My Memorable Week with Christina by Cerys Cross

Hi, my name is Cerys and I spent the week with Christina on work experience. I am a student at John Cleveland College and we had the opportunity to work with someone to gain experience for the ‘real world’. I chose Christina, as photography really interests me and I intend developing my skills.

Throughout the week I have learnt many new techniques and skills, such as, studio lighting, using natural light, how my camera works, Photoshop and more. This interested me and I was always intrigued to learn more.

To begin the week, Ellie and I captured portraits of each other. These weren’t of very high quality, as we didn’t have much skill in this field. Fortunately, Christina educated us and taught us how to position different lights, reflectors and backgrounds. This opened our eyes to new ideas and we became more confident. Once we felt we had sufficient amount of photos, Ellie and I imported them all onto the computer where we chose our favourite photographs. We were lucky enough to process a few photos, using software such as Photoshop, Lightroom and Colour efex, which was very enjoyable. This educated us even further. As this was our first time using these pieces of software, we weren’t fast and knew the ins and outs of every tool. But as the week continued, we learnt more and more. This is my favourite and final image I captured of Ellie.

Ellie and I have a school photography project to complete, so we took the opportunity of using Christina’s studio to complete this. We set up a scene, in the style of Cindy Sherman film stills, and we each took it in turns to model and take photographs. It was enjoyable and different to be in front of the camera, but I think I still prefer being behind the camera, taking the photos. To finalize our project, we imported the photos and processed the few we loved. Again, we learnt more about techniques and tools. To create the look we needed to achieve, we added Film Grain, using Nik software, which makes the photograph seem older and changed the colours to black and white. Doing this really achieved the Cindy Sherman look as you can see. It was such a brilliant opportunity to use Christina's lovely, well equipped studio for this project!

On Wednesday, we did something different, but I had such a good time. I'd never done anything like this before which made it such a wonderful experience. Ellie and I photographed the LOROS Colour Fun Mile. Below will be a few of my favourite photos for you to look at, and hopefully enjoy. We arrived at the event early so we could capture the pre-race vibes. Everyone was queuing to get their pure white t-shirts, colours to throw and to donate to an amazing charity. When the participants started to deliver the vibrance of colour into the air, we captured some lovely images of laughing friends and family. Judging by everyones faces, they thoroughly enjoyed their time. I know for sure Ellie and I did!

Our last day. Christina kindly set up the studio for us to use. This was in aid of us learning about studio photography. Using key light, fill lights, reflectors and a backdrop. Below will be some finished, processed photographs. This was really interesting and great to learn even more skills. We learned how to face the light for more flattering portraits and different places to stand for a range of images.

Overall, I had such an amazing and inspirational week with Christina and I loved every minute. I intend to take everything I have learnt and use it to continue taking photos. I will well and truly miss coming to the studio and going out to meetings with Christina and Ellie. I have been challenged to things I never thought I could achieve. I'm proud of how much i've improved. I'm proud of my work.

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