Pro Studies 2/12/15 lesson

In this lesson we discussed promotional packs and business cards briefly. Our tutor also mentioned about having an Artist's statement and he talked about portfolios briefly, as he had already spoke about portfolios the previous week, which I had missed however at the end of the talk, during a break he showed his own portfolio to the people who had missed out from before. He spoke about the different ways in which an individual can show and display their work either through prints or digitally. To display and present work as well as prints for hand in, he mentioned we could create a book to show our work and we could create one for and/ or as part of our portfolio. Through the talk Cv's were also mentioned as these are parts of the requirements of the brief that we have to hand in. during a presentation he showed us the various types of Cv's that are available to use, for example, a more skills based one vs an artists' Cv. Things to include on our Cv were adding on transferable skills that we have and skills and techniques we've learned whilst being here, things such as Capure One. He spoke about it being best to keep a record of our work and how we are going about creating it, e.g. being in the studio and showing this in our blogs, journals and or websites that we created. He also said to write about our website, why we chose to use a particular font and style of template. Writing about photographers and the work they're doing and how some of their work might relate to my own.  The tutor also said about our branding and trademarks within our work, e.g. a style o lighting, will help distinguish us against other artists by having a distinct style and to try and find it as soon as we can as this will help finding jobs available to us, as if we have a particular style, a person will know to come to us as that is what they want for their images. It would be good to also write about my work and how I went about creating it, going through the stages of working to the final product. As well as showing how we did our work we can show our time management of our shoots and organising them, combined with our lessons and organising it so we can get a model/ subject in to shoot. Within the lesson it was also discussed about copyright laws, laws and finance if you're going to be a free lance photographer, setting up your own studio and even if you're not, just to be wise and careful about money coming in and going out. To be aware of any social, political and cultural issues that are going on especially if you're shooting some new work for yourself or a client. Being open minded about different things and open to other's opinions was also talked about. 

FMP - Choosing the looks for the decades

After doing some general research on the styles of the different decades, I have found potential ideas of how I could shoot each individual image using appropriate themes. I have researched each decade individually to try and get an understanding of that time, as this will help me recreate that era. I haven't quite yet decided whether I would like to recreate each decade as the are, with the costumes, etc or whether to recreate them but with a modern twist, for example shooting the 60s decade but with modern clothing that represent or have been inspired by the 60s, e.g. stripes on modern dresses. 

FMP - ILA Idea

Unable to make my mind up over what to shoot for my final, as I was struggling to finalise it, even though I had the ‘before and after’ idea, I was still reverting back to the concept of shooting ‘through the decades’, which I’d done for my Minor. I went to speak to my tutor to ask his advice, to see what he thought I should do and to air my concerns and thoughts over my dilemma. He said to think of my market and who I want to work for and what would work best for potential clients, what will show off and advertise my skills best. He pointed me in the right direction by asking this and I can now start my search by looking within my hometown for potential clients, he also cited that it could be a range of skills which may get me a job within the industry and to focus on these as well, things such as enhancing and retouching skills, not just being a photographer. We discussed some ideas for my brief, which we both seemed pleased with the outcome and after which I felt motivated and glad I went to speak to him as I’d mentioned first that I wanted to finalise my idea before I went for Christmas and now knowing my lecturer knows my idea and likes it, at least think it has potential then I know I can get working on it as I have five months to get this in motion and completed for my deadline. As I told him I really liked the idea of shooting through the decades and enjoyed it for my last project I asked him whether I would be able to do this again as long as I brought something new to it and made it fresh compared with what I had done. We talked about changing/ mixing the image up and playing around with it by using two images to create one or having a person dressed as one decade but placing her in another decade’s setting and vice versa. There were a few ideas going around and with great potential too. I asked if I did any shoots on location just as something I’d try and talked about it whether this would help and maybe increase my grade, to show I’d experimented and worked with natural light however he suggested to stick to the studio, as it wouldn’t help my grade, to practice my skills and because the studio can be controlled and so this shows off more skills as everything is controlled, from the lights to the model and camera, by me.   

