The money for life challenge

The money for life challenge is a government funded project which allows college students to receive a grant if their project idea is approved , to follow their ideas through. The first amount of payment is £200 to allow their project to happen and once they have finished they get another £300 to spend for the college (for example , to purchase equipment).

It's an opportunity that occurs once a year for students. Last year when I was in my first year at college I took the challenge and now i'm in my second year I have taken it again. This year Hannah, Ellie , Chloe , Sharrah & jennii and myself all decided we wanted to do it and in our first meeting we decided that we would propose our idea to 'Money for life' in hoping of acceptance. Our idea was to buy a shed with the £200 and to use it as a gallery space up in college where we can showcase our photography and once we leave college it will remain their for other students. 

we were excepted by the programme and given the grant. We bought a shed for £160 and with the left over money we are hoping to give some to a student at college who was willing to make a curtain for the shed and also the rest will be for lighting and paint.

The minimalism project

The Minimalism Project 

On monday 26th we were given our brief. Our brief was basically giving us the freedom to create our own project, as a group we all had to collaborate together to decide a theme and delegate job roles. We knew that the outcome of the project needed to include 3 images each in 3 different locations (powerpoint , printed & on a blog)we just needed to pick a theme and decide on roles to make the outcome happen.

Other requirements for the task include : 

Generate the theme as a group so the work has a cohesion. 

Consider and generate the design element

imbed and include QR code

work collaboratively and independently 

MUST be finished by Thursday 26th February.

At the start of session we quickly decided that jennii would note on the board all things discussed during the group meeting so as we all talked about possible theme ideas , jennii turned them into ideas blasts. We decided that the theme we were going to go with is minimalism because it's quite a broad idea and we can create our own individual pieces based on our own interpretations. 

Who got what job roles?

The blog - Ella , Hannah & Danny

The cover- Chloe , Ellie & Dan

The text - jennii & jordn

The layout- Jake & Sharrah

The PowerPoint- Chloe Taylor & Chelsea

Ebay task

In session as a group we all looked at bad product photography , more specifically ; bad eBay photo's. I was surprised to see how bad some of them really are , some of them were so bad that it was hard to see exactly what they were selling.

Possibly one of the worst images we looked at was this one :

From what I can make out , it appears to be a ring , unsure exactly what stone but possibly diamond. It really effects how well the item sells because people who are willing to buy a specific item may be put off by the image shown, this can be because of the environment the item has been photographed or simply that the bad image can make the object look bad. 

We talked in class about that the image above looks like the seller has tried to make the photo presentable by keeping the ring boxed and having the red velvet fabric underneath to bring out the colours of the ring and box however we don't know if that's intentional or not.

What's bad about the photograph?

• The flash has bounced off the ring causing any detail to be blown out making it difficult to see
• They could of made the image neater by taking the black box in the left corner out of the image

How could the photograph be improved?

To improve the photograph the seller should of not used flash or used it properly to highlight details rather than completely blowing them out.

A product photograph by me: 

I think something else to consider whilst taking photographs of a product is 'is it a second hand item or new?' and 'what is the item you are selling'. It's important to hit the nail on the head with product photography , If I were to sell an item of jewellery that was brand new and the image were for a brand or company then I would like to use models to model the jewellery and also take photographs of the item of jewellery without a model too , so maybe in its packaging or next to the packaging. However if I was going to sell an item and photograph it and it was second hand I probably wouldn't use a model. This is because people may be put off when seeing the item with/on or being used by somebody else.

Another product photograph taken by me:

Good lighting is key to getting a good product photograph , it also helps having a good camera , but lighting is definitely important.

My photographs in response to the eBay task:

My purposely bad photographs:

and...the better ones:

It was harder than I thought to create the 'bad images' I had to try and push to the back of my mind all of the photography knowledge I've gained in the past 3 or so years , I used camera shake , I purposely photographed with bad lighting and I badly cropped the images too as well as badly used flash.

The second lot of images were a lot easier to capture , I used natural lighting and depth of field to create a more professional look. It's safe to say the second lot of photographs are the better out of the lot.

John Lewis Task

In class we were handed John Lewis catalogs to look through to gain inspiration for a product photography shoot that would fit in their catalog. It was the John Lewis Christmas issue so a lot of the photo's were suited for that theme including a lot of the colours in the catalog too. 

I looked through the catalog and decided I like the idea of photographing Jewellery and so I gave it a go. Not only did I use the catalog for inspiration I also looked at their website and the different photographs they have published there including their adverts.

click to be directed to john lewis's website

My photographs in response to the task:

Collaboration

Collaboration , my photography business

I have been collaborating with various clients since i started a photography page on facebook in 2012. First it started by people purchasing my prints so we would communicate via message and I had more and more people 'liking' my page and showing interest in my images. I have photographed Charity events and weddings and much more since. I started this second Photography business page in 2013 and now have over 200 likes. 

I have shot family sessions and several weddings and also newborn and baby sessions. Over a short amount of time my page (which is a shared business with my dad) we have had really positive reviews. 

The page now has 5 out of 5 stars due to clients leaving their positive feedback.

It's so encouraging communicating with clients after the sessions receiving such positive feedback.

Here's some older reviews:

At first I found it really hard communicating my business and being able to show off my work due to lack of confidence but as my business has grown and gained more recognition it has boosted my confidence a lot and now I find it so much easier communicating to people not only online but also face to face as well.


What do I ask clients?

When somebody initially messages me asking for a photo shoot my first question is what kind of shoot are they after...
newborn? family? wedding? event?
secondly I can give them a price and also tell them what is included in the price such as...
a disc of fully edited photos
a photo book
prints
two photographers shooting 
etc...

The benefits of collaborating is the recognition, once I have sent the client the photographs they often will upload them to their personal facebook page or tell other people about the photo's they received and recommend us / me to other people which is fantastic.