Friday 25 March 2011

Following on from my apparent blogging gap year!

Sadly, after a year and a half of bad luck and an unreliable father I had to defer my second year of university in order to get a full time job and be able to live with a regular income and food!
I am not too upset about leaving university as I feel I have learned a lot from the first year there and I know that the second year is more about building on the skills learned and about the theory side of photography, which I'm not brilliant at but I don't feel is essential to me becoming a full time photographer. Also, I have all the suggested theory books that I'm slowly reading through at my own pace so I can improve my understanding.

After leaving university I moved back to Tiverton and started looking for a job. Within a month of looking I found my current position as Photographer/Sales person and have never looked back. I earn the company well over £2000 a week and I have learned a vast amount about working with children and photographing groups. The different techniques and poses are endless and the training I've had has really furthered my education of photography. I cannot be sure what this says for the Degree and it's importance in getting a career in your chosen subject but I'm saving 6 thousand pounds by not getting the final year done and I think that the degree is not what it's cracked up to be. It's overly expensive and I feel sorry for those who will have to pay even more in the future just to get one, especially if they realise it's not worth it and they leave without a job.

One down side of my job is that the copyright of the images belongs to the company so I have no images to show for all my hard work, which is a bummer but at least I know I can do my own private sittings at home and have the know how for working with children.

Thankfully, I have carried on learning about photography whilst working full time and I am confident at shooting groups of people and children and knowing the different poses and rules that can be followed to create a more aesthetically pleasing image than a simple snapshot.

Photography is so complex and I find myself continually finding new articles, books, emails or websites that shows me something new and interesting that I can pour over and take notes from. One book that I am just starting to read is: John Berger's 'Ways of seeing'. I'll write notes on it when I've read it but I think it'll take me a while because it's quite complex. next on my list is Graham Clarke's 'the Photograph'.

Onto my Photography now. I haven't shot much personal work whilst working full time as my hours are long and I'm always exhausted when I get home. One shoot I have done was taken for my mother and her new dog named Jinx. I'll post one of the pictures up;

She was such a good model bless her, she sat still and didn't even move when we put her in a washing basket! Everyone comments on her little jumper. I think she's adorable :D