My Final PDP

I will go through each goal and complete them before the time I've stated, or at least I will try my hardest to. I've chosen to complete things that will benefit me now and later in life, most of them are things that I can keep improving on after leaving university and when entering a career in photography. I've demonstrated some means of completion within the process of creating this blog and I shall carry on doing so until I feel I've reached my goals. I've enjoyed bettering myself mentally and academically through this process and appreciate the new knowledge I've gained in different areas, a project like this allows you to think about what you need to do and structure it and think of ways how you can complete the goals which then makes it a lot easier to actually do them. 

Reading List - Barbara Rosenthal

-American avant-garde artist, writer and performer.
-She is know for often revisiting past works, recombining old elements with new.
-She often appears in her work in some way, this may include x-rays, brain scans, clothing and sometimes physical or textual elements from her journals.
-She is also known for her intense introspection and through using herself as a guinea pig.
-She explores what it means to be human.

It was very difficult to find any evidence of Rosenthal's work online so I'm still not entirely sure what her work is like but from what I've read it sounds interesting, controversial and extremely personal. For my Negotiated Major Project I produced similar work as to what I assume Rosenthal's work is like, or at least I planned to, I explored the use of text in image and looked at brain scans and how I could use them within my work. I find work that explores the life or elements of an artist or photographer, very interesting because I'm fascineted with finding out new things about people and looking into their life. This work tells me a lot about Rosenthal, she seems to be a quirky and free spirited woman. 

Jobs!

One of my goals is to have a part time job but like I mentioned before, I wouldn't mind if this turned into a full time job. I've actually been offered an interview to a full time assistant job, working for the council in Rochdale town hall, the job will start in June, after I've finished uni and will require my patience, cooperation, typing, writing and highlighting skills as well as communication, listening and understanding important things. I like the sound of this job although it isn't photography related, it's in my home town (where I'll be moving back to after I leave Salford in June), and I've heard that working for the council opens doors for people for the future! I'm going to go to the interview with a very positive attitude and portray myself in a professional manner. As well as this I've been offered a part time photography job shooting for a new clothing brand called Black Cyprus. http://www.blackcyprus.co.uk/.

Photography Equipment - What Is Out There

I found a great site listing the essential equipment to have if you're a starting photographer. http://www.apogeephoto.com/nov2012/photographers-toolkit.shtml. I've never been interested in using anything that will enhance my images other than the camera itself because I've always been able to produce images to a high quality without them and without having the money to supply these items of equipment I've never had the chance. I would like to know more about what is out there and how it works in case I do one day have enough money and would then be interested in purchasing some new stuff!

1.  A DSLR Camera & Lenses
My Camera:
I've got a Canon 550d. I find Canons easier to work with than Nikons so this is why I opted for the camera I've got! It cost me about £500 which was a lot of money for me at that time, it took a while for me to get over that expenditure. I love my camera, its easy to use, clear and understandable, brilliant image quality, smooth HD video, quick responses and overall great companion.

2.  Camera Strap

I have a strong adjustable strap that fits around me in order to have a stable and secure hold. 

3.  A Means of Carrying All Your Camera Gear 

I have a waterproof camera bag that is compact, lightweight and easy to manoeuvre! 

4.  Tripod & Ball Head 

I have a lightweight extendible tripod that I love using because of it's stability and adjustable heights and positions. 

5. GorillaPod

This is a great little addition to your full-sized tripod.  It’s a mini tripod that is light weight, sturdy and literally, very flexible.  It’s perfect when you need a steady base for the camera but don’t want to carry a full tripod with you.

I have a gorillapod. 

6.  Hoodman Loupe
It provides glare-free viewing of the images on your camera’s LCD screen, so you can easily check that image for good composition, exposure and clarity before you leave a location.

7.  Lens Filters
There is a wide variety of lens filters on the market, but there are three types of filters that should be considered - UV, Neutral Density (varying degrees of ND filters is good too) and Polarizing filters.

8.  Diffuser & Reflector Kit
With diffusers and reflectors you can control the direction or the amount of light on a subject by diffusing, bouncing, angling, reflecting, and softening the light.  You can tone down or eliminate shadows and even change the colour tone.

