Inspiration

http://www.johnwrightphoto.com

Evaluation

                        PCA 100 WBL Evaluation                 Alice Barnard

Work-based Learning is a completely new experience for me as it is the first kind of professional module, which has been guiding me into researching the specific area of photography that I have currently chosen as a future career.  At the beginning I admit I was not interested in this module at all as it just seemed irrelevant as I thought I had come to this college to learn more about Photography as a possible career choice and to gain more knowledge on equipment and techniques. Obviously know though, I do realise that WBL is I great deal and should not be taken lightly. I have learnt from this because as always I left quite a lot of the work until last minute and even though I say to myself each time I am given a new project brief I will start it straight away, I never actually do. And this frustrates me.

However I will change my ways from now on as each time I end up under way too much stress that makes me ill, and especially with 3 other projects on at the same time. This makes my brain overload and I am unable to cope with such a vast amount of work. 

This research has made me realise a lot that I didn’t know about myself as well as gaining a substantial amount of knowledge on the subject area I have chosen to pursue for my future career. I am now certainly a lot more confidant in how my life will turn out and that I can get to where I want to be as long as I keep working at it. So I shall now be consistent in my research work so I do not manage to fall behind or to lose track and lose confidence. I will not give up and I shall be motivated to get somewhere. I believe the way forward is to get into some kind of work experience or internship which is what I hope to achieve this summer back home, through a local photographer who shall be photographing my friends wedding. I have also had work back home with ‘Jersey Events’ which is in my C.V. It is a local company that photographs a variety of events and I mostly contribute work for the magazine ‘Jersey Weekly’ with my photographs of Motorsport, Fashion and outdoor events.

At the beginning I was defiantly not sure on Blogs, I hated them as a matter of fact and couldn’t stand the thought of writing new posts everyday about my life and what I am doing because I just didn’t think anybody would want to know about it. However, after actually getting a decent amount of posts up, I now believe otherwise and I thoroughly enjoy posting up on my blog. So I am sure to keep it up and regularly too, not just every other week.

After researching the National Geographic and BBC Wildlife magazine I cannot wait to just be out in the world doing my own thing and photographing what I want to do and what I enjoy doing. I know that this will only come with a lot more hard work and practise, which I also hope to gain through various internships or work experience. My mind is constantly changing and I can never keep track of where I want to be next but recently after joining PCA and enrolling on this Photography course, I know that this is definitely what I would like to pursue a future career in, and I will get there as long as I stay focused and produce work to the highest quality I am capable of. 

Disappointment.

©Ricardo Ramírez Arriola.

Gideon Mendel, fotógrafo. Ciudad de México, México, 2008.

Unfortunatley even waiting right up until the presentation day/ Deadline I have failed to produce a succesful interveiw. I am quite upset as I had sent out several e-mails and was especially excited to talk to Gideon Mendel about his photography and life experiences. Initially I had arranged a face to face interview with him after his lecture a few weeks ago but it over ran so he had no time afterwards before having to catch the train. So I then e-mailed him to organise a Skype interview which then had to be re-arranged a few times due to his busy and ever changing schedule. (This made me really frustrated as the deadline was drawing closer and I was running out of time.) So I then e-mailed him my interveiw questions but unforuntatley he wrote to tell me that he did not have any time to answer them yet !

Career Opportunities and Aspirations

http://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/wildlife-nature-photography

I Just Made A Website !!

http://www.wix.com/alice_coconut124/abphotography

I have finally published my first professional website and it is not too bad. Although I shall be updating it frequently.
Currently I am not paying any fee towards it so I still have the website advertising up but if I do keep this site going for the future I shall think about paying.

Photo Competition - "Winter"

http://www.picstop.co.uk/photocomp-upload/

Just entered my second photography competition with the theme of "Winter" so I chose to use an image I took whilst in Exeter before going home for Christmas.

Human Planet

I have been watching the new series of BBC Human Planet Explorer and can't get over how intense all of  the stories are. This new series enables you to understand a man's relationship with the natural environment, as it discovers amazing human stories from every corner of the globe.

Oceans
This was the first episode which followed several people's intense experiences in their life including: Free diving, fishing whilst swimming, Extreme coastal foraging, Fishing with Dolphins, Harpooning a Whale, Shark calling and  Pa-aling divers.
There was one man Sulbin who can hold his breathe underwater for 2 and a half minutes which enables him to free dive 20 meters to the ocean's floor, focused and calm to catch just one fish for his supper. As he swims deeper his heartbeat slows down to just 30 beats per minute which is crushing his chest, making his lungs decrease to just 1/3 of their usual volume. He has no weights to keep him under the water and is buoyant enough to walk across the sea-bed as though he is hunting on land. As he gets deeper the carbon-dioxide causes an irresistible urge to gasp for air but this man can go deeper and hold his breathe for up to 5 minutes ! - But he's got what he came for, so isn't showing off.

