review about my teamwork by josie sutton

I had the opportunity to work with Hazel on two occasions during this module. The first was on the wedding I shot down in Portsmouth, I asked Hazel to work alongside me. I feel we worked well as a team as we were constantly in sync as to who was following the events of the wedding. We were well organized as a duo and were constantly taking notice of whether the other was, and placing ourselves strategically so we would be in a prime position to capture what the other would miss. For example when the bride was walking in, we distanced ourselves well in order for the first to then turn and go behind the second and capture the event as the bride passed. I feel a reason we worked so well was because we do know each other well, and have worked together through the PICBOD module helping to both photograph and model for each other. The understanding of each other and the fluidity of our work comes from experience of working as a duo. Aside from this, I observed Hazel working during the cleaning and building of the picbod exhibition. It was clear that she was willing to take any task given to her without trouble and worked quickly and efficiently until the task at hand was done. I feel this is the way everyone should have been, as some arguments did occur through other students regarding roles and tasks that were not being completed. Working with a photographer as capable and willing to get their hands dirty makes teamwork much more enjoyable and productive, as an attitude like Hazel’s helps to keep everyone calm by discussing problems calmly and being happy to work on whatever was asked of her without complaint. My faith in Hazel as a partner is clear, as she was the photographer I first asked to work with me with my picbod studio work. In reflection of our work together, I would not have changed my choice, and will definitely have Hazel as my first choice if I ever have any team projects up and coming.

learning development reflection

Learning development

As a result of the professional experience module i can say it has definitely 100% improved my skills as a photographer.

This module has forced me to completely step out of comfort zone and what i am used to and really has pushed me to the limits. I think i have achieved what i wanted when i set out at the beginning, my main aims were to get involved in a number of different projects and rally try and start building a name for myself which i think i have achieved seeing as i have work lined up for the next couple of months which is really good!

Before this module i had the skills of a fairly good photographer but i think the thing that was holding me back was my confidence in my ability and my work. However after doing these projects and achieving so much praise for everything i have done it has really shown me that i can do it and i just need to become more forceful in the things i want and really go for them instead of letting my confidence get in the way and hold me back.

Without this module i would still be doubting myself, so for that reason alone i am really glad that i had the opportunity to do this module because it has helped me a hell of a lot.

teamwork reflection

Team work Reflection

I did a mixture of different things and most of them were individual projects which i undertook on my own. However there were two projects which i did which i was having to work in a team to complete them. Fo r me i was fine with this because i do class myself as be able to work in a team easily and efficiently.

The first professional experience i did where i had to work in a team was when i did the asian wedding. I had to work well with another photographer and worth a person who was videoing the whole thing. This meant that to achieve the best quality shots we had to wok in a team to make sure nobody was getting in the way of each other, or ruining each others photographs or film.

The second project i did where i had to work in a large team was the exhibition i took part in. It was essential that we all worked well as a team otherwise none of the work would have ever got done. I found it incredibly easy to work in the team mainly because i get on with everyone and i respect all the people i was working with and i respect there work and i think if you have this understanding working in a team is fairly easy. I don’t think i will ever be a leader in a team i’m much more someone who will stand back and listen and then do the jobs which are listed as needed to be done.

Overall i think before i went into my professional experience module i could work in a team fairly easy however i ha never really had the opportunity where things could get a bit stressy to really see if i could work efficiently under pressure in a team. However after this experience i think i can do this and in future this will benefit me a lot because when your doing photography shoots its rarely just you, you have to work as a team to get the best results.

creative experience reflection…

Creative experience reflection

Originally at the beginning of this year when we wrote our proposals i wrote about the different projects which i had planned to undertake to improve my creative side a lot more. However none of the things in my proposal really turned out to work or happen however i think the work that i did work on in the last few months has really made me evaluate why and what i’m doing and it has pushed me to my limits and helped me gain valuable creative experience.