9.  Exposure Meter
Reflective in-camera light meters can give misleading readings when there is a wide contrast variance in a scene, such as a dark foreground and bright sky, or when the light is bouncing off reflective surfaces.

10.  External Flash Units (LED/Metz)
Your in-camera flash will not have the capabilities of an external flash, so if you add this item to your tool kit, you will be able to direct, bounce, diffuse, soften, angle, and regulate the amount of flash light on your subject.  You can even add colour gels to produce various warm colour tones. 

11.  Remote Shutter Release
The tripod is holding your camera steady, but just the touch of the shutter release can cause a vibration blur in an image.  To get those really sharp images, a remote shutter release is essential.


12.  Extra Camera Battery and Memory Card
I don't have an extra battery but  always make sure the one I have is fully charged before going out on a shoot. I do have extra memory cards because some shoots can take up hundreds and hundreds of image space.


13.  Camera and Lens Cleaning Supplies
Giottos cleaning kits are a good place to start and are some of the best.


14.  Lens Hood
Many photographers place a lens hoods on their lenses.  One, it acts as a protective shield around the lens in case you drop your camera, and second, it blocks the angled light that is coming into the lens, which in turn can cause lens flare - those hexagon or octagon shaped spots on your photos.

Photography Groups

I've looked at a few photography groups in my area to see if anything would suit me.

http://www.smcc.org.uk/
We are an active and progressive club that offers a varied programme of speakers and events. 

http://www.northmanchestercameraclub.co.uk/

Welcome to the North Manchester Camera Club website. Are you interested in photography and want to meet people who share your interest. North Manchester Camera Club runs weekly and gives you the opportunity to share your photos with others and learn techniques on how to make them better.

Whether you are interested in entering competitions, learning how to make better pictures or just want to meet other photographers, North Manchester Camera Club has something for you.

http://www.manchestercameraclub.org/

Manchester Camera Club is group of photographers at all levels who are interested in sharing photographic interests, talents and ideas with others.  You are invited to attend our meetings and share your knowledge and passion with us.  Expand your photographic skills by sharing technical knowledge, photogenic locations, tips, experiences and ca-mer-a-derie on field trips, workshops, and model shoots. On occasion, speakers of note are scheduled to share their experiences and works of art at meetings during the year.

http://www.redeye.com/With experts in A/B & multivariate testing, UX design, usability, data analysis and personalisation all under one roof, we can deliver a full end-to-end optimisation and UX design service.

I like the sound of the Manchester Camera Club, their website was inviting, professional and delivered an exciting pitch for potential new members. I will carry on looking for more to see what is out there!

Independent Project Ideas

I've always been interested in the Japanese fashion Lolita because of its quirky, striking, bold style that draws massive attention. I've done some work exploring this fashion before as I have a friend who used to dress in that way and through her I've met a lot more people who are interested in this fashion. I've had the idea for a long time to do a shoot with a Lolita dresser and a small child, the idea is for the child to take control of the life of the Lolita dresser whilst the Lolita dresser is posing as the child's doll. The fashion is very doll like in the sense that it's big, puffy, frilly, bright and full of big bows, magical shapes and varied textures. I can picture the sort of things I want in my mind but have never got round to producing them. The series of images will portray the daily life of the little girl and her relationship with the doll, the doll will be bigger than the little girl so the images will seem bizarre that the little girl is the one in control. This project is something that I will take up after leaving uni so my vision will come alive!

Building My List Of Contacts

I'm a very approachable and friendly person who meets new people every time I leave the house. I make friends in the supermarket, on the bus, and even in the queue at the bank so it's no surprise that I've got many contacts from university. The place where I meet the most people is in our Students Union Bar, Bar Yours, this is where I spend a lot of my free time because I love the atmosphere, the uni experience and meeting and talking to new people. I've got contacts with at least one person from every walk of university life, from the cricket team to the LGBT, I know a lot of people! I try my best to stay in contact with everyone I meet because I enjoy talking to people, I like keeping friendships alive and like I've previously mentioned, you never know who could help you out in the future. I will carry on building this list of contacts and maintaining my friendships that I have with people!

