IMP exhibition

For my final project of the course I chose to base it around weddings so that I can boost my portfolio. The photographs were exhibited in St Paul's church and will now be up there as part of a more permanent display.
Heres a link to my final images http://issuu.com/lucyhannahphotography/docs/styledweddingphotography

Plans for after colege

I decided a while ago that after college I didn't want to go on to university. I decided that I wanted to work for myself as a wedding photographer and for the next few years also have a part time/full time job so that I can support myself. I now work as a Camera and Digital Imaging Promoter for Samsung, which although isn't a specific photography job, it allows me to expand my experience in talking to customers and my knowledge of cameras.

I have also started to expand my photography business with my new website - www.lucyhannahphotography.co.uk . I now also have twitter, facebook and google+ which are all linked together with my website and blog. After the IMP exhibition, my work is being displayed in St Paul's Church in Widnes, and I am already recieving enquiries from brides within the church. I have also booked my first wedding :) 

Video Statement

Summer Exhibitions

Over the summer I visited various exhibitions about photography. One of my favourite exhibitions was in the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool - 42 Women of Sierra Leone. This was a collection of portraits taken by british photojournalist Lee Karen Stow. She chose to take 42 images because that is the life expectancy for women in Sierra Leone. Her images capture the spirits and beauty of the women who come from all walks of life. One of my favourite photographs in the exhibition was of a female photographer working at a photo-shoot. With each image was some information about each person, the area they live in or the countries attitudes towards women. The information next to the image of the photographer explained that women are held at a much lesser standard than men, so much so that a female photographer is often likely not to get paid for her services.

Rock of Joy Photoshoot

Last month a group of students from my photography class helped to set up and participate in a photo-shoot  in which we raised money for The Rock Of Joy Trust. The charity helps to support a school in Uganda in its hopes to becoming completely self sufficient. We charged staff and friends for a fifteen minute photo-shoot, of which all proceeds went straight to the charity. I really enjoyed the day. It was good experience to photograph people other than those in my photography class. I also liked having the practise of using the studio equipment, directing people and being in a more professional environment. I learnt more about shooting in RAW, setting up lighting so that minimum post processing is needed and I learnt more about the different effects that you can get from faster lenses.

Take it to the streets exhibition

In March, we visited Derby for the Take it to the streets exhibition. The exhibition included a range of street photographers, including photographers represented by Magnum photography.

The exhibition was split between inside and out which I think gave a unique element to the exhibition because you could experience the photographs in a different environment. I think the outside element was also good because it would draw a lot of people into the exhibition who may be walking past, who might not normally visit art galleries. It helped that when we visited the exhibition it was a sunny day; in the pouring rain it may not have been as enjoyable. Because of the lack of space on the boards outside the layouts of the images was not as creative as the layouts of the images inside, but it all worked well together.

I liked the inside part of the exhibition more than outside. There was a wider range of styles of photography and I liked the different ways that the photographs were presented. As well as photographs, there were also videos which were part of the exhibition. The videos were interesting but as a whole I prefer still images and find them more interesting. 

There were three photographers whose work I particularly liked, Bruno Quinquet, Raoul Gatepin and Giacomo Brunelli. 

Giacomo Brunelli: 

I liked these photographs because unlike many of the photographers Brunelli focused on animals rather than people. His portraits of the animals are very unusual, they are quite dark and mysterious and even though they are animals he still manages to capture intense emotion. I like the square crop to the images and I think that them having been shot in black and white makes them even more intense. 

Raoul Gatepin:

I like the simplicity of these images, the emptiness of the places he has photographed. I like the composition of each of his photographs, I like the way he uses leading lines and bullseye composition. I also like the colour tones within the images and I think that because they seem almost desaturated slightly, it adds the the atmosphere of the images. 

Bruno Quinquet:

I like how this photographer uses natural elements as the focus within his images, but still captures the street life surrounding them. I like the shallow depth of field that he uses and the way in which he uses natural forms to frame his shots. I think that the colours work really well within this set of images and helps add to the natural feeling that comes across when looking at the photographs. 

Overall I really enjoyed the exhibition. There was a multitude of different types of work and styles which you might not have come across when simply doing your own research. 

The next step

I decided that the best way for me to achieve my goals is to, after college, go into business for myself. University is not something that appeals to me much, and it is not necessary to have a degree to have a successful career as a wedding photographer. I think that it would probably be beneficial if I assisted a current wedding photographer but assisting jobs are not always easy to come by, and I think that it is not necessarily vital for my career. Instead of assisting I think that over the next year I will try and get some work experience with wedding photographers. Even if it is just shadowing them for a day at a wedding to see what a wedding is like from a photographers point of view. Through my course at college I will learn the basics that I need but I know that I will need to do a lot of research and work outside college in order for my skills and business knowledge to be good enough to be successful.