FMP - ILA, ideas, thoughts & concepts

My major project expands and follows on from the minor project so I have to come up with an idea which I am happy with and which I think would be good commercially and I have to remind myself and get in the frame of mind that these are commercial images, images to sell, which is something Richard reminded me of within a tutorial for the last project. He asked me what cliental I’d be ‘selling’ to and I’d admitted that I hadn’t even thought of or looked in to that as I’d simply forgot because I wasn’t used to having to do this, creating images commercially. I have to think of all the platforms my images could be potentially sold to and viewed on, things such as magazines, websites, newspapers and billboards. This meaning that across all these platforms the one image, for example, would be viewed both on a very large scale against a smaller print such as a newspaper or magazine and I’d have to think about composing an image that would look good printed on a newspaper across to a magazine where the paper texture is different and also compared with a billboard where the image is completely blown up to a huge scale in comparison. For my minor project, due to time constraints I didn’t manage to get a selection of people and so used my friend, who had modelling experience and who I’d worked with before so I knew we’d get it done and because I only had one model to work with I had to come up with a updated version of my brief and so my friend and I came up with an idea within the theme of Beauty to shoot a series of photographs going through the decades from the 50s and originally up to the present day however we did the 50s to the 90s. I really liked this idea and it inspired me and motivated me to achieve this idea. I think as a concept and idea it was/ is really good and visually had the potential to look excellent if executed correctly. I think these series of images would be great for my final show due to the look aesthetically and as well as bringing people back in time and reminding themselves of the looks, it gives a talking point and a potential interest in people regarding the content of the images. However even though I think it would be good for my final degree show I have already done this idea and therefore I thought of going back to my original concept of getting a selection of people and shooting them with a before and after style within the over -all theme of Beauty.
 

FMP - 30/11/15 First Lesson

Beginning, First Lesson

Our first lesson on to our new project began like all others where we gathered as a group in room 54. The main objective of the lesson was to go through the new brief given for our final major project as well as a few other topics, such as our thoughts on the last project and some announcements of this new project, what to expect, how to go about it and a possible trip down to London to potentially visit various artists and exhibitions as well as our training in Capture One. We discussed the new brief and viewed a couple of artist’s work, which Richard showed us and introduced to us. We also mentioned about exhibiting our own work for the final show and how to go about that and the possibilities available to us. Richard also mentioned to us about having to enter a competition for the work required fir hand in and it would be best to enter the AOP as this is one of the requirements however if we wish to we can enter another competition relating to our work. To enter the AOP it is advised and best if we could enter one of our final images. Lastly he stated to have our ILAs done as early as we can, hopefully by the end of the week at least our next session which would be Monday, as we are able to only have ideas at the moment for Wednesday’s tutorials and formulate an idea for and from then. He also brought up our new timetable schedule and what rooms we’d be in and when and what we’d also be doing in each room/ lesson, ILA first, moving on to group critiques and individual tutorials. He mentioned to write our blogs for this project to look at who's producing what and where and to look at recent trends and branding, and to look at our own branding. To help with this he named PDN - Photo district News, Grant Scott book - How to be a professional photographer and to use a mix of old and new photographers as our inspiration and research. We could do editorial imagery and or other types or style, can produce more than 10 images but have to reach the minimum of 10 for our brief requirements. He also spoke to us about keeping up with our research, blogging and current photographers and to keep up to date with my own skills, to show them and keep my website up to date as best I can. 

FMP - Final Major Project

For my last project I chose to carry on with my chosen theme of Beauty and extend upon the idea and concept. I had a bit of difficulty to pin point an exact idea I wanted to do with the theme however after talking to two tutors I have came closer to an idea of how I can complete my project. I think at first I will try and shoot both on location and in the studio and see how they turn out even if I choose to use all studio images at least I have explored both options. At first I got too to stick to the studio although another tutor mentioned I can at least try some locations shots to see how they are and turn out. Also at first I thought of using the one person and recreating the decades with the one person changing in to each look but I have been told to maybe try and use more than one person, use models and then contradicting again by another tutor I was told I could use one person. The fact that some things are contradicting, as the tutors aren't sure of what the other said, is okay, I think as it allows me to try the different options anyway and helps me come to a conclusion, whether it, photos, worked or not etc. For this project I will extend the amount of decades I will shoot to make the minimum amount of 10 prints that I need to met the requirements of the brief. I will shoot from the 20s to either the 2000s or the present day.