Headshots with Sophie & Kane

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

Headshots with Zoe Patrick

After the success of the quick headshots shoot with Rachel I decided the easiest (and most fun) way for me to raise money would be to do a special offer so I put out an advert with the following written on it: 

"For a small fee of £5 you can have up to a maximum of 10 high quality photos taken professionally in a studio environment with a FULL lighting kit. Contact me via e-mail at: sarah.ashworth11@bathspa.ac.uk or via facebook.

All funds raised will go towards the Photography and Digital media Graduation show in London this summer."

Zoe was the first person to get in touch, she needed professional photos for her acting portfolio. A simple grey backdrop and 2 soft box layout was best for this type of shoot! Her eyes were beautiful.. would be great to do a macro of in the future?

Industry Insights

The Description:

Mystified about licensing design and copyright? Attracted to a career in brand management? Want to know more about photo libraries / agencies? Hoping to get a job in a design agency and use your digital media and film expertise? Our speakers will give you insights into these issues and much more

My reflection:

This event was brilliant, it gave three very different insights into the creative industry, covering 3 very different employment routes. It was helpful in defining copyright infringement and I have also gained one on one time with the three speakers, resulting in an internship with Future Publishing after a conversation with Katherine Bebbington-Taylor one of the speakers.

Diptych of The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Whilst walking around the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, i noticed that different areas of the mosque, which were at opposite ends of the building, were related. The whole building was designed to flow and match throughout, whether it was through a colour scheme or through the architectural design. These examples of diptych make obvious the connections that I found whilst wondering.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi

Once again I am over in Dubai for my annual christmas holidays to see my family and for the past 2 years i've been meaning to go and see the magnificent Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Its the only main mosque in the UAE where women and non muslims are allowed to roam freely around the grounds! 

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque was a dream in the heart of the Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan "May God rest his Soul", where he established its general vision, set its foundation stone, and crowned thereby a journey full of fulfilled dreams and great achievements. The Mosque is an expression of a visionary leader who believed that nothing is impossible and conceived that the most gracious achievements start from the heart.

There are 82 domes of various sizes and the largest is located in the centre of the main prayer hall.  The design elements include pure white marble cladding; onion shaped ‘crowns’ and crescent shaped finials decorated with gold-glass mosaic.  The elongated windows allow the natural light to enter the prayer halls.

There are about 1200 pillars surrounding the mosque, each made with white marble and decorates with semi precious stones to symbolize the muslim ideology of heaven. Each column lines up perfectly and you can see from end to end through the gap and is adorned with gold palm tree leaves at the top.

There are seven crystal chandeliers made by Faustig (Munich, Germany) situated inside the halls and foyers. The largest (located in the main prayer hall and considered one of the world’s largest in a mosque and is weighing approximately 12 tons.

The main prayer hall houses the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet. The intricate Islamic medallion design was made by third generation carpet maker and artist, Dr. Ali Khaliqi.  The predominantly wool carpet was hand-crafted by approximately 1,200 artisans.

Its creation was a two year project, the design took approximately 8 months, the knotting 12 months and the remaining time to transport, trim and weave the pieces together. The final single piece carpet is 5,700 square meters, about 70% being wool and the rest of 30% is cotton. 

Woodland Creatures

Shadow in Fashion Photography shoot 2