Evaluation of Work Experience
Evaluation of Work Experience
For my work experience I really wanted experience in working with people and gaining skills as a freelancer, as this is where I feel least confident. Many photographers that I e-mailed, however, either did not reply or did not have any events over the work experience period that I specified. I created an online portfolio using Tumblr where I could share some of my images with potential employers using a link via e-mail. It is still in very early stages, but I think that the format that it is in could work really well as I build it up. When my posts are tagged, I can then filter them so that if I am e-mailing a portrait photographer, I can send them my portrait tag so my images are filtered and they have a narrowed down view of my work. With the theme that I have chosen, however, it includes a navigation bar so that the viewer of the site has easy access to my other tags instead of having to try and change the URL every time. I really like this as I think it is important that a website be as accessible as possible, and easy to use. I chose to use Tumblr as a format because it is easy for people to share and reblog work which means that it can be seen by many, (as well as shared on facebook), can be presented in a very professional manner, and it gives you the option to use your own domain name which will certainly come in handy in the future.
During April I was contacted by one of the Freemasons that I photographed when I did my Territories project, as he is also a rugby coach for Aldershot and Fleet Rugby Club, and he asked if I could take some photographs for him. I was more than happy to oblige after the trouble they went to when they helped me out with my project, and I am eager to keep contact in case I wish to pursue taking the project further. Since it was the end of season, the club were having their last training session and my task was to take photographs that they could use to update their website. This included portraits of the coaches and teams, and I thought that this would be perfect practice for my work experience. I am quite shy when it comes to people, as I think I am always too eager to please yet too much of a perfectionist, so I always put myself under too much pressure. The club was perfect for alleviating me of this, as they were very easy going and were not taking the photographs too seriously, but it was still required of me to direct them and set up the photograph. This experience ranged from a little intimidating to a little frustrating as I was working with older rugby players who were perhaps less appreciative of the cliché “say cheese!” to the photographer scenario, but they were mostly compliant and they were eager to make a laugh out of it. I did have to be very firm to begin with, but the promise of a fun photo afterwards kept them still enough for the first shot. It got a little frustrating when photographing the children. A lot of them were toddler age, and it was very difficult to keep them standing still and to have them all looking at me, but again the promise of a fun photo kept them still until they could pull their best face, so I think I will keep this technique stored away for the future, no matter what the age of the client!
I had photographer Scott Kendall with me as assistant. I was perfectly comfortable with taking the portraits, but I thought that taking action shots of the training would be difficult for just one person, so I asked for his assistance so that we could cover more ground and get more photographs. I am very relieved that he was there, because at the end of the morning I was asked to photograph the awards ceremony, and I had a small technical difficulty.
When the ceremony started, the coaches had decided to do it against the door where all of the afternoon light was coming in, and it was very difficult trying to compensate for the amount of light coming in, so I had to cause a bit of mayhem by moving a few tables so that I could take the photographs against the adjacent wall. I was very pleased that I was confident enough to do this, and I took myself by surprise a little bit. I had to bear in mind that I needed to get these photographs, and that was not going to happen in the position that they were in. It worked out well, however, as I then had a blank wall to shoot against and plenty of natural light too.
It went wrong, however, about three-quarters of the way through when my compact flash card failed and I had to call Scott in to take over. It proved to be a bit of a problem, as it was then not possible for me to transfer the files onto my computer afterwards, even after trying this on four different computers. I took the card into the technicians, as I had borrowed the Canon 5D from the university, and lucky they managed to restore most of the files. It is from this, however, that I learn to always have a spare camera, preferably in the form of an assistant, and to not be afraid to do whatever it takes to get the images that you are being employed to get. This experience has really boosted my confidence, and whilst I am a little disappointed that I did not get to shadow someone with a bit more experience, I strongly believe in throwing myself in the deep end and trusting myself to float, and it certainly worked in this instance.
