Aislinn

JANUARY

January I plan to be concentrating on my dissertation and I will get a few chapters together and catch up with it much more.

I will have my main project to be starting at the same time too, so these two things will be the focus of my time.

Reflecting on the advice given to me, I will include analogue photography on the side.

FEB – MARCH. IMPROVEMENT OF SKILLS

February – week 1 and 2

 I will do at least 3 sessions with the digital back and be comfortable with it and get to know it. At the same time I will use this opportunity to experiment with different lighting set ups and by the end of this I will be more confident with knowing exactly how to position lighting for different aesthetics. I will also be able to use capture one software better and this is crucial software to be able to use in the current time for photography.

February week 3

Broaden my skills in Photoshop. I will learn at least 8 new skills/techniques. As well as this, I aim to learn how to use Adobe Light room and After Effects Software. I have noticed that most job advertisements related to photography require someone with the knowledge of these so therefore think it’s important.

APRIL

Around April I will spend time making more contacts especially with potential employers, but also with stylists and mua’s. I will also look into the industry costs much more, as research for after graduation in just a couple of months. I will mostly be working on my dissertation, as the deadline is not far away. This and the main project will take up most time.

MAY

Research into the possibility of moving to London. Look at it seriously in terms of viability, costs and begin to find out if anybody else will be moving down.

Moving to a place like London has the advantage of having more job opportunities. It is the centre of the fashion industry and I feel if I don’t put myself there, I will be missing out on career prospects.

JUNE

This month I have planned to go travelling for 4 weeks. Whilst away I will put together a ‘photo diary’ of snapshot photography whilst travelling to eventually put into a book and a possible exhibition. This is something I have wanted to do for a while. It will give me experience in executing my own exhibition and I hope if it is successful, that it will in turn give me publicity.

JULY

Week 1

On returning I aim to get on to an internship programme of some kind. I know there are quite a few opportunities in London, and also in other countries like Italy and Belgium and I think working alongside someone else will really help my own practice in terms of the business side of things but also just being able to see how a practitioner works. This is always a good way to learn from others o that you don’t have to make mistakes at your own cost!

 Week 2

Whilst doing this, my portfolio will be updated and I will do some new projects to include in this. Depending on what I decide/ need to do I may present them in the form of an exhibition.

AUGUST / SEPTEMBER

Short Business course. One of the practitioners I spoke to couldn’t stress enough the importance of knowing about business strategies, which saves you time and costly mistakes. Although I know a little from a previous course, I think a short business course would be a good idea as it would help me to organise myself better when starting out.

OCTOBER - DECEMBER

By this time I should be ready to contact people such as magazines and online zines. By the end of next year, I hope that I will have built up on my weaknesses and be well into the swing of shooting as a professional photographer. I feel it useful to set up a business name and start taking photographs of anything people need, such as portfolio images to keep the money coming in, which will in turn fund my own work.

I have uploaded the images to a website of my work. I hope to keep updating this with new work to keep it fresh. 

www.Aislinn.4ormat.com

This portfolio website enables me to direct people to a place to view my work. I’ve found it also helps push me to keep producing work to put up there.

From this project i feel i have gained a better understanding of working methods through contacting photographers and magazines. Its also given me more confidence and put me more on track to where i want to go in future. I have looked into A LOT of different and less mainstream magazines for this project which I am now going to hunt down and try and subscribe to/keep up to date with.

Mainly i have used a very ordinary location and tried to be as creative as possible and work with what i have got as best as possible. I think this has enabled me to think more about composition and model. I have built up my experience and technique in working with a model in order to achieve the shots i want.     

what i will do next:

• LEARN HASSLEBLAD AND DIG BACK.
• Knowledge of the Phase One digital back and ‘Capture One’ software is another technical area I aim to tighten up on.
• Brush up on analogue skills and shoot more of this.
• LOOKBOOKS. THEY’RE VITAL, BUT BORING. DO SOME THEY MAKE MONEY.

Looking at the final images in the exhibition i was pleased with the outcome, however there are a few things i would have changed. Firstly most of the photographs are of the models face. I think the last 2 images (on the far right) would have looked better if they were about the location, clothing or a close up of something rather than the face. It just so happened that these were the 6 strongest images and it wasn’t until they were hung together that i realised this.

