Isabelle's Photography Experience

I'm Isabelle Stratford from Redmoor Academy and I've been doing my work experience here at Christina Lauder Photography with my friend Sophie. I'm very interested in photography and currently taking it at GCSE and working here throughout the week has helped me learn several different things about the profession.

Sophie and I testing out the set up and lighting for prom

Our first day consisted of mainly watching Christina edit some photos and her explain different elements of what she does which then prepared us for the rest of the week when we began doing our own things. She also showed us many of her favourite final edited images that she keeps as samples and told us where she'd got her inspiration from to shoot in the style that she loves. To help her Sophie and I also completed some small tasks that needed doing like filing and clearing up. On Tuesday a client came in for a trial shoot in preparation for a prom so we helped set up for that but then watched as Christina took the photos so we could recognise and learn positioning, camera angles and basic but important skills. There were other elements to it like making sure the wind machine, lights and props were all set up in the right place so the shots would turn out as best as they could. This has improved my knowledge and made me more confident for when I take more photos in the future.

Final edited image of Sophie from our photo shoot

On the Wednesday night the local athletics club came for team photos so we helped get that set up and cleared away but also making sure all the children were there and had props. This was a good experience because we got to see what it was like working with children and how well they co-operated.

Over the rest of the days we planned and did our own photo shoot for our GCSE distortion project using the skills we'd been learning about and having each other as models. Christina let us be independent and as creative as we liked, allowing us to use any equipment and backgrounds in the studio. After showing us all the tricks of editing, she also let us use her computer and Photoshop afterwards to let us finalise our favourite images of each other. I found this really interesting because it makes you realise how much more there is to photography there is than simply just taking the picture and how many different ideas you have to have to be unique. This was definitely my favourite part of the week as it was the most individual part where I came to get the experience I was looking for.

Another image from one of our photo shoots

Overall, I have really enjoyed my week here with Sophie, working for Christina. It definitely wasn't as I has expected as I didn't realise how specific you had to be as a photographer and now many different skills and techniques there were to it. My knowledge of the subject has definitely expanded after her sharing tips and advice with us to make our work better.

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