Finding The Right Blogging Site

I'm experienced with Blogger ad would feel most comfortable using this site to create my personal blog on but I want to see what else is out there to see if it would show my work and myself better than blogger can. I've created a Tumblr account and began messing around with it to see what it can do, so far I'm impressed and its looking like this might be a winner! I will still carry on and create accounts with other blogging sites to keep my opportunities open.

Being Confident In My Own Work

I'm going to pick out some of my work that I'm not too sure about and ask people what they think, I will begin by asking my housemates, family and friends and see if their opinions are too biased, if they are I'll think about putting my work online onto forums for group discussion.

Photography Around The World - Income

I have first thought of the places that I might want to start a photography career in, the places that I'm interested in are the US, Spain, and France but since I don't know what area of photography I'd like to work in I've researched a variety of them.

There are some interesting revelations in the data. First, the average American photographer makes an annual wage of $36,330 (median $28,490). There are 56,140 Americans employed, either part- or full-time, as photographers. However, there are only 3,860 photographers employed by Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers, making an average wage of $41,150. You can also see maps that breakdown wages and employment by state and other geographical areas. The three highest paying metropolitan areas for photographers are San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Hartford, Conn. The three nonmetropolitan areas with highest employment of photographers are an area of Ohio called “Other Ohio nonmetropolitan area” (not where OU is), “Western Central North Carolina nonmetropolitan area,” and “Northeast Mississippi nonmetropolitan area.”

The image below is a table showing the average salaries for jobs in Spain. 

Photography Equipment

Depending on what I want to do when I leave uni and how much money I'm earning I might want to buy my own photography equipment as the only thing I have now is an SLR. I've found out that I can use the uni's facilities and resources for up to 3 years after I leave so this includes the library and the studios which will be very helpful in aiding my knowledge and experience in the studio and building my contextual studies for the subject, hanging around uni after I leave will also open the opportunity to meet new people and different generations of photographers, graphic designers, scientists, fashion designers and musicians. After my 3 years is up and I can no longer use university I might need my own equipment so hopefully by then I'll know exactly what I want to do and know what equipment and resources I'll need to do them!

Reading List - Dominic Rouse

-Contemporary digital photographer from England.
-He creates digital monochrome compositions.
-His images deconstruct and reconstruct the human form.

I'm a huge fan of magical, fairytale style photography because it allows us to feel like we're entering a new world, well it makes me feel that way anyway. I've always had an interest in this genre, I grew up watching films like The 10th Kingdom, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Labrynth, these are my favourite films. As soon as I saw Rouse's work it reminded me of the film Labrynth because of the strange looking characters and detailed backgrounds in the images. The monotone element of these images add to the fairytale vibe because the detail plays a big part in reminding me of fairytales and the monotones allow focus to be held on that detail. I like this work and will be experimenting with digtial monotone compositions myself in the future.

Updated PDP

I've added to my original PDP by thinking of more goals I want to achieve and updating the ones I've already achieved or are int he process of achieving.

I've added 6 more goals and have left room for 1 more. Firstly I'm going to get a part time job in any field, well that's the ideal goal, I could settle for a short term full time job. As I've previously mentioned this job would be there to gain experience in the working environment as well as allow me to earn enough money to pursue a photography career. Being a photography doesn't start off easy, equipment, resources and printing are expensive and the pay from a photography job at the beginning can be very little so having extra money behind me would help a lot. 

