Skip to main content

I was a Guest Speaker at North Warwickshire and Hinckley College

And I loved it. I had a great time on Monday speaking in front of roughly 30 students from the college's photography department. It all came about when I visited the campus on Burbage Carnival business and while there I was invited to have a tour of the facility by their art director. In doing so was introduced to their photography department. I was in heaven.
The facilities are superb (apart from their window blinds that need a little coaxing from time to time). I was shown their darkroom where the smell of the chemicals brought memories of the days of film flooding back. I was shown their studio, where most of their kit was similar to mine, apart from a ring flash I would most certainly like to try one day. If they had a Fresnel Spot I really would have been jealous as that has recently moved to the top of the wish list. I wanted to put my bag down, tell my husband to go home and pick me up later. I just wanted to get stuck in and start work with the students right then and there.

So I asked if there was anything I could do and was invited to come back to speak to the students about my life as a photographer. Speaking for a room full of enthusiastic photographers is such a rewarding thing to do. Its not often I get to speak about what I do to people who actually care to listen. I've bored my husband to tears in the past (well not actually but I certainly do see him switching off quite quickly).

Its at times like this when I realise how far I've come and the vast knowledge I've actually acquired over the years. Sometimes you can get to know something so well it begins to feel like common knowledge, until you are able to share it with others and see that they value that information.

Well hopefully this is the beginning of a long lasting relationship with the college. Perhaps lending a hand for a studio session or a little Lightroom and Photoshop tuition could be arranged next.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I am Still Me: A Story about a Transgender Boy

  Meet Leo. Leo is 15 and currently going through an epic transformation that has momentarily turned the lives of himself and those around him upside down. A mum who once had the daughter she always longed for is now coping with the realisation that she will be living the rest of her life with a son instead. When your child is born you have certain expectations of the typical life they will lead but most of us know and accept that it won't necessarily end up the way we imagine. Not every person wants to marry, have kids or be involved with the opposite sex. Most of us have come to accept this and can adjust to whatever comes our way relatively easily. But few of us have expected to have to deal with a change in sex. Its not that we've hoped it won't happen, but just that it never occurred to us that it might. This is a new adjustment that we as a society are being presented with today, just like so many others that have come before. When I first heard that Phoebe ...

Fuji Announces the New X-T2 and I've Been One of the Lucky Testers!!

I have been one of the few fortunate ones to be selected by Fuji to test Fuji's newest mirrorless camera from the perspective of an SLR user. Today Fuji have announced the release of this camera, the X-T2, (X-T1 being its predecessor). It was such an honour to be selected for this task and I truly enjoyed the experience. I've been hearing such great things about Fuji's cameras over the past couple of years I've wanted to try one myself but when you own a perfectly good camera, in my case the Canon 5D MKIII, its hard to justify trying an entirely new system. As any photographer will confirm, in this industry there is always new kit we want to purchase. So getting to test one out for free was really quite awesome. Now I am not going to say that I prefer one over the other at this stage. My use of the Fuji is still relatively new. To be perfectly honest they both have very good selling points and I'd struggle to say one is better than the other. But if I were just...

Never Work With Children or Animals

Or so the saying goes. But I have to say that working with dogs has been so lovely. They have been almost entirely a dream to work with. I say almost entirely because we have had a few moments where a dog has needed to settle. And one moment where the dog had settled but one of my cats decided to have a look through the glass door which, as you can imagine, rather quickly unsettled the dog. Still, that didn't stop us from creating incredible work. In fact it was during that shoot with the cat instance when I created two of my favourite pieces, shown below. (It was while sitting on the couch here when he noticed the cat peering through the curtain) I don't know if I've just been lucky or all dogs are just easy to work with. I photographed a french bull dog puppy and I thought that would be tough as he hadn't had time to be properly trained yet. But he did everything we wanted in no time at all. And this included the props we used here (below), which to me...

5 Reasons you Should Consider Getting a Professional Headshot

Headshots, or profile pictures are becoming a requirement of so many tools we regularly use or reference today. From Facebook to Linked In, Instagram to Twitter and often any website that represents a company for which you work or own will have a place to include a photograph that is meant to show your audience who you are. And how you present yourself there will tell your audience so much about you. 1. A profile picture is your first opportunity for your audience to see you. Its often the first impression you make and we all know you only have one chance at a first impression. A professional photographer has the skills to show you in the best, most suitable way to give a great first impression. (These headshots were created for recruitment firm  Optima UK  who asked to have their logo placed behind them. I think it makes these headshots quite eye catching and they should do their job well.) 2. Using a professional to create your headshot will ...

Its a Dog's Life

When life gets tough I always look at dogs or my cats and think how lucky they are. I know not all are treated well but those lucky enough to be in a good home, like the ones who come into my studio, have a really great life. They look so happy and its a wonderful thing to see.  I honestly love photographing dogs. They are a joy to work with and its almost impossible to produce a bad portrait of a dog which does of course make my life a little easier. I am someone who really needs to love the work I create. I can't help but love the portraits I've created of all the dogs I've photographed over the years. And this shoot was certainly no exception. I found it a real pleasure using a lighter background this time too. I do often gravitate towards darker looks but seeing as this dog had a light coloured coat I thought I'd produce lighter images. This gave me the chance to use a canvas I painted a couple of years ago but never really used and I absolutely love it...