Evaluation of the module
Professional practice for me has been one of the most interesting and insightful modules that we have done so far at University. I enjoyed learning about different techniques in photography, how to get noticed and especially the different stationary that you need to actually have in order to deem yourself a photographer. I have tried things that I thought I never would and have experimented in various different things such as Instagram grids, blog posts and invoicing.
For me, one of the biggest challenges has been social media. I think that although there are billions of people on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you have to adapt what you post on these in order to please your audience and gain the best following. My biggest success in social media is between Facebook and Instagram. On my Facebook page, I now have 440 likes and I reach over 1,500 people on most posts, due to likes and shares. On Instagram however, I have over 7,500 followers and get many likes on each post. However, I think that it would be more likely to get a job out of Facebook than it would out of Instagram. Twitter has been very difficult to connect with people, although I have managed to gain 300+ followers in a short space of time, there is not much connection with people in terms of likes and follows, despite being tweeted by Lee Jeffries.
I thoroughly enjoyed this module and now have all the stationary and paperwork that I need to develop my photography career even further. I even used the invoice I created in real life which helped a lot. I look to develop my work and keep adapting my social media and business stationary to be the best that I can be and eventually get a job in photography.
For me, one of the biggest challenges has been social media. I think that although there are billions of people on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you have to adapt what you post on these in order to please your audience and gain the best following. My biggest success in social media is between Facebook and Instagram. On my Facebook page, I now have 440 likes and I reach over 1,500 people on most posts, due to likes and shares. On Instagram however, I have over 7,500 followers and get many likes on each post. However, I think that it would be more likely to get a job out of Facebook than it would out of Instagram. Twitter has been very difficult to connect with people, although I have managed to gain 300+ followers in a short space of time, there is not much connection with people in terms of likes and follows, despite being tweeted by Lee Jeffries.
I thoroughly enjoyed this module and now have all the stationary and paperwork that I need to develop my photography career even further. I even used the invoice I created in real life which helped a lot. I look to develop my work and keep adapting my social media and business stationary to be the best that I can be and eventually get a job in photography.
01/05/2017
Final CVAfter making a cover letter for my CV, editing my final copy became a lot easier. One of the biggest changes I made to the final CV was how short my personal profile now is. At first, it was 3 paragraphs now because I thought that it was important to have. However, I have quickly learnt that a lot of writing can massively put somebody off of your CV and they're more than likely not going to read it, so keep the important stuff in there. Another major change I made is completely getting rid of the 'further information' paragraph because it was quite irrelevant and not very informative, I talked a lot about football and school and for the career I am wishing to pursue, it probably wasn't the best idea. I think that my CV is now at a really good standard to take me forward in my career.
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27/04/2017
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Company structureI have been looking into company structures, more specifically looking into agencies and how they can make money. Magnum is perhaps the biggest photo agency in the world and it is the goal for every photographer to work for them, but how do they make money? They accept subscriptions, commissions and one off payments for books, images and autographs. I think that their main source of income is through commissions because they have the best photographers in the world, why would you look anywhere else for somebody to shoot a story for you?
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26/04/2017
How to get noticedGetting noticed as a photographer is as important as finding work, because there bigger you get noticed, the more you will find and the more in demand you'll be. You want to get noticed for the right reasons so the better you are at photography, the more likely you are to get noticed. Obviously you need to be good enough at photography so people look at your images and think 'yeah I'd hire that guy'. That being said, there are many other ways to get noticed if you aren't even that good. Be unique, do things that nobody has done before, photograph niche subjects. Entering competitions is also a great way to get noticed.
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23/04/2017
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Finding workFinding work is probably the most sought after thing in photography, it is absolutely pivotal that you have more to offer than anybody in your area. there are websites that offer work to freelance photographers but you have to stand out from everybody else who is. I think the best way for me to find work is to keep knocking at the door of agencies and newspapers so that my name pops to their heads whenever they need a photographer. It would be completely worth it for me to keep emailing SWNS with images and asking if they have any work because if they ever have work, there could be a full time job with them in it for me.
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20/04/2017
InterviewsKnowing how to/ being confident in an interview could be the difference between getting a job and losing a job. Although a lot of your photography career will be based on your portfolio and experience, if there ever comes a time for an interview, you need to know how to get the best out of it and be able to get your dream job in confidence. In this PowerPoint by Pauline, she talks about preparation and also what to do during the interview. She talks about what to prepare before you go; you should keep your professional knowledge up and attend events, this is relevant to photography because you need to know what is going on in the world in order to stay relevant, whereas if you just shot anything that was irrelevant, your photos won't get as much notice. It is an interesting PowerPoint and something to consider when preparing for a job interview, hopefully something to do with my dream job.
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16/04/2017
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CV 3CVs have to be ever changing and I have learnt in this module that it is very important to stay relevant to yourself nad the everchanging world you are surrounded with. It is important in a CV to change your education whenever you do something new and also make sure that your qualifications aren't out dated. For example, I had my GCSE's in there and they are now completely irrelevant. I have also learnt that a lot of what I wrote in my CV belonged on a cover letter, so after I created my first cover letter, I found it very easy to actually edit my CV because it was a matter of taking out things that I didn't need in there anymore. I also had quite a lot of experience in working, and therefore had to narrow down what I put in my CV, again to stay relevant.
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13/04/2017
Business planCreating a business plan for something as broad as photography will always be difficult. There are a lot of roads you can take within photography and the road I want to take is to travel the world, meeting new people and traditions. Therefore, my idea for a business is to set up an agency for photographers with similar interests to me so we can document the absolute corners of the earth and visit people who have never been visited before in order to tell the story of the world like nobody has ever seen it.