5 Years Time

In 5 years time i'd like to think I would be somewhere tropical, perhaps Maui ! I'd love to be able to travel to many places and photograph the different Landscapes and Animals.
My favourite photographs come from all the National Geographic magazines. I really can't get enough of them to be honest. I love animals and have grown up with cats, dogs and smaller pets such as hamsters. Cats are my favourite though and I have several folders of photographs which I have taken of my cat Ringo.

Top 5 Places I would love to Travel:
                                                                                    1. Maui
                                                                                    2. South Africa
                                                                                    3. New Zealand
                                                                                    4. Iceland
                                                                                    5. Antarctica 

As well as Wildlife/ Landscape photography I also love fashion photography and especially Vogue and 1950's style.

Top 5 Fashion Photographers:
1. Irving Penn
2. William Klein
3. James Hickey
4. Nick Knight
5. Nigel Barker

My love for fashion photography began when I started A-level photography and based my assignments on fashion, whilst using my close friend as my main model for the majority of my shoots. After passing my A-levels I went on to study Art & Design at Highlands College back home in Jersey. For my final project and exhibition pieces, I created 3 1950's style Pin-up shoots, using another one of my friends. I had a "Working Girl" outfit, "Glamorous" which was my Blue prom dress and "Beachwear" which was my red and white polka dot swimsuit. I was so happy with the out come of all the shoots and for my exhibition I chose one from each shoot to blow up onto some canvas material to hang on the wall.

So after looking into both fashion and Wildlife/ Landscape photography, I am not sure where I will end up at all and can only hope to succeed in either or maybe even both of these areas. I don't like to look to far ahead but to just take life as it comes and to produce the best work I can.

Jamie Beeden Lecture

Another visiting photographer Jamie Beeden came to talk to us on 16th of November.
http://www.willhutchinson.co.uk/jamie/  &  http://www.the-ape.co.uk/jamie_beeden/index.html

Jamie is an established music and portrait photographer who has had his work featured in many magazines both in th UK and abroad. Some clients of his include: Q magazine, NME, Spin, The Sunday Times, The Word, Nylon, Sony BMG, Virgin and many more.
Jamie first graduated in London and then worked for three years as an assistant.
He quickly went through some of the work which is up on his website, my favourite was the photographs of the animals, especially the Owl ! It just made me smile and it also looked like it was taken in a studio with a black background but the owl was in a Zoo.

Michael Leckie Lecture

Just been looking through my notebook and had forgotten to write up about some other photographers which had come in for Wednesday lectures.

Michael Leckie came in on the 26th of January, he is based in London but is from Belfast.
Initially he was in a band but did not think he was good enough so got into photography.
His interests began in the Darkroom, where he became amazed by the transformation of developing photographs. His early work is "A bit rough", he prefers the Anarchy/ Rock style which was inspired from his band days.
Throughout his work Michael likes to use a lot of Lens Flare, especially in his Music portfolio's. He has photograph many bands/ musicians including Kings of Leon, Travie McCoy, Bruno Mars, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Futureheads and so on.

I very much enjoyed all of his work, but the part that stood out most for me was his work with the Royal Ballet, which was a shoot he made just for his own use but I think was very successful as I love the dramatic and theatrical side to photography.

A-level Work which reminds me of Michael's Royal Ballet work.

"No more than 4 lights"

Michael's advice for Photo Shoots:
 * Get your first shot sorted, then everything will flow.
 * Be aware of what's around you
 * Have a back-up for everything
 * Try to offer something that your client hasn't thought of
 * Be - Polite, Tidy, Prepared, Approachable
 *Always go in prepared, to work with what you've got
 * Always call first
 * E-mails - ALWAYS reply ASAP even if ...

http://www.michaelleckie.co.uk/

AB Photography Logo Ideas

After researching Model Releases, contracts and other professional photography aspects I decided to have a quick go at designing some personal logos's. I loved graphics at school so this was quite easy for me to come up with a few ideas, although I could not decide on my favourite yet and not sure about the colour.

Model Release Form

This is my first draft of a Model Release form. I used a template from http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/Magazine/Downloads/Model-Release-Form I then changed some of the wording around and added writing from the notes I had taken in a seminar. 

Print Screen of Comp. details.

First Competition

I just entered this image for a Wildlife & Nature themed competition. It's my cat from back home, "Ringo", this was taken in my back garden, late afternoon in June. I have entered competitions before, but only locally in Jersey so this is my first UK entry. I have so many pictures of my 2 cats, especially Ringo as he is a bit of a poser but this is one of my favourite's.
http://www.snapalley.com/