Portrait

I was asked a few days ago about taking some portraits. They have a pretty certain idea about how they want the photo to look which is always a bonus!

The shoot will also be involving a dog, never worked with a dog before...could be interesting.

I have sent them a quote that details price for the shoot and a second price should they wish for me to print and frame.

Currently waiting to hear a date and time but I know they want it soon. I will be chasing this up later today to see if we can arrange a time for the shoot to happen this weekend to make the most of the good weather.

Products and Food

Ever since working with the Eden Project I have been thinking about improving my skills within product photography.

Looking back on those photographs I learnt a lot of new skills and learnt that there are a lot of things that I don't know or that I'm a little weak at.  Which is why I am going to take this time and opportunity to seek a client for who I can produce some product shots or possibly food shots for. 

When it comes to food I think you need to have good food to photograph, it's going to be very difficult to make bad food look good, (not that I'm a bad cook) but it's the same with products, yes I could use products lying around the house but there is no real purpose behind that. No theme, style or audience, so while I have Steve's feedback and experience I'm going to take advantage and try something that doesn't come naturally to me, while at the same time networking with a new client and getting some work out there.

NHS

Over the summer break an opportunity was offered to me from Chris to do some work with the NHS and the Queens Hospital in Burton.

I had heard bits about this for a while and figured all experience is good, so I took up the opportunity figuring it could lead to better things.

Today it did just that.

After photographing at the NHS annual public meeting on the 14th September, arrangements had been made to visit the photography department at the hospital to gain a deeper insight into the role of a medical photographer. Looking at the sort of photographs they take, how they are stored and how they can be used to diagnose medical problems.

During the visit I presented a selection of photographs that I took during the annual meeting. I was grateful to receive positive feedback while being informed that the images I took could be used for publication.

Following on from this a further opportunity has come up to photograph a number of portraits around different departments within the hospital. These photographs will then be used on posters and displayed on big screens during the awards night held in February 2012.

...but who?

So I need to find potential clients. 


Who am I going to approach? 
What sort of photography am I going to produce for them? 
When am I going to do this? 
What will be the final outcome of the photographs?

Previous Clients

I guess the first place to start is to look at what work I have done before and to figure out what I can offer potential clients.

Going back to some of the first clients I worked with I can see how my style has changed. Back in 2009 I produced photography for Derby County Football and Cricket Club's "Playing for Success" clubs. The brief was to capture the children taking part in a number of activities to be used for promotional material.

BRIGDENS

Working with Brigdens was my first experience of working with models. After this shoot I learnt that success was all in the planning!

BNP PARIBAS REAL ESTATE

I was asked by BNP Paribas to photograph their Christmas Party. I wanted to produce something that had a little more substance than  a disk of images and so I presented them with the idea of a book that encapsulated the event. I took general photographs of the party while also taking portraits from a pop up studio space. This was a big hit after a few beers!

The book was produced in sequence with the time stamp on the opposite page creating a real time account of the night.

NATIONAL FOREST ADVENTURE FARM

Over the last couple of years I have done a few things with the Adventure Farm, mainly press work and images for their website.

These photographs were shot for the promotion of last years Fright Night event.

The following images were taken to promote the new Shaun the Sheep Maize Maze that opened earlier this year.

EDEN PROJECT

Eden was a chance to try something new, products. I found this more difficult than I thought it would be. The placements of the products and composition began to drive me insane by the end of the week but it was slightly addictive and I definitely want to pursue products some more this year.

I have also worked with others such as Marstons, Country clothing, Ockbrook Gun Club and Burton College but they are all similar sort of work to the examples I have shown.  

    

Most communication with the clients I've worked with are still good however I've not chased them for work, this could be a good way to secure some more work. Alternatively I could look for similar clients and pitch ideas to them using previous work as examples of what I could offer.

Here we go...

Having just got back into the second year it seems Wednesday evenings are going to be spent with Steve. The idea of these lessons are for us to source our own work. To approach clients and work with a professional manner to investigate, plan and produce quality photographs to the standards and expectations of the client.


All aspects of the process will be documented here in order to hit criteria for the module and to gain feedback from other class members.


This work is going to be a big boost, it has been something I was concerned about coming back into this year. I know how much I get consumed into assignments and projects that I get distracted from looking for work. These sessions will give me chance to focus on finding work, networking and help to give a better feeling of what direction I want to take my photography.