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10/04/2017
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Cover letterThis is my cover letter for my mock application to work at SWNS. A cover letter is to give your employer a quick insight into what type of person you are and why you are applying for a certain job. In this I have included what job I am applying for and why I am good for the position. Although this is just a mock, it is pretty similar to what I would be writing about if I was handing out job applications. However, each cover letter should be specific to the job you are applying for and the reasons to why you are applying will differ, as will the skills required. i think it is good to talk about life experiences because they could help in the employer knowing you better.
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07/04/2017
Health and safetyKnowing your health and safety regulations while at any job is absolutely vital, especially if you are working with chemicals or things that are hazardous. COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations. These Regulations require employers to control exposure to hazardous substances to prevent ill health. This is vital to know if you are working for long periods in the dark room for example. Other things to know are when to use gloves, goggles, hats and so on. There are hundreds of signs that direct you away from things that are dangerous and although it is pretty much impossible to know all of these signs, they are usually in a red square/ triangle with a self explanatory photo in the middle of it. It's probably good if you stay away from things with these signs...
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03/04/2017
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Disclosure Barring ServiceDBS refers to the new agency created out of a merger between the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and The Independant Safeguarding Authority (ISA), its full title is The Disclosure and Barring Service. A DBS check is a record of an individual's unprotected Convictions, Cautions, Reprimands and Warnings and can also include intelligence held by the police and/or the DBS that relates to that individual and their suitability for working with vulnerable people and children. It is important for me as a photographer to have a DBS check because as a documentarian, I want to document all means of life, including those of old people, children and people with disabilities and without a DBS check, it would be almost impossible to gain the access you'd need for this. Luckily I have not yet needed to do one as all of my subjects have been adults who are not vulnerable, however if I ever decided to photograph vulnerable people, I'd need one.
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01/04/2017
FinesYou'll get a penalty of £100 if your tax return is up to 3 months late. You'll have to pay more if it's later, or if you pay your tax bill late. Estimate your penalty for Self Assessment tax returns more than 3 months late, and late payments. You can appeal against a penalty if you have a reasonable excuse. This module has been a good insight to 'adult life' and what I need to be doing after university to ensure the best financial future for myself. I found it interested that tax in general is a fine for being alive and then if you don't actually hand in your tax returns, you get fined. I went through HMRC's calculator to find out what a fine would be for a certain year if you didn't hand it in on time. HMRC's website is actually really useful for things like tax returns and fines.
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28/03/2017
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Self assessment taxSelf Assessment is a system HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses to collect Income Tax.Tax is usually deducted automatically from wages, pensions and savings. People and businesses with other income must report it in a tax return. How much tax you pay will depend on the Income tax band you’re in. There’s a different rate for Capital gains tax if you need to pay it, for example you sell shares or a second home. This is very interesting to know because as a photographer you could be earning a lot of money or you could be earning very little, so it is good to know how much you need to be earning before you start paying tax.
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24/03/2017
CV 2Although not many big changes as such, I have managed to de clutter my Cv somewhat to make it much neater and 'straight to the point'. I changed the title from 'Jamie Schofield's Curricular Vitae' to just 'Jamie Schofield' and also got rid of my date of birth because it wasn't very important. I added in my placement with SWNS because I think that this is a huge selling point for me, having spent a week there. I also changed my education and got rid of all of my GCSE results because they are now outdated. I added the fact that I am currently studying for a BA (Hons) in Photojournalism and Documentary photography because it could be interesting for possible employers to understand what I am going to be doing with my time in the future and could also be an employability aspect.
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19/03/2017
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CV CritiqueI sent my CV off to a lady who works for the University so that she could help develop my CV further. Here are some of the points she came up with. I find it interesting because she has probably seen hundreds of CV's whereas I have probably seen about 2. Therefore, she knows a lot more than I do about them and what needs to be done. I thought it would be a good idea to add certain things like date of birth and a lot of personal information, whereas she disagrees and says that I should basically stick to the point and 'grab the attention' of the reader. She talks about a cover letter a lot which is also interesting because I am yet to do a cover letter so it is definitely worth considering limiting my CV more and adding it to my cover letter.
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12/03/2017
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Article writingI decided that I wanted to set up a blog for my personal views on photography. I used Wordpress to make this as I think it possibly the best blog making site there is at the moment. My first article was on black and white photograph which is a massively debated topic in the world of photography. I wanted to write a blog for a few reasons but mainly it was to show the academic side of a photographer. I thought that if people were interested in reading what I had to say about photography, they might be interested in looking at my photography too. I mention different points in this article and use various different images to showcase what I think and what I have learnt. I think people really connect with people's experiences in life and this is what I wanted to do but with my experiences in photography instead. Hopefully this could develop into something much bigger.
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09/03/2017
Smashing Instagram?Since downloading Instagram as a photography site instead of a personal documentation of my life, my photography and exposure has been incredible. I decided as soon as I started my Instagram that I wanted to be different and make people click 'follow' as soon as they land on my page. I opted for a grid like fashion where I posted 9 individual images to form 1 huge image, so when you click on my page all you see is large images, which is different to so many people's Instagram that I have seen. Although I now have over 7,000 followers, all I get from them is private message calling me an 'inspiration' or saying how good my work is, which is nice but I have never been offered anything out of Instagram like other photographers. I will continue to develop it however but it may be worth putting more effort into Facebook and Twitter.
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05/03/2017
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Developing TwitterI think that by keeping relevant with a twitter account is perhaps the most important thing to do on social media. It is at the point where I have been tweeting about Donald Trump. I try to keep my photography twitter relevant to photography however, with updates and 'behind the scenes' of my photography. I have found that it gains a following from people in a similar situation to myself and occasionally you get a message from somebody complementing your work or similar. I also try to tweet big companies such as Adobe and Lomography to try and force a retweet or a like out of them, because then it opens my photography page up to a lot more people.
