnt from my mistake, will always check the solidarity of my tripod from now on. I'm currently using one of the borrowed cameras from the college supply, however due to ill health, have not had the motivation to experiment properly. I am hoping to teach myself as much as possible, more through trial and error, whilst also gaining knowledge through my tutors and other classmates.

What makes this course unusual is the fact that we are also studying a form of creative business studies alongside the practice and creativity of our chosen career. This will help us at the end of our course in finding work and setting up our own businesses. I find this part of the course very useful and feel it will prepare me for my future as a professional photographer. After learning a lot about business from my Father, I'm finding many aspects of this class quite easy to understand. However, some of the specialist areas and in depth study are proving a slight struggle. It is a lot to take on board at such an early stage in education and I am working to research those areas in which i have difficulties.

a re-start on life

I have started this blog as part of my personal professional development class (PPD) for my Foundation Degree in Commercial Photography. I will be using it over the next two years to record my development, achievements and struggles throughout my course. I will also be publishing my work for the purposes of professional criticism, both good and bad, to help me find my strengths and weaknesses.
I have had an interest in photography for the past 7-8 years after taking a Photography A Level alongside my GNVQ in Media studies in 2001. I enjoyed the photography A level more than the Media GNVQ and decided to make this my career.
I enjoy taking photos of nature and wildlife and live events such as music and theatre. I hope to specialise in these fields after I finish my course.