Another added goal is for me to be more confident in myself and the work I produce. I've been called a perfectionist many times and this isn't always a good thing, yes it means my work will be as good as what it can be but it also means I take a long time to complete it and this isn't ideal when I've got deadlines. It's very rare that I would sit back and think 'wow this work is really good' when looking at my own work, I often have a very negative opinion on my work and am always short on thinking it's good enough for other people to see. When I do show my work to other people they reassure me that it's good and this makes me feel a little bit better and more confident. A few months ago me and some fellow peers put together an exhibition in the corn exchange, this built my confidence massively in terms of enjoying my own work because a lot of peers and members of the public praised the work For my confidence to build in my own work I'll have to believe people when they say it's good so I'll frequently ask for opinions and enter competitions to see if I win. I entered a competition in Media City along with all of my peers and other students and I won 2 categories in the competition, this gave me a massive confidence boost as I entered thinking I would have no chance. There is always a chance for disappointment when asking for opinions and entering competitions but if I get into the swing of just asking and just doing it all the time then the opinions and results will come back positive more than negative so when it's at that point then I will know my work is good. 

For each module we've been given in uni we've had to create a blog to show our research and development and I've really enjoyed the process, it's helped to improve how I analyse my work and the work of others because I've had to do it so many times, it's given my typing skills speed and precision and it's opened my eyes to a new way of displaying work and making myself known to the web. I want to create a personal blog for my work outside of uni and any inspirations that I might come across. I'm going to experiment working with different free blog sites such and Tumblr and Wordpress to see how they compare to Blogger and see which I would prefer to use.

Upon reflection of my uni life I've not taken up as many opportunities as I'd like to have. My CV doesn't represent that of an experienced opportunist and that is what employers want from people so I will need to add relevant things to my CV before leaving university. As uni is full of opportunities I can use this last week or so to get myself involved, even if it's just with small daily things like attending meetings, debates and clubs. 

Sometimes it's not about what you know it's about who you know and uni holds a variety of people that will grow up to become someone that can benefit my career later on in life so I will build my contacts around uni focusing on graphic design, photography, fashion, science and music because these are the fields that I'll more than likely enter into when I leave uni due to my interest I have for them. 

University gives me motivation, structure and drive to complete work but once I've left I need to make sure I keep those 3 elements so I carry on producing work to put in my portfolio. I'm going to research different photography groups and photography related groups that I cold potentially join after leaving uni and hopefully that will supply my with weekly meetings and deadlines to produce certain types of work. 

Reading List - Justine Kurland

-Fine art photographer based in New York.
-She went to Yale University where she studied along side Gregory Crewsdon and Philip-Lorca diCorcia.

The first thing I thought from her images were how eery they are, they're almost disturbing to look at because in many, the subjects are lying down, looking lifeless. It's the fact that some of the models in these images look dead when in reality I think they're not but this is the look Kurland wanted to capture. I particularly like the second image I've chosen to show in my blog because it captures a sense of personality and boredom, the child looks bored with the world yet interested in him toy train. I like the mystery and strangeness to these images but I don't enjoy the disturbed feeling from looking at people that are deeming lifeless. 

Giving Myself A Brand And An Identity

I'm not experienced in the field of creating brands and identities but I do have contacts with graphic design students that might be able to help me. I've emailed Adam Reeves, the graphic design student that I've previously been in contact with, he had previously agreed to helping me out with this part of my PDP but since the last module hand in we had lost touch. The email I've just sent now to re cap out relationship and plans is as follows: I will take what Adam said into consideration and answer the questions he's prompted for me to know in order to create the perfect brand for me.

Hi Adam, I'm creating my own brand and identity to promote myself and my photography work and I was just wondering whether you could give me some tips as to where I'm supposed to start? And what things do I need to consider?

His reply is:

Hi Toni, as somebody in this field who has self-branded myself too, you've asked the right person! The first thing to consider is yourself, what you're about, what kind of person you are, and making sure this is portrayed in your brand's visual identity, it wants to reflect your personality and speak in your voice. Consider colour psychology too, different colours say different things, red is loud and confident, blue is calm and innocent, while black is bold and secure, white is pure and friendly. Typography plays a massive part, certain type styles speak in different ways, slab-serifs are confident and fun and sans-serifs are modern, while script typefaces are soft and feminine and serifs are mature.

I will take what Adam said into consideration and answer the questions he's prompted for me to know in order to create the perfect brand for me.

What am I about?