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02/03/2017
Developing FacebookWorking on all sides of social media with your photography is hard because you need to post different things at different times, yet keep your audience engaged and post regularly. I have been developing Facebook a lot in the last couple of months and managing to gain an audience outside of my friends. I now have over 430 likes on my page and my posts reach over 1,500 every time, sometimes more depending on if my subject is tagged or shared the post. I think Facebook is good to share work with friends and past subjects, but maybe not so good at finding work because it is hard to find the page unless you search my name. I think that Twitter and Instagram will be much better for finding work.
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28/02/2017
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What I learntDuring my placement at SWNS I learnt a lot about the industry very quickly and also about the people in the industry. The main thing that I found interesting was the fact that people manipulate the media really easily and we don't actually see this while reading the news. The photographer I shadowed for some part of the placement talked about when you do photography like this a job, you start to hate photography and become bored while not being able to shoot your own projects alongside it. Although the money is decent and each day is different, I would definitely need to consider other options if I was to do this as a job
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24/02/2017
SWNS day 5 - storm dorisYou know what happens in England when there's a little bit of wind and rain? People lose their minds! All that newspapers and websites wanted today was pictures of people struggling in the storm, nothing else. I was sent back into Bristol city centre to showcase how badly the wind was affecting people. In truth, it wasn't actually that bad and the images at first were terrible. I fell in the trap of becoming the manipulative media and started asking people to pretend they were becoming more affected by the wind than they actually were. I was asked to take some video too but again there wasn't much to video so I ended up videoing birds, boats and flags. Once again a slow news day, I found it interesting how quickly times can change in day to day life. I also found it interesting that something literally happened every single day that was 'newsworthy', yet you just don't think about it unless you are actually working in the field. How many people actually looked at my work and cared? Not many!
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23/02/2017
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SWNS day 4 - front page!During the slave trade, there was a man called Edward Colston who was heavily involved with it all and in the current day and age this is massively frowned upon. I was sent by myself to take some photos of the window that they are questioning wether or not to remove in Bristol cathedral. I also took a few snapshots of Colston hall and his statue. When I was sent back to Bristol later on, I noticed that my image was on the front cover of the Bristol post and it was such a good feeling. I bought the paper only to find that my images were on a double page spread inside as well as on the front. Despite this only being the Bristol post, it is a massive leap forward for me because I can now say 'I worked for SWNS and got an image on the front cover in my first 4 days". I can also use these images as an example at how quickly and independently I work. This made me question wether or not I should add a 'publications' tab on to my website. I now have 6 publications and it is coming to the time where I should think about showing potential employers them.
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22/02/2017
SWNS day 3 - same oldDespite yesterday being pretty hectic, today was very different. We headed back to Swindon to the same spot we were at yesterday and literally spent the day waiting. Nothing really happened apart from at the end of the night, some bins were wheeled on to a van and everybody went crazy. One of the most interesting things that I found on this day was how manipulative the news can actually be. A police woman walked out saying that she could 'stage something because nothing is happening' and then a Sky reporter who was interviewing a man next door said "no don't say that, say this..." and I was shocked. It made me wonder how much of the news is actually fake. Yes there was digging at this guys back garden with the suspicion he killed more than 1 person, but why were they faking things for the media and manipulating what people said? Another great learning curve for me though and I even managed to snap a fantastic video of a crazy woman screaming "I hope you f****** die halliwell" which was interesting.
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21/02/2017
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SWNS day 2 - mass murdererWow, what a difference in news a day can make. it went from somebody who found themselves on Google maps to going to a mass murder's ex house. News circled that Christopher Halliwell had killed more people than previously thought and buried them in his back garden in Swindon. I was sent to this alone on the train before later joining a SWNS photographer at the scene. It was insane how the BBC, ITV, PA and Sky were all there and here was me, a 2nd year student with a 60D. Learning from the best is probably the best thing to do in work like this however. It was very fast paced at first but then slowed to a halt where we sat in the car for hours just waiting. Whenever anything did happen, the photos were sent to the office and published within a matter of a couple of minutes and it makes me wonder how quickly agencies like this actually work to produce their photographs before anybody else does.
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20/02/2017
SWNS day 1 - slow news dayI have just finished my first day at SWNS and I have to say, it wasn't as crazy as I expected, I put it down to a slow news day. First of all, we headed to a place near Swindon to photograph and interview a woman who had found herself on Google maps and the story was 'a billion to one'. Although a pretty dull story, the experience of getting there, finding the woman and then photographing her as quickly as possible before quickly sending it back to the office so that they could send them out to newspapers to print/ put on their website. Straight after this shoot, we drove about 40 miles east to photograph an author who had just produced a book on his autistic kid who plays minecraft. This was also interesting because it was a completely different scenario to shoot in and the photographer had to be quick thinking and good enough to set up a lighting studio in a very tiny basement room. The stories were interesting and both got published but I want something a little more exciting.
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18/02/2017
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Another exhibition?While photographing for another module, it has become evident that the leader of one of the Polish charities in Cheltenham want me to exhibit my work on them. I visited a similar exhibition to what I would be setting up in summer and I thought that it was a brilliant exhibition with a lot of culture and a great archive. However, i will hopefully be setting my work up very differently. I plan to have a book as the focal point of my exhibition, with other images dotted around the room that aren't actually in the book. I think it is very important to stay active within your local community because as soon as somebody mentions a photographer, you should be the first person that comes to their mind. By keeping in touch with who wants an exhibition and where, you can create a huge fan base and also have a great list of connections that will help you at a later date. At the end of the day, it's not what you know, it's who you know. I will hopefully keep doing random exhibitions because I want to get my name known all around for the work I can produce.
