My Final PDP

I've actually enjoyed planning the future and have found that this module has helped me get started with what I needed to do, without all of this planning and thinking about the future I'd still be confused and in the dark with what I wanted to do. I will work hard and continue to reach my goals to ensure I make the most out of my abilities and resources at that time.

Networking - Business Cards Developed Idea

When creating a Behance online portfolio account it asked me for a web address name, tonihopleyphotography was too long so I was thinking of shortening it to tophopphotography instead, this brought me back to an idea I had when designing my photography website for a university module, my idea was to brand myself mentioning 'hop' and include rabbits to support the name, the connection between 'hop', rabbits and my second name Hopley fits well and comes together to form a strong memorable brand.

I've decided not to go ahead with creating this brand until I've spoke to my tutors and peers about it. But as of now I have an idea for my business cards to be in the shape of a rabbit. I will mention this new idea to Adam Reeves, my graphic designer to see what he thinks!

Networking - Twitter Account Progress

My Twitter account so far:

Once I get myself set up with online portfolios and have work to display I'll update this account to become a place thriving with inspiration, photography news and great opportunities. I've 'followed' lots of photography pages, local news and Manchester events/places so I can get information on things happening close to me!

Networking - Business Cards

I had a conversation over Facebook with Adam Reeves, a graphics student at the University of Salford, the copied and pasted conversation is as follows:

Me: Hi Adam I was wondering whether you'd be interested in helping me design some business cards to promote my photography?

Adam: Hi Toni! Yeah sure, I've got a few deadlines coming up right now though, when do you need them by?

Me: Oh no problem, there's no rush, any time you're free for a chat about it, let me know!

Adam: Sure! Send me a description of what you want and I'll see what I can do!

Me: Thanks, I would like this picture to be in the background (I sent him the chosen image) and I want this text: 'Toni Hopley Photography' to go under my chin in the image and under that I want 'tonihopley@hotmail.com'. I want the text in white and to be an average sized font. I will add more details to the card later on when I create a website and/or online portfolio.

I'd like a patterned cut out within my card as well. I'll mock up a design of the pattern I want and send it to you later on.

Does this sound ok for now? Thanks!

Adam: Yeah I'll be able to do that for you, you can come down to the mac room in Allerton building on Friday after 3 if you want? I'd have handed in then and we can go through exactly what you want and produce some mock up cards.

Me: Ahh right, I have an exhibition that actually starts at 3 that day at the Corn Exchange in Manchester and I'm not sure how long it'll last, how are you for Monday?

Adam: Monday will be fine, we can arrange time and place nearer to the time. Good luck with your exhibition!

Grabbing Opportunities - Exhibition

The Corn Exchange Exhibition has nothing to do with the University of Salford, it's a completely independent exhibition run and created by my peers and I.

I'm able to submit up to 6 images to be displayed of any size. I've thought long and hard about what I want to show and narrowed it down to these 4 images.

I'm thinking of titling this small selection of work 'Mind Matters'. The reasoning for his body of work is based around the problems the human mind might have to tackle at some point in our lives.

I don't like to base my work around the cliché topics although admittedly with this body of work It could seem I have done, purely due to the immense impact that these matters had upon my life at that time, there was no escaping them. 