I'm a young, fun loving individual who lives life to the full every single day. Happiness is the most important thing to me so I always make sure I have it. I know how to have fun but when I need to knuckle down and do work then I'm dedicated and motivated to do the best I can. I follow 2 motto's in life, "If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well." and the simple idiom "You only live once." I like quirky things that make me laugh or smile, I like simple things like seeing a rainbow after the sky has stopped raining on me, I enjoy meeting new people and talking to strangers, I'm interested in putting myself into the shoes of others to see how they see and experience the world. I like researching the lives that are rapidly different to mine and sharing their stories for them. I like to think I'm very head strong and decisive when I need to be. I'm a perfectionist who needs to make sure my work portrays the best of my ability.

I sent that paragraph to Adam to see what he thought of it and whether or not it would help me in visually branding myself. This is what he said:

Judging by your cheerful, happy, positive outlook on life, this could be put across in your brand by bright colours such as yellow, lime green, orange. And light-hearted and more creative typography could be more appropriate than a serious and stern font.

I then mentioned the idea of using the hop part in my name Hopley as a way to focus my brand. My idea is to use rabbits in my logo and on my business card and highlight the 'hop' in Hopley, Adam said this was a really good idea and that when they're told to create a brand for themselves then the first thing they should do is look to see if they can use their name in any way because it's a really good way to be remembered. I told him I'd start designing logos to them send to him so he can help me convert them to an online visual then potentially use it as a final logo.

Tips On How To Present Myself To People

During one of the uni sessions about further education after uni I picked up some good tips on how to present myself to possible clients, businesses and basically anyone in the professional world and tips for general life after uni. 

-Show your face, make yourself known so potential future meetings will feel more comfortable and familiar. 

-Go to other people's end of year shows and ask questions to make it look like you're interested in them and to show your face and get yourself known by people in the business or who might be in the business in the future. 

-Take a couple of years out of doing photography because when it comes to the time when you pick it up again you'll put that little bit more effort into it and enjoy it more. 

-Keep updating your reading list.

-Keep going to exhibitions.

Elevator Pitches

Elevator pitches are a short summary describing who, what, why and how a certain thing does what it does. In terms of the elevator pitches I've been practicing, they've been about me and my work. I attended an elevator pitch session in uni where we all sat face to face on another with a table separating us, we had goes and turns to say our pitch to each other whilst being timed 1 minute for the first time and 3 minutes for the second time. We swapped seats each time to give us chance to speak to a range of people as opposed to getting comfortable talking to the same person over and over.

I found that when I began talking I'd get straight to the point of what I wanted to say and miss out a lot of details, sometimes the details would have been useful to share but most of the time they could have been skipped. I spoke really quick and kind of messed up my words a little at first, this was due to the pressure of the timer going off, I felt like it was going to cut my speech short at any second. I did however feel a lot more comfortable doing my pitch the second time because we had more time so I could relax and not rush it however I did find myself finished the pitch extremely early and I'd ran out of stuff to say so I would say that my desired elevator pitch time would be 1 minute because after a quick practice I was able to deliver a clear, understandable, quick pitch to carry out the information about me and my work to the opposing peer.

I found this session extremely useful as I've now learn how to control what I'm saying at a speed in which the other person can follow and I've learnt to narrow down what I'm saying so I'm just revealing the most important factors which eliminates any boredom that might come from dragging my sentences on for ages and ages talking about irrelevant things.

Where I'm Up To Now

I feel as though I have reached some of the goals from my first PDP, this however doesn't mean I'm going to stop working at them. One of the things I feel as though I've accomplished greatly is my confidence when standing and talking in front of a group. I've attended presentation sessions and have worked at getting my voice heard when surrounded by a lot of people, I've contributed to group sessions, gave my opinion and answers questions. I feel much more confident than what I did a few months ago. I will continue to build this confidence and hopefully there will be a time when I don't feel nervous about approaching a crowd, I feel excited instead.