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14/02/2017
Emailing professionalsI thought that it'd be a good idea to send a few questions out to different photographers who have made it. I watched a series on netflix called 'Tales of light' and it had multiple different photographers on there showcasing how they work and what kind of photography they do. Most of them were travel photographers and met tribes, went to colour festivals and dived deep into lakes. I asked them all 10 questions and managed to get a few replies back from both Art Wolfe and Krystle Wright and they differed quite a lot which I found interesting. Throughout my life I have always been told to ask questions at every opportunity and learn as much as you possibly can. I think that it is important to ask questions to people who are a lot older than you and who have experienced things that you want to experience yourself. As a potential adventure photographer, it was great to hear some responses from the best in the field. Keep asking questions and keep on learning!
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08/02/2017
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Wilson gallery exhibitionThe Wilson gallery in Cheltenham are doing a collaborative exhibition with the open art gallery and have asked students to take part in it. I applied and managed to get accepted on to it which is a fantastic opportunity to display my work and also to get me more recognised around Cheltenham. I think that by doing this exhibition, I am adding a new dimension to my work and also gaining experience to how to exhibit in weird places. My proposal for this project was 'the hat project' which is where I will go and take portraits of people in hats and question the stereotype on them. Certain hats carry certain words behind them and if you wear them, you become a certain person, which I find really interesting. Apparently the phone box exhibition also gets a lot of attention from media and also the public. By having my work out for everybody to see, who knows what could happen to my career? I think that it is great to work with a gallery because I now have contacts in the industry who know how I work and what I can produce.
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02/02/2017
Minor model release formIf a model release is important, a minor model release form is absolutely crucial. In this release form, I have to be much more specific in where the images are going and why I am taking them because it is a criminal offence to do anything not agreed with pictures of minors. Of course the subject in the image wont be eligible to sign the form or to even accept the terms, the entire thing is held in the parents/carers name and this is another huge thing to consider. You must direct the form to the parent/ carer and not to the subject, which is totally different to a standard release form because in that, you are directing the writing and everything else completely to the subject in the photographs.
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23/01/2017
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Model release formI find that people question the importance of a model release form when they are photographing people that they are going to use for publication. Including me, people always frowned when a model release form was mentioned in class for a project. However, while shooting a lot of people I have come to realise the importance of them. Recently shooting for a Polish charity, a lot of people were concerned where the images were going to be published and by adding a few clauses that help them understand where it can and can't be published, they are much happier to be photographed. I have included in my basic form that I own all photographs and can pretty much do what I want with them, be that making money or self publication. I think that if a person was really uncomfortable with this, I could add a few clauses depending on what they wanted.
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16/01/2017
SWNS placementI managed to get a placement with SWNS which is one of the countries big press agencies and an incredible opportunity for me. I will be shadowing an experienced photographer in the field and hopefully travelling the west of England chasing news stories and meeting people with stories. I can't wait for this because I am expecting to get my name across places like Bristol, Swindon and so on. I am hoping for a few publications and also hoping that they trust me enough to document stories by myslef and travel on trains to capture stories for them. I am expecting it to be absolutely hectic and quite harsh on people like me to 'test' them as such, all in all I am looking forward to it.
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09/01/2017
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Entering competitionsI decided to enter a nature portrait photo competition because of my recent work with a bee keeper. I photographed a bee keeper at his home and submitted a couple of portraits of him because I think that they are really strong compared to a lot of my other work and could do well against some other portrait photographs entering the competition. Entering photo competitions is an easy way to gain interest on your photos, have them critiqued by professionals and also to gain prizes and a lot of attention if you qualify or even win a competition. Of course at this moment in time it would be hard to enter well known competitions such as the AOP photo awards. Although it would be great experience for me to enter, it would be very hard to compete against some of the best photographers in the world. I will hopefully be entering more work into competitions and also contacting galleries to see if they can exhibit my work, the more people that see my work, the better.
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03/01/2017
Creating a businessHow do you spot a gap in the market within photography? It seems as though there is a photographer for everything you could possibly wish for. Need a photo of your dog? Photographer. Need a weird picture of your foot? Photographer. It seems as though photographers are taking over the world. I was thinking due to me messing up a negative the other day and people offering to draw on it to try and save it that maybe it isn't a bad idea if a collaboration between artists and photographs would be a thing. When people come for a family portrait, it is all the same boring stuff. What if there was a photographer and a caricaturist instead? Ben Heine is an artist I have admired for a while and he combines photography with his drawings and the results are stunning. Maybe there is a gap in the market for something similar but on a business scale instead of just for fun. People are always looking to have something different and 'edgy' because it makes theres better than any others and it is definitely something to consider.
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28/12/2016
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How to price my workPricing work in the 21st century has become near impossible. How in the world do you compete with some amateur photographers who want to give away their work for free or next to nothing? You firstly have to consider how good you are and how good your images are compared to your 'average Joe' and then how many hours you are putting in and also how big the event is. For example, you may not charge your sister £2,000 to shoot her wedding for her but you may charge Kim Kardashian £10,000 to shoot her wedding because it is a huge event. You also have to consider how many hours you are working, what your equiptment is worth, how much your competitors are charging and how unique you are. For example, if you took a photograph of Wayne Rooney punching a bouncer and nobody else took that photograph, you could charge thousands for it.
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23/12/2016
Getting noticed (wrongly)Lee Jeffries is possibly my favourite portrait photographer in the world and I decided to tweet the fact that I have some of his photos on my wall. Unfortunately, Lee Jeffries saw this and decided to voice his anger at me about copyright (he was probably right). However, he later deleted his tweet for whatever reason after my rant to him about how I was right (probably not). This gained a bit of attention from people on Twitter who thought Jeffries was being a bit harsh on a student photojournalist like myself. But it just shows you that there truly isn't such thing as bad publicity because this gained me a few followers and likes.
