Visiting Lecturer - Vanessa Miles

Vanessa Miles came in to talk to us about Picture library Agencies. This is something that a I had never thought about before and I found it interesting listening to her story and the journey she undertook creating her own picture library and working for Greenpeace. I didn't realise there where so many job opportunities involved with picture libraries they include:

• Photographer
• Picture researcher
• Picture editor
• Web designer
• Data base developer
• Cataloguers

There are many different Picture Libarys including Magnum and Getty images and they are definitely worth a look at.

Visiting Lecturer - Dominic Burd

Dominic Burd completed his National Diploma followed by his BA honors degree at Plymouth College of Art. During his degree he worked on understanding and perfecting early photographic processes. After his degree he wrote many articles on these early processes for various magazines.

Since 1996 he has worked for 31 Studio who specialise in Platnum Printing. I decided to look on their website for information about there printing process and this is what I found:

"31 Studio has the capability to create prints from multiple sources, such as the historic glass negatives of Jacques Henri Lartigue, through all the many generations of film negatives, positives and prints, on to present day Digital Files.

We have our own Imacon / Hasselblad scanner enabling us to produce maximum quality scans in-house, for the creation of the necessary digital inter-negatives, that we now use.

Platinum printing is a contact printing process and our ability to create any size of negatives that we may need, has enabled us to make Platinum and Platinum/Palladium prints as large as 120 x 85 cm." http://31-studio.com

Dom told us that platinum prints can be created under tungsten light as UV light is the only light that effects the emulsion I found this quite interesting because normally darkroom prints can only be done underneath the red lights.

I found the lecture given to us by Dom very interesting and I particularly enjoyed looking at all the prints he brought in to show us. They where exquisite, beautiful and perfect! There is no word to describe the quality of the prints I saw they where simply amazing!

Public Liability Insurance and Equipment Insurance...

Public liability insurance would cover a business if a customer or member of the public was to suffer a loss or injury as a result of its business activities. If that person made a claim for compensation, the insurance would cover the compensation payment plus any legal expenses.

Policies are usually tailored to the individual business however as a guide, the insurance covers a business's legal liability to pay damages to members of the public for death and injury or damage to property or possessions, which has resulted from the business's activities. I found this information on http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk. 

After finding out what Public Liability is I decided to look at company's that can ensure your equipment whilst at the same time giving you public liability insurance. This is when I came across this website: http://www.photoguard.co.uk/. They can cover me for £95.00 a year to insure £2000 worth of equipment and give me public liability insurance. I believe this to be a really good price and although I do not want to purchase public liability insurance or equipment insurance just yet I do intend to purchase it in the near future.

Engagement Photoshoot...

So I have my first paid wedding photo shoot booked in for next May. I am really excited about this opportunity and cannot wait for the big day to come around. I have recently met up with the couple to shoot an engagement shoot. The day went really well however I am not overly happy with the results as I wish I could have booked equipment out from the stores rather then having to make do with my D90 camera I want sharper more crisp images. I also could have done with an external flash for more even lighting. I did plan on having an assistant that day to hold the reflector but as my assistant cancelled at the last minute I had to make do with just me. I look forward to showing the couple there results and I will post their feedback soon.

Wedding....

I recently shot some 'before' photographs at a wedding. However I am not yet able to put all of my images on as they have not yet been seen by the newly weds. Here are some of the images from the wedding:

It was a lovely wedding and I look forward to showing the Bride and Groom their photographs in the near future. The wedding was at Boringdon Hall in Plympton and is a beautiful location for a wedding.

Assisting Codie Hobbs at Shilstone House...

Today I assisted Codie Hobbs on her editorial luxury fashion shoot at Shilstone House. I really enjoyed the day. The house was very beautiful it's a newly restored Georgian country house. The house has a lot of character and has been beautifully furnished.

My job today included helping with lighting, checking everything was in place and just generally doing anything I was asked to do. I really like helping other people on their shoots. I was lucky enough to be asked to document Codie's shoot for her so here are a few of the images I took: