Show success

Well, the end-of-year show is over and despite my misgivings in the previous post, I think ended up a big success.

The work throughout the exhibition (which also included illustration, art, graphic design and interactive media) was of a very high quality and plenty of people came along to view it.

There is a real rollercoaster of emotions as an exhibitor. When someone chooses to look at my work there is almost a feeling of shock, followed by fear that they might loathe the photos. But the longer a person spends viewing the images, the more those feelings turn to pleasure.

And the show finished on a very satisfying high note. I don't like blowing my own trumpet, so please excuse a rare departure from the norm.

First of all, one woman spent a considerable amount of time looking through all 60 pages of a book of photographs I had prepared for the show... then went slowly through the entire book a second time. Which was pretty encouraging.

Then one of my tutors introduced me to a visitor who had sought him out to say how much he had enjoyed the exhibition.

Shaking me firmly by the hand, the visitor said: "I just want to say how wonderful your pictures are. It was worth coming to the exhibition just to see your photos."

It couldn't have ended any better.

You live and learn

The learning process goes on... even at the very end of my course.

A part of me wishes that the day will come when I have learned much of what I need to know about photography and exhibitions, but another part tells me that a lot of the fun comes with finding out new things. Well, let's just say say that I'm still having fun!

We are in the middle of our end-of-year show at the moment - an event for which I had prepared well and which I began with the hope that my photographs were (a) interesting for the viewing public, (b) good enough to pass the relevant course module and (c) were a decent representation of my work.

But over the past few days, having watched the reactions of visitors to the exhibition, I have come to realise that I still have a lot to learn.

I'm back

Well, I have broken the golden rule of blogging by failing to post an entry for weeks. I will send myself to the naughty step in due course.

In the meantime, here is what I've been up to. My HND course is coming to an end, and the final flourish is an exhibition in Swindon featuring all the courses from the college School of Art.

I have been preparing for this for much of this year - planning my project and taking the photos, of course, but also writing up the background notes, designing and printing business cards, designing a portfolio book and sending out invitations etc.

The past week has involved mounting the exhibition - work that has the potential to be disastrous (requiring, as it does, precise measurements and some DIY skills), but which actually went remarkably smoothly. Some of the results can be seen in the picture above. Please ignore the rubbish-strewn floor!

Hair we go...

I had to rig up a temporary studio today to take some photographs and ease the pressure on a colleague shooting in the main studio. It was all good experience.

I had to photograph models who had been adorned in whiskers and wigs by media make-up students. It was fairly straightforward, although I did find it slightly problematical working with continuous lighting rather than flash.

I had a couple of Bowens lights, but they were not exactly the most powerful ones. It meant that I had to increase the ISO to a level that was uncomfortably high for my liking.

But the images came out well and I was really pleased that I could approach something like this with far more confidence than in my early days on my course. Setting up the equipment and managing the shoot was actually an enjoyable - rather than slightly stressful - experience!

Multimedia

If there's one piece of equipment that has repaid the original outlay umpteen times over it is my 10-20mm lens. It has been so handy during the past few weeks and has turned some unpromising scenarios into decent final shots.

I used it again today for the latest in the series of photoshoots for the college prospectus - this time featuring multimedia students.

Again a fairly difficult situation greeted me because it was a room mainly taken up with computer screens. But the students had rigged up their version of a 'green room', with a film camera, microphone, lights and reflector, so I focused on this.

The extreme wide angle managed to include the whole of the team... and introduce a little drama at the same time.

I'm glad to say I've seen some of these recent shots already being used by the college in the 2015-16 prospectus, so it's all very worthwhile!

More prospectus

There's nothing like a 'proper' job to get the creative juices flowing.

In the past couple of weeks I have been part of a small team taking photos for a college prospectus. Some of the locations were pretty dull, so we had to think quickly to get eye-catching shots.

And we had to work fast because the photos were needed by this weekend. But all went well, and I have learned useful techniques for shooting interior scenes without flash.

Textiles

I was given another excellent challenge today - take photos of the textiles students for the college prospectus... without making the students identifiable.

It was difficult to preserve the anonymity while making the photos attractive to look at. But slowing the shutter speed to introduce some motion blur did the trick.

The picture above was one of the most successful of the series. The tailor's dummy and the trays of implements let the viewer know this is a fashion and textiles department, while the student on the move adds some drama to the image.

Light fantastic

I took this shot of my college for a new prospectus. Hopefully it will be used in the final version.

I was pleased with the way it turned out because I had never experimented before with light trails and it took a fair bit of experimentation to get it looking right.

My tutor showed me the best way to tackle it. And when I say that, I don't mean simply the exposure times and the art of getting smooth light trails. He also remembered to switch on all the lights in the college building and open all the blinds so that we didn't have to carry out hefty Photoshop work afterwards.

That's what I call covering all the bases. Incidentally, the picture was shot through a 10-20 wide angle lens, at an aperture of f22 (ensuring maximum sharpness throughout), with an ISO of 200 and an exposure time of six seconds.