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16/12/2016
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Creating an invoiceAs a photographer, it is incredibly important to have an income whilst you work, otherwise your business will crumble. Making an invoice to me is just as important as setting up a social networking page because if you are getting work but aren't able to charge for it, what is the point? I think it is very important to know how much you are worth as a person because you are selling yourself as well as your photographs. I have always been taught to not do work for free or cheaply Everybody in the world wants free photographs and it is becoming increasingly harder to gain work through photography. Some would say it is a dying art. However, how many people can produce the quality you can produce yourself? This is what you need to consider. Never ever allow anybody to tell you that you aren't worth what you priced something at. I will be using invoices a lot in the near future due to a few photography jobs I have lined up with bands and events.
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09/12/2016
Facebook is possibly the biggest social networking site in the world at this moment in time and you would be crazy not to have a page on it as a photographer. I have Facebook set up as my primary source of networking because it is easy and also has billions of people on there who you can connect to within a click. One of the only things I have found out about Facebook is that you can't invite people to like your page unless they are you friend. Although I am slowly becoming more recognised in Gloucestershire and the surrounding areas, it is proving really difficult to get any attention from outside of this area without paying for it.
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27/11/2016
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Stupid articleI found this article by petapixel about why you shouldn't shoot RAW and it grinder my gears a little so I thought I'd blog about it. First of all, as a photographer who only wants to produce HIGH quality images that have a lot more data to be manipulated, why would I not shoot with RAW? I get the fact that in some cases you should shoot JPEG for quick edits and small files, but at the very least shoot JPEG and RAW, if not just RAW. Rant over, the article talks about how shooting JPEG is "less stress", excuse me, what? If you're getting stressed while shooting at all, stop shooting. It also talks about how JPEG is cheaper and is similar to shooting film, I have never in my life read something that infuriates me as much as this. However, I found it interesting from a professional point of view and going into a professional field, this would be an argument that is on going. I would just like to have every image in RAW, just in case I take my best ever photograph when I didn't realise I was going to. Imagine shooting an incredible image in JPEG and not being able to exhibit it.
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24/11/2016
Portfolio layoutAt the moment, I am trying to figure out which layout I prefer for a portfolio on my website. It is interesting how different layouts have a different effect on the viewer. For example, I think for the essence of my photography, the look of the grid style portfolio is much better, but it somewhat takes away from each individual photograph, whereas a full blown image like the ones at the bottom compliment the image massively, but take away from the overall essence of it all. I think that I prefer the bottom left layout because you can skip over images to one that you like and you also know where an image is if you are wanting to go back to it. Although I do like the style of full blown, without a gallery at the bottom, I think I will be opting for the first option.
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22/11/2016
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Chris BurkardChris Burkard is a photograph who mainly shoots landscapes but his website is one of the websites I look at for inspiration. The layout and the logo are very good and also his navigation tools are very good. Although I think that my start to the website I created is reasonably good, there is a lot to be done to make it as good as a professionals and there is no excuse for it to not be this good. What I particularly like about Burkard's website is the gallery section and also the fact that on his main pages, he has full blown images. Comparing this to mine, I think that his images have much more of a 'punch' that mine do because mine only cover maybe half a page. Burkard also shoots short movies and adds them to his website, which is something I should definitely consider.
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19/11/2016
Logo designingLogos are such an important part of a photography business because people see logos and remember them forever (if it is a good logo). Take for example the nike, apple, google, adidas logo and how people recognise them now without even needing accompanying text. Also look at the likes of Magnum photos who have such a recognisable logo that if you see it anywhere you automatically know it's going to be good. I want to create a recognisable, simple logo and have had a few ideas over the past few weeks but narrowed it down to wanting the aperture sign, with my name next to it. I have been using the bottom left for a while and decided to for a bit more colour in my logo. The only thing I think could be wrong with the aperture logo is the fact that it is quite generic for a photograph business. I do however like the bottom left logo and its simplicity.
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17/11/2016
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Huge revampAfter much consideration, I have decided to definitely change the majority of my website to something much more smaller and simple, just showing my best work. I will look in to a moving portfolio so there is not much clicking on my website, as I think websites like this just flow slightly better. My 'about me' tab is terrible. I am going to completely re-write it and also have a professionally done portrait of me to put in next to the writing. I think that the writing in the about me page is way too long, boring and also quite cheesy. I will write maybe half of what I have done previously. The photograph that is there at the moment was taken on an iPhone about 3 years ago and is badly edited. I will ask a colleague to take a professional standard portrait that I can use, making both me and the website look much more professional. I will also look at changing the buttons on my website. I made the buttons myself on photoshop before uploading them on to my website and linking them to a page, however, i think that they could be much better. Do I need the buttons at all? Why not just have a portfolio tab that links straight to a portfolio instead of a mixture of buttons, which is just more clicking. I want to keep clicking down to a minimum so I can engage my viewer more and keep them interested.
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14/11/2016
Website changesI have been procrastinating about everything on my website lately and have decided to change a lot of things on my website from the amount of pictures I have on there to the total design of it all. I may even change the layout of the home page. I recently changed the photo I used to advertise my 'commercial photography' to a young girl at a wedding. Previously using a group shot, I didn't think it was very unique. I will also like to change the part about urban exploration to something more relevant to me, as this was important about 3 years ago. I am questioning wether or not to just have a commercial portfolio and a freelancing portfolio instead of 10 different tabs. People probably get bored of flicking through every one of my projects so having just a portfolio will engage them much more with my photographs while showing them nothing but my best work. I will play with different layouts for the next few days and see which I like.
