Skip to main content

This Year's Work Experience Students Have Done Me Proud

These past 2 weeks I had the pleasure of having 3 students spend their week's work experience with me. This is something I regularly considered not offering due to the extra work that is involved on my part. What I do in this business can't easily be taught or passed on to 15 year old students so I end up spending a lot of my time teaching them and very little time actually working. But I find it very hard to turn down a student who rings me up to ask if they can do their work experience with me. And this year, rather than taking on 1 I took on 3.

The first week worked well in that I had jobs they could do, like packaging up class photos and delivering them to the local school. And we had the Colour Fun Mile run in Hinckley on the Wednesday evening. So I tasked them with photographing the event and seeing if they could get their photos in the paper, which THEY DID!! I was so thrilled and pleased for them. And they didn't just get 1 photo in but they actually managed nearly an entire page together (See Below).


The second week didn't work quite as well in that I didn't have as much work that I could give a student and she didn't have a partner to work and use the equipment with. So instead I suggested she bring in a friend to photograph, which she did. She planned her shoot and created some beautiful portraits that I would have been proud to have taken myself. I helped her to set up a Pinterest board and she collected images that inspired her for her shoot. I was very impressed with her selection and the images she created as a result.

So I'd like to share with you my favourite images that my students created these past 2 weeks. You can see more in their own blogs which I always have them write at the end of their weeks, which you can see here:

Ellie's Blog
Cerys's Blog
Chloe's Blog

(Image by Cerys Cross)

For the images above and below I had them use the sunlight from the trifold doors in my studio along with a diffusing screen. I wanted to show them how to see the light and how to position someone so that they are in good light. I loved what they produced here. 

(Image by Ellie Booton)

The images below were taken during Hinckley's Colour Fun Mile. The event started out with horrible rainy weather but thankfully it dried up in time for the race. The girls impressed me by running to the various stations to capture as much as they could and then took the initiative in asking groups of the public to pose for pictures. Its not easy asking strangers to pose for a photograph. I'm not terribly comfortable with it myself. But they did it and I was impressed. 

(Image by Cerys Cross)

(Image by Cerys Cross)

(Image by Cerys Cross)

(Image by Ellie Booton)

(Image by Ellie Booton)

(Image by Ellie Booton)

These images that follow are from their GCSE project on Cindy Sherman, a prominent photographer from the 70's and 80's. They were to create a piece that took inspiration from her work. Again it was handy that they had each other. 

(Image by Ellie Booton)

(Image by Cerys Cross)

The images that follow are all by Chloe, my third work experience student. Unfortunately she didn't have as many opportunities to create her own work, although I did have her editing some of my portraits instead. To give her some studio experience she invited her friend in and had a couple of hours one day after school. They both did very well. I love the connection I can see between the subject and photographer in each of these images and I think the crop, composition and lighting is perfect in each. Chloe did a fantastic job here.  

(Image by Chloe Grantham)

(Image by Chloe Grantham)

(Image by Chloe Grantham)

So I am still happy to take on work experience students but I do feel it is best to take them on in pairs and possibly only 1 set a year as having 2 weeks back to back full of distractions makes my life a little difficult. If you are thinking of using myself as your work placement than please look to coming along with a partner. It will make the week better for everyone involved.  

And a well done to each of these girls. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and learned something in the process. I am certainly quite proud of what you accomplished.

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

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

My First London Fashion Shoot

Well I finally did it. I bit the bullet and faced my fears and headed to London with a good friend, Mr. Panikos Hajistilly to do my first location shoot. We chose our locations together and Panikos organised a model and brought so much of his gear which he kindly shared with me. And probably most importantly, he showed me how it's done. I was so surprised to see just how much wonderful light was there, just waiting to be used. I am a studio photographer and while I understand the use of studio flash very well, I am very much out of practice and out of my comfort zone with using available light. Its one thing to place lights and backdrops around my subject in the comfort of my studio. Its very different to find the right light and the right backdrop in unfamiliar territory and to place my subject in it. That may sound simple enough but honestly it is not, particularly on a day with no clouds in the sky. One of our planned locations just wasn't possible as a result of the

London in Spring, Whats Not to Love?

Well I know there is still a lot not to love but I'm choosing to see the great things about London at the moment. I am having a ball this year visiting London as often as I can. Which is unusual for me since I usually prefer the comfort of my own home, in rural old Leicestershire. Staying home and avoiding people has always been the easy option. But this year, possibly due to the wonderful weather we keep having, has me longing for venturing out. Again, just like my last trip, I headed out with my good friend Panikos Hajistilly . Living in North London he finds it easy to meet up for our shoots. This time though I had more of an idea of the sights I wanted to use as the backdrops for my portraits. With it being spring I was in search of colour, preferably flowers. Admittedly. I didn't quite get what I was looking for. The white fronted terraced houses with pink magnolia trees we did not find unfortunately. But I did make it to Peggy Porchen's which was a must see on m

Family Portraits with Fine Art Flair

I have a love and hate relationship with family portraits. I love the finished piece and creating something that is truly special to the family. I love that in years to come something I made is going to be a cherished and valueable memento for this family. What I struggle with, is getting all members of the group to look their best at exactly the same moment in time. You would be surprised at how difficult this actually is, particularly when it comes to 6 children. But I always get there in the end, whether it is the luck of a moment or with the aid of Photoshop. I ensure that everyone in the portrait is looking their best, even the dog. Seeing as this family is actually made up now of two families we also did portraits in their respective groups which I chose to do in different style to their main group. I love adding a bit of style for the overall main group and what you see above is something that is proving popular with my clients. I love adding props and giving a sort of Vani