I was pleased with the choice to present them 2 to a frame as i think they looked a little bit different from the rest. 

Some of the images were not as strong as the others in terms of quality. The first top image of the model face on was quite light, and i feel there wasn’t enough contrast in the colours, in comparison to others. The same applies for the 6th image on the far right- of the back of the model.

Monday 5th December

So we advertised the exhibition on facebook and invited friends to come down and view the work on show. We (me and other the 3rd years) exhibited with some of the students on the masters degree course and so there was a nice variety of styles on show.

Quite a few people turned up to say the gallery space was only fairly small. some of the other students had organised some drinks and food as well so it turned out well and it was good to finally see the work come together!

This was the first time i had properly mounted my work and although i’ve been told im a perfectionist i didnt realise how much time and care you need to put in with measurements and hanging!!

First of all i planned to mount my work in 5 frames, but soon i realised that was being a bit ambitious for the kind of work i was displaying. It would also have taken up a lot of unnecessary wall space, and so i decided to put two to a frame.

I then measured out the borders, making sure i left more space at the bottom of the frame for viewing purposes. I then made sure the glass was free from marks and any bits and put the frame together. 

I had to find new hooks for the back as some were missing, so each frame needed adjusting in some way.. 

Hanging the work needed patience with getting the frames even both in between and also at the same height.  But after 2 days of measuring, cutting, framing and hanging, it was finally up and the final result was worth the effort. Very satisfying to see it all put together!

The only thing that i had problems with were the frames which had a lot of white marks and scratches. This let it down in my opinion, but these were the only ones available and so i tried my best to cover these up with black pen! Hopefully now they can only be seen close up.

The other thing was that even after being careful, i managed to get a few bits trapped between the glass and the photograph. i took it apart 3 times to get rid of it but it kept appearing somewhere else!! which was really stressing me out! Perhaps it would have been a good idea to get some kind of air puffer to blow away any dust/bits!

I decided to print my images at Farnells in Lancaster and i’m glad i did. They were really good in that they give you the chance to check your images for colour before paying, and if its not quite right they will just keep printing until they are. 

i ended up going back twice for prints as i changed my mind about a couple. At £3 odd a print they are not the cheapest around, but then again they are not the most expensive.

I will try DS colour labs as well in future, who i heard about whilst mounting my prints. Their prices are lower at around £1 and the quality seems quite good. However i will do a test print first to make sure!

After much consideration, and even going back to print again, i have finally decided on a set of 6 images.

I chose to use this for my final set, as i particularly like the composition and the overall use of lines and textures from the brick wall behind. It was one of the first images i shot and meant to be a kind of test shoot, however i decided i quite liked it and so this will be one of my 6 images. 

This was the second image i chose to use and the reason i did was mostly for the way the light has caught on the models face and arms. Its natural and because i caught him kind of off guard, his smile is nice and relaxed - which creates more intimacy between the viewer and the subject. I just feel the overall colours and tones worked well together and complemented each other.

I wanted a similar shot to the image about, where the light has caught on the models body to create shadows. For this reason i have chosen to include this shot, and also because when they are displayed together, they should work well for being shot in a similar way, but also for being at a different angle.

i chose this for the angle. Having different angles in my final set will show a bit of variety, otherwise they will all look to similar. I also really liked the way there isnt anything in the background, just a hint of a swing to give the viewer an idea of where the subject is/ what he’s doing. He also has a kind of smirk which seems natural and intimate… nothing too posed, just more of a snapshot feel to it.

This is the image which in all honesty i think is the weakest. i chose to include it however, for the location. i liked the urban/ gritty and council estate feel to it. i wasnt sure about the models expression, but in the end i decided i wanted that ordinary looking feel to it where he almost looks like he’s just woken up.

The last image was taken on the third shoot when were waking back. i didnt plan this one but i liked how it turned out. Quite simple and portraity. The only thing i wasnt sure about was the styling, however again it looked ordinary and documentary so i chose to use it for this.

With the editing of my work, i didnt want to do too much to make everything look clean and perfect, as the whole style of the shoot was gritty and ordinary with a documentary style.

I did however change the colours of the images to give them more depth and i think it worked well. It certainly looked better. A few people had thought they were shot on film because of the colours. To do this i simply altered the curves slightly, just to bring out the colours more.