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11/11/2016
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My (old) portfolioThis is the portfolio that I used to get into university with (don't ask me how). I opted for an A3, leather portfolio with velvet insides and plastic sleeves for my images. I bought this from http://www.portfolio-store.co.uk and then added the images myself from an inkjet printer that I could access. At the time I thought the images, the portfolio and the borders/ layout was the best possible... How times change! Although I do still really like the portfolio itself with the leather, velvet and the sleeves I think I would change pretty much everything else. 1) The images are far from my best (now) and they must be redone! 2) Borders are so 2 years ago and I want to go full bleed with all of my images. 3) I don't like the layout. Perhaps I'm just being picky but I think I want a different layout to the bog-standard 'landscape, landscape, portrait' kind of feel to it. I want to engage the viewer and make the images pop! We looked at Wade Griffith's portfolio on the Art Of Photography's YouTube channel and I really like the idea of a portfolio book. I looked in to them and you can get portfolio books with interchanging pages so if you don't like an image you can simply just swap it. For now though, I am sticking with my trusty A3 leather portfolio and I am going to completely discard every image in it, clean the sleeves and start again. I have such better photographs now and preferbly I should update it everytime i take a photo that trumps another photograph in there and it should just be a cycle of 'take good photo, replace other good photo that isn't quite as good'. I will also need to find a place that does better quality prints than my college.
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09/11/2016
Wade GriffithWade Grifith is a newly developed professional photographer whose portfolio was shown as part of 'The Art Of Photography's YouTube channel, which I subscribe to and watch often. He showed the unique and very well designed portfolio that he has made in order to broaden the people he can show his work to. He went with a simple black/ grey book inside a black/ grey portfolio box with his new logo written on the front of each. The book and the box are extremely simple in design and look very smart. Griffith said that he had somebody help with the layout of his book and where to put each photograph. He is an architectural photographer and also photographs the insides of buildings. He has tried to keep similar looking photos next to each other. He said to have spent over £250 on this book but claimed it was an investment into the future because people respond to books more than they respond to websites or online portfolios. With my portfolio, I would like to keep the same portfolio I have now but upgrade the images. If needs be, I will invest in a portfolio box and a book because I think that these will give off the best impression to the viewer. Although I like the idea of a portfolio book, at the moment I have a leather A3 portfolio that I would like to stick with, however, it does need some TLC because the photos and the sleeves aren't quite as strong as they should be. Wade Griffith is a great example of why you should get a portfolio book developed though, as he has gained so much work since printing this.
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07/11/2016
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Starting a photography twitterAfter much deliberation , I decided to start a photography twitter account. Being a photographer who mainly sticks to the likes of Instagram to get my work out in the open, I found starting twitter quite the challenge at first. Although I have a personal account, I found that a photographer account didn't gain that much attention compared to an Instagram account for example. I began by just posting my images with a caption and a few hashtags and then developed to sharing videos, articles, publications and even tweeting other photographers. I found that my photos in general got more favourites and RT's than the articles/ publications, but I found that sharing things would gain more followers. I am still getting to grips with what is the most engaging thing on twitter for people to follow you and retweet your work. I think one thing that will blossom the account is to get a RT from somebody with a lot of followers, preferably a famous photographer or photo agency like Magnum. I will carry on with twitter just like I will with everything else because at the end of the day, it is another platform for people to see m work and only if 73 people are seeing it so far, thats 73 more people than 0.
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05/11/2016
Developing InstagramWhat a wonderful social networking tool Instagram is for photographers! I have used Instagram for myself for a few years now, I only set up Instagram for my photography last year. I was suddenly exposed to the Instagram world to which it is so easy to engage with other users and also gain likes, comments and followers through your photographs. I began my Instagram with the thought of making it different and unique in order to gain more followers. I decided to put my photos into grids and post them one by one in a square. This worked in many ways to my advantage; spamming peoples news feed 9 times so they HAVE to click on my page, taking up the hashtag page of whatever I wish to hashtag and also when people click my page expecting random photos of nothing, they see a huge, full bleed photo. This has led to many followers and people messaging me asking how to make the grid. I do think Instagram so far is my number 1 social media tool because it is so easy to engage via my photos.
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02/11/2016
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First creative CV attemptThrough the help of a free online template and the creative genius inside of me, I created my first real creative CV. The CV itself stays with 3 different colours; but, black and grey which is fairly easy on the eye and blue is a relatively happy colour (despite its connotations of being sad). I have stuck only to photography based things that have happened in my life which was actually harder to write about than I thought it would be. I decided to add a few different things to what a normal CV would have on. Engaging things such as a timeline and a software tab that shows how advanced I am on each platform. I think that the timeline was a really nice input on my CV, as you can follow how well I've developed and can also see my current achievements. I do think that I need to develop my portfolio in publications and work placement though, as the timeline isn't as impressive as it could be. I also like the software part, as instead of reading paragraphs about how good I am at something, I think it will help the reader to read through my CV quickly and they will engage well with it and not get bored. I think the use of images on this CV could be a hit or miss.
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31/10/2016
Is it necessary to have a CV once yo've 'made it'?While researching for photographer's cvs, I couldn't for the life of me find any high-end professional photographer CVs and it begged the question 'is it actually necessary to have a CV once you've made it'? Don McCullin, Sebastiao Salgado, Elliott Erwitt are all photographers that spring to mind when you think of the best but would they need a CV to get a job? I think not. In fact, I can't even imagine them having to apply for jobs anymore. It makes me question wether the name of the photographer makes the big difference in things like jobs. Would any of these three be sent on a job, no questions asked instead of an incredible photographer with a good CV just because he's Don McCullin or Salgado? Probably. Is it unfair on breakthrough photographers? Maybe. Although at one point these were all breakthrough photographers with a CV, pitifully handing them out until embodies auntie offers them a job to photograph a dog or something. All in all, we all have to tart somewhere and we all need to make a name for ourself before we can start to be considered for a job in photography. Is making a CV the way forward in photography or is it all about having a good portfolio?