I think my most creative side came out when i exhibited my own work in the exhibition which i took part in. I had a vague brief and really let my creative side out and decided to try and different techniques to produce something that is really interesting to look and and really draws you in. I think i managed to really push my creative side with this and i am happy i did because the results were fantastic.  I had a lot of fun doing this exhibition as well and it has really pushed me into wanting to exhibit more of my work which before i was always a bit unsure of wanting to do this because i never really had the confidence in my own work to do this before.

However i think since this module has began my creativity has really grown and i am much more motivated to get out and try new projects and really get my work out there. Another big bonus of this module my portfolio has really grown and it looks much more professional and creative and grown up now!

hazel steels professional experience :)

Displaying my photographs- 3 days work experience

The next 3 days of my professional experience came from my boss back home. Since i was about 14 i have been working in a bakery in somerset called denelas bakery, so am pretty friendly with the boss of the business. There are two shops he owns one in a village called castle cary and then a bit larger one in a town called shepton mallet. While i was at home at easter, they were having both shops redecorated. Because of this i decided to ask my boss that instead of putting up the old and boring photographs back up on the wall if i could display my photographs on the walls in both shops. He said this was absolutely fine, because he had seen my work before because i was always showing the other workers in there projects i had created so they were happy to display my work for me.

The first couple of days basically was just meeting up with him and discussing what sort of photographs i was thinking about portraying on the walls. We both came up with the idea of displaying photographs i had taken while i had been working for them down at glastonbury festival. For the last three years i have worked down there on a stall which he owns, however this gets you a free pass into the festival so is an awesome opportunity to go around with my camera and photograph all the going ons in the festival. Over the last three years i have worked there i have collected hundreds of photographs for the festival. Seeing as glastonbury festival is a big thing where i live because its like 5 minuets away from where i live, i thought these photographs would generate the most interest and get most people looking at them, talking about them and hopefully asking the staff who took them so getting my name out their a bit more.

So the main stuff i have been doing with this project was editing down my photographs to the best ones and then editing them in photoshop, boosting the colours, contrast, sharpness ect. Because the shops arnt huge i decided to print them off in A4 size but then get them professionally framed to go onto the wall. While i was still at home at easter i managed to get this done. I’ve put 5 A4 photographs in each shop. So all together split between the shops there are 10 prints.

I will going home in a weeks time, because that is when the decorating in the shops should be finished, to hang up all my prints. I m really looking forward to doing this because hopefully people will start to see my work more. And something that i would love to try and do next year is photograph the festival professionally for a magazine, so im hoping that this will get me a little closer to that goal.

Here are a few of photographs i decided to display ….

calendar making- 1 day professional experience

My next day of work experience came from my grandmother. Last year sometime i created a calendar for one of friends birthday using photographs i had taken while i was traveling around africa. This friend who i made the calendar for then got hold of my gran a couple of months ago and asked if i would produce another calendar for her to give to her friend for her birthday in a couple of months. However this time she wanted landscapes of where she lives down in cornwall, this i decided to do because every year since i was little i have visited a place called polzeath in cornwall so i decided to create a calendar for her using photographs that i have taken in the last couple of years.

This was fairly easy to do because i had all the photographs that i have taken in the last couple of years so i just decided to go back and properly edit them not that my editing skills are much better.  Because i have made calendars before it was fairly easy to do, i used the same template as last time and just had to edit the photographs and upload them. I then had to print out the pages with the advent calendar part. At home i have a machine which will bind together calendars and books, so i put the pages in there and made a calendar for 2013 for her so she can start using it at the end of this year.

This was not in the slightest challenge because i have done numerous calendars at home already so i have got fairly good at the process, however i decided to this not only to get another days work experience but because this work came from a previous calendar i had produced so i thought if i did this one my names getting out there more and hopefully it might bring some more work my way. The added bonus i also got paid a bit of money for making this calendar for her.

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