I set out to have a wider Photoshop skill range by June 2014, this is something that I haven't worked on as much as I could have due to other commitments to do with university, I am however going to knuckle down with some Photoshop tutorials and ask people who I know have knowledge on the subject, for help because not only do I need to know these skills for later in life, I need to know them for my Final Major Project work before the deadline on the 9th of May. I haven't given up on this goal, I've just slowed down the process to achievement, I have been watching online tutorials every now and again to learn new techniques and I've been asking a friend of mine how to do certain things on the software which I have found to be a massive help when working on my FMP. I will continue to watch online tutorials and ask peers for help until I've built a confident enough list in my head of how to do a range of interesting things on Photoshop that I never knew how to do before.

One of my big goals was to become confident when working with lighting, set up and other equipment in the studio because how it stood, I was confident with nothing. I've not yet been into the studio to try out new things but I have been reading up on how to do certain things with different lights and reflectors and I've been in the studio twice to watch other people shooting. I am going to get a group together in uni and set up a date when we can all go in the studio to experiment with everything the uni can offer, hopefully this will become a regular thing once I've left university and I'll keep gaining studio knowledge. I've been slow to pick up on this because working in the studio doesn't interest me, I prefer to work elsewhere such as outdoors or upon location. I enjoy natural light as opposed to artificial for the pure fact that it's easier to work with and it usually fits better with what I'm photographing as my shoots often involve strangers or things on location, capturing them in their natural environment. Even though I don't enjoy working in the studio I would like to be in the know when it comes to it because I don't know what the future holds for me in terms of photography so I might need these skills later on and since university has the resources for me to learn them then I will take advantage of that and meet this goal.

I have looked at the general income for various photography jobs in the UK so I am now confident that I'd be able to charge amounts that are fair and understandable if I were to complete a job for someone or be asked how much I charge for a specific job. I was told by a tutor that it can be much easier and better paid to do photography jobs in different countries than the UK because here the industry is massive and hard to get in to. I've updated the goal to learn about the incomes of photography jobs to learning the incomes for photography jobs in different countries and finding out where the jobs is popular and not so popular so I know the potentially best place to start a career in photography would be.

Throughout the last PDP module and this current one I've been looking at and researching different artists and photographers and have definitely gained a wider knowledge on who's out there. To develop my goal I want to always know when the current photographers are, I want to know what's big at that time, what's trendy and 'in', to do this I will become part of social network sites and read articles weekly to find out what is new. As well as this I'm going to look at the work of relating practitioners such as graphic designers and fashion designers, scientists and musicians because these are where most of my influences come from when doing my photography work. Whilst researching all of those things I will continue to learn the names and work of photographers old and new and popular and almost unknown.

I'm happy with my current designs and layouts of the two CV's that I've currently designed but I recently saw a friend post his creative CV on Facebook and it gave me some ideas on how to improve my own so I will look back at them and edit what I think will make them better.

Before my end of year show, displaying the final outcome for my Negotiated Major Project, I intend on having a brand and identity for me and my photography work, this identity will fuel the design of my business cards, website design, twitter design and potentially a Facebook 'like' page for my work to be displayed on. I will collaborate with the graphic design students to produce my desired outcome and with their help my identity will be brought to life!

I've added 3 new goals to my PDP, one is to be more confident with my work, one is to get a part time job in any field and the other is to set up my own personal blog.

Adding to my PDP

I'm going to carry on adding to my PDP so I can keep achieving the goals that I've always wanted to reach. There are many things that I used to want and many different things that I want now so my goals are always changing. More goals that I now want to reach are to find a part time or a full time job to gain enough money to find my own home after finishing university and to raise enough money to potentially kick start a photography career. I would also like to be more confident in my own work, I am extremely passionate when completing a project or series of images but afterwards I lack in the confidence I need to 'show off' my work to others. I have a problem with accepting when I've done something good so hopefully by entering my work into competitions and asking peers and unbiased people for feedback on my work I will slowly learn that my work is good and I can make it in the industry! I know that I have many more goals that are waiting to be achieved but I don't quite know what they are so I will add those to onto my PDP and get working on them right away while I wait for the others to come in thought! I'm going to carry on trying to achieve the previous goals that I haven't yet reached as well as adding more onto my plan. My biggest objective to me is to make myself more known in the industry by networking so I will definitely be working on that and will have my name flying about in no time!