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28/10/2016
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Lee Kirby CVI have recently been looking at producing a secondary CV to support my photography. I have looked at multiple examples of CV's ranging from amateur to professional and found that they all have reasonably similar aspects. Lee Kirby is a famous portrait and music photographer who is based in London and has photographed many impressive clients, most recently photographing Roger Taylor from Queen. I found his CV while researching for photographers CV's and found it to be really interesting. Kirby, like many other 'creative' CV's I have looked at keeps the basics of a normal CV but it is far less broad. He kicks off his CV with an impressive portrait of what he has taken which instantly says 'hire me'. He then has personal details, education, clients, publications and other things that relate to being a photographer. I think that he is quite specific in what he chooses to put on his publications and clients because he only focuses on ones that will get him a job.
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26/10/2016
Specific business cardsI spent some time developing my specific business that I spoke about previously. I focused on the genres of; events, wedding, portraiture and tattoo photography because these are all something I feel confident in and something I can photograph well.. I think that I would be more confident leaving these business cards around the world because it tells the potential client what I am capable of shooting. I also think that by having a photo on the business card gives the impression of how good I am at photographing and what kind of photos they should be expecting. I particularly like my tattoo business card and my wedding one as I think that the photos are very strong on them and would stand out from a bunch of other business cards. I also think that these would be able to get me a job if anyone wanted their wedding or tattoos photographed. I will start to print these and then see how much the expand my cliental.
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24/10/2016
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To tweet or not to tweet?I have yet to set up a twitter account for my photography, as I think it is more of a communicational tool, rather than a tool to showcase work. However, after looking at photographers and photography pages such as Canon, Nikon, 500px etc. I have noticed that they have hundreds of thousands of followers, all because of their photography. Although a lot of the work on the twitter pages are links to interviews and articles, there is also their own work on there. After looking at Facebook and Twitter for photography inspiration I have concluded that I need to start writing articles and maybe interviewing people about photography. This will both help me develop myself as a photographer/ social networker. I will start to look at article pages which I could use to document my own personal views and my writing and I will start to share them with the world, alongside my own photography, potentially speeding up the process of me finding work. I do think that looking into writing would help me dramatically, as potential jobs would see that I can both take photos confidently and also write articles and interview people, which in this day an age, photographers actually need to do. But I think that having all of these skills will help for a much better portfolio of work and clients; you just have to look at photography twitter pages to find that out.
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22/10/2016
I have been on Instagram for about a year now for my photography page and I have been trying different techniques for a while as there is such a huge potential with gaining followers and making your page look incredible and unique. I looked at this guy because he is very unique in the way he develops his Instagram It is more of an art than a social media page. I have been using a grid on my Instagram page for some time now and it seems to gain a lot of interest compared to the 'one photo' post. I post 9 photos, 1 at a time and it lays out in a grid to make a huge photo. Quite like the work of this instagrammer, who actually has about 70k followers because of his unique design. I think that my Instagram is quite developed for how long I've had it and I look to get 10k by the end of the year, to do this I will need to make it even more unique compared to other photographers and also hashtag and tag more so that more people see it. I will look at the work of other Instagram photographers and see what kind of work they are posting, because Instagram has a very different audeicne to clients who want photos. Instagram is more about getting followers and advertising yourself to people around the world. It could also be used to show that you are capable of maintaining interest in clients with your photography.
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20/10/2016
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Facebook pageI have had my own photography Facebook page for about 2 years now and I have built up around 310 likes but they are mainly family and friends on Facebook. I really need to develop my page so that outsiders and people I have never met are looking at my page and liking it. I photographed Stow horse fair the other day and from that, I have gained about 20 page likes and a lot of people are commenting and sharing the photos from that day. This was because I handed out business cards and spoke to them all about my Facebook page. However, as my Instagram has around 7,500 followers, I don't think that just 310 likes on Facebook is sufficient enough, as my photos aren't escalating the internet as much as they could. I have looked at advertising on Facebook but for this you have to pay a small fee and as a student photographer, i cant really be affording the over-heads at this moment in time. I have looked into how to get more likes but have not yet found a suitable way of doing so. Canon's Facebook page has a lot of articles and interviews with different people and they tend to tag a lot of people. This could be a way to develop my Facebook page. By using hashtags and tags and also potentially writing articles and giving people a reason to visit my page, this will undoubtably develop my page more.
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17/10/2016
Hardy KlaholdI decided to have look at a few wedding photography websites because I have shot weddings before but my website shows my entire portfolio, not just wedding photography. Although it is something I would like to get into much more, I am nowhere near developed enough in terms of business cards, websites etc. to actually go in to the professional field alone in wedding photography. Hardy Klahold's website is one of the best wedding sites I have ever looked at, her portfolio is beautiful and the style of her website is also exceptional. she sticks to very few colours; gold, white and black throughout this website and her navigation is also very simple. You simply just scroll down and it shows you everything you need to see. I will look to develop my own wedding website alongside my portfolio website. I think that keeping different types of photography separate can massively up my chances of getting work. Having a website that shows all kinds of photography is also a good idea I think, because it shows a potential client all the things that I can do. One day, I may do a shoot for somebody at an event and then they'll look at my photography website and thing 'oh, this guy can do portraits too' and then through word of mouth, my name gets spoken about more and my portfolio and cliental then grows.
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15/10/2016
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Business cardsI have spent a long time looking at different types of business cards around Cheltenham and on the internet. I think that I have collected about 20 different business cards from different companies and people over the last couple of weeks. I have come to a conclusion about my own personal business cards and that is to be more specific with what I advertise on my business card. I have noticed that everyone I have looked at photographer wise and in the creative industry use a specific genre for their card. For example, if a photographer is a wedding photographer they use a wedding image on the front claiming that they are a wedding photographer. The same goes if they are a portrait photographer or a sport photographer. My business card at the moment is way too broad and I think that I need 3-5 different business cards for the different things that I can photograph. If somebody sees that I can shoot portraiture and it says on my business card, it seems like I am very good at portraiture because my business card says so. I will spend time researching and developing more specific business cards over the next few days.
