Guest Lecture: Simon Buckley

Simon Buckley is a photographer working in many fields including studio portraiture, reportage and travel. He is currently running the website Road, Rail & Sea - a website aimed at selling holidays and experiences to people that do not want to fly. 

He gave lots of good tips during his lecture such as:

• Be self confident with your ideas and what you are asking for
• Observe EVERYTHING

• We all have a little bit of arrogance

• For editorial portraits you get limited time so keep lighting and ideas simple
• ASSIST
• "They don't know what they want until you don't give it to them"

• In regards to interviews, never interrupt the interview, always listen to the questions and answers, ask to take the portrait after the interview and photograph in a way that will be relevant to the interview
• Silence is usually a good sign
• Give yourself 5 minutes after the shoot to calm down
• Keep lighting simple (but experiment with different techniques)

• Always try and get your foot in the door through networking

• Build up personal project portfolios as this could get you jobs in other fields of photography that you are not currently working in

• Think about the type of job - if it is editorial, where are the words going to go? Where will the headline sit on the image?

Advice on portfolios:

• Good to have digital and print
• Keep it simple, fresh and updated
• Between 15 to 20 images