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12/10/2016
Martin Parr websiteMartin Parr's website is certainly a 'different' take on a photography website than others I've seen. however, I find that it follows the same conventions that pretty much every website i've looked at follows. In the top left, there seems to always be a logo of some sort, and then following from left to right, there always seems to be the same tabs. although Parrs are slightly different and unique, they tend to be something like 'Home, About, Portfolio, Commercial, CV, Contact'. I really like Martin Parr's website because it shows who he is as a photographer. Most photographers will just try and look professional by having neutral colours and simple logos, but Martin Parr gives us a sense of his crazy colourful techniques. In my website, I would like to give my website my own personal twist on it so people look at it and think 'wow this guy is unique' and are more likely want to contact me because I look like I'd be fun to work with.
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10/10/2016
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Work placementDuring the months between January and may, we are expected to go on work placement for this module and it was something I was immediately excited for as I'd love to work in the professional field one day. I instantly thought of the biggest agencies and newspapers and contacted their editors/ publishers straight away. South west news being my number one choice for this module replied within the hour and are currently in the process of trying to sort something out for me. As for Magnum and The Sun, I currently have had no reply. I will email them both again, this time I will be a bit more broad in who I email, hoping that I get in contact with somebody who can help me. I would love to work for any of these agencies or newspapers as it would develop me massively as a photographer technically and also improve my confidence within the professional field. It will also give me an opportunity to gain contacts and work amongst people who work in this field day in/ day out. By doing this placementI think that I will learn an incredible amount about the pace and quality newspapers and agencies work with.
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8/10/2016
CV - First draftI had written my first CV about a year ago and used this as my first draft with my lecture with Annie, who spoke about how to perfect a CV. I learnt a lot in this lecture and spent a lot of time taking notes on my own CV so that I could change it in the future to make it better. I found that the layout was pretty much spot on and the sub titles I included in it weren't far off being what I would like as a finished product. What I really need to focus on is updating all of my information on the CV, because I still had the word 'pending' after my A-level results and I have had a couple of jobs that I need to add in there. Another main thing that I need to look at is wether or no things are actually necessary in my CV. Things like 'curriculum vitae' at the top of my page and GCSE results, are they really necessary at all? I am also looking at developing a 'creative CV' alongside my professional CV. Something a little crazier than my professional CV and only include things that would stand out to a potential photography employer. I could even add a creative twist of my own photography on the CV itself. A creative CV is something I am going to look at in the very near future and I will apply my creative techniques to it and make it as 'creative' as possible.
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6/10/2016
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Competition entriesI have entered a few free competitions early on in this module so that I know what competition I am against and what sort of quality I need to be producing for me to win certain competitions. I decided to enter a few different ones that I wouldnt usually enter; things such as wildlife photography and studio photography, as they are not as strong as street and doumentay photography for me. Although entering these competitions has given me the experience and knowledge of what competitions can be like, I would like to enter more prominent and well-known competitions where recognition in this would be far greater than these competitions I have entered. I also didn't get these competition entries approved by my lecturer. In my next competition entries, I will try and use my best work and also enter more prominent competitions, as these were just to get me 'out of the blocks' as such.
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5/10/2016
Website designI chose weekly.com for my website design as it was free and easily. It has now developed into a blog as well as my portfolio. I used a free template to firstly design my website and then added my own personal twist on the website the more I got to grips with the design of the website. I have 6 tabs at the top of my website to choose from. 'Home, Projects, Commercial, About Me, Contact, Blog'. I think that these are the most important things to add to my website as they are the main things people want to see. Clients want to see your commercial photography to get an idea of what kind of work you can create from them and to also see what they are paying for. People are also interested in the 'projects' or 'portfolio' page as they'd like to see what you are like as a person and this tends to be portrayed in the way you photograph your own projects. I would like to change my website so that I have moving image, a moving portfolio and also a portfolio tab with just my best images, not just every project I've done. I would also like my own domain, other than adding the domain to the end of my website, I would like it to read something like "JamieSchofieldPhotography.co.uk".
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3/10/2016
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Business cardsI spent the time designing a logo to put on my website, business cards, contracts and so on.. I decided that the 2D aperture symbol ranging from a light grey to a black would work well as it was simple, easy to do, recognisable and also relevant. I went for a 2 colour scheme throughout the rest of the business card to maintain a professional look on myself. I opted for grey and black, as I thought these were the smartest looking colours to combine together. I have all of my contact details on my business cards and everywhere online where my photographs are. The only thing that i haven't put on there is my address, this could potentially be added to my business cards so potential clients know where I am based. I could also change my email so I have a specific email address for photography only, as 'jamie.sch@hotmail.com' is my personal email, I think it is best to separate work and my social life.
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01/10/2016
Professional practiceProfessional Practice is where a student is required to extend knowledge and skills within a practical environment. Within this module I am expected to produce everything that a photographer in a professional field should produce in order to gain maximum publicity. Things such as business cards, a website, a CV, and also to go on placement are all expected throughout this module. I am expecting to do a lot of extra work compared to what the module guide talks about, I am planning to work on contracts for weddings and events as ell as other things that a professional photographer will need. Although I have already developed business cards and a website, I am looking to developing them a lot further to make myself look a lot more professional and hopefully help me get more jobs in photography. I think that the work placement will help me massively, I am hoping to do my experience at an agency like SWNS and be out and about taking photos other than sitting at an editing desk all day.
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