We all at one point in our lives go through tough times and have to find ways to deal with them whether we tackle them in silence or with a bit of help, I for one don't like to share my feelings verbally, I find it much easier to express them through imagery as it's more comfortable in the way that I can hide behind the work.
When I was leaving college and my little brother was starting high school I noticed a lot of changes within the way the youth of that generation were acting, they seemed a lot more 'grown up' than what I did when I was their age so I started looking into the reasons why. Media is obviously a massive influence on the children of today because it's everywhere we look, models, celebrities, fashion and make-up are thrown into the vulnerable faces of these kids everyday leading towards them developing pre-mature traits such as excessive make-up wear, exposing fashion, bad language and more serious matters such as depression, anxiety and anorexia. I realized at the time I was showing signs of these problems within society, I was becoming the subject of my own work due to personal reasons so I stopped looking at how media and comparisons with other people were effecting the youth of today and looked at how it was effecting myself. The first and last images shown above express some of these problems.
The other two images are more about the 'keeping things locked away inside your mind' part of the project. When we feel stressed or down, we try to find things to help them feelings out and make us feel better, for a lot of us we cling to some form of 'escape' whether it be music, writing, sitting in your shed...Most of us have that 'special place' that only we go to. The third image expresses my 'special place', whenever I feel down, stressed or like I need to get away for a few minutes I think about the times that my granddad used to take me, my brother and my cousin to what seemed to be a 'magical place', when we were younger. It was a forest full of blue bells and other exotic flowers, there were mushrooms growing, butterflies everywhere an long grass you could hide away in. I don't know where this place is yet it's my favourite place in the world.
The second image is less of a personal expression yet still something close to my experiences so far. It's based around child abuse and not being able to speak up to get help, it's a very serious matter so I wanted to express it in less of a shocking, disturbing way and more of a comfortable yet still gripping manner. The beads play on the childlike aspect of it and the spelling of 'Shh' help in place by my mouth is often misread as 'Hi', I purposely did this to symbolize the secretive aspect based around this whole topic, most of the children going through this sort of thing hide it, hence the 'Hi' hiding the 'Shh'.

Grabbing Opportunities - Competitions

I've been looking at lots of photography competitions, ideally trying to find free entry or student ones, here are some of what I found, most have a submission charge so I won't be entering them yet they're useful to know about in case I want to submit in the future.

http://bigpicturecompetition.org/
Enter your images into the BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition by March 31 2014 for your chance to win a share of the $20000 in cash and prizes. Your $25 entry fee permits you to enter up to 10 images into the competition. Presented by the California Academy of Sciences. Our vision is to engage and inspire the global community to become stewards of the natural world through compelling conservation imagery.

http://www.onemillionphotographers.com/about/how-it-works/
onemillionphotographers is both an on-going project to create the world’s largest online photographic image gallery and a real-time photography competition. Submit your work in any of the eight image categories and have your photography showcased in its own permanent Gallery space, identifiable by unique location coordinates.  Your image can then score points in the competition and earn you money from downloads.

http://www.life-framer.com/
Life Framer is a non-profit driven photography competition designed to source and showcase outstanding photography from amateur, emerging and established photographers. Our aim is to bring exposure to talented photographers from all over the world: your talent, your vision, your life. Every month we make a call to arms to the global photographic community to respond to a theme. In it for you is the chance to be exhibited in our end-of-year exhibition, as well as some amazing prizes along the way.

http://shoottheland.com/Shoot The Land is an exciting new monthly photography contest that is designed to inspire, recognise, expose, and reward talented photographers around the globe. This contest gives all photographers a purpose to create powerful landscape photography, as well as a regular deadline to work towards.

http://www.emergingartistaward.com/This competition is open to entrants above 18. Participants are requested to submit an exhibition project which consists of a series of artwork using the media of their choice or a combination of media and support. The subject should express a contemporary issue or an original concept and should be preferably executed using innovative technique of production. The participant should explain how the work proposed is original as well as the concept behind it. It should reveal the universe of the artist, the inspiration and imagination which make the project personal and unique. This series should preferably have not been exhibited or little before to preserve its emerging characteristic.
http://natgeotraveller.co.uk/2014/competitions/photography
We’re once again on the the lookout for your vision of the world through a lens. Last year we received thousands of UK entries and were truly impressed at the incredibly high standard of submissions. This year we’re back with more great prizes, new judges and fresh categories. Tour the site, see the existing entries, and then get snapping!

Grabbing Opportunities

University presents us with lots of opportunities that we won't get so easily once we've left and are living in the 'real world' yet unfortunately  don't feel as though, so far, I've abused these chances. The third year of uni has made me realise that I need to take advantage of the time I have left so after my two years of fun and enjoying uni life, I'm now putting time into the serious academic side.

Photography competitions are a great way to get yourself known and used to the market yet my knowledge on what competitions I can enter is very low, I will change this and research what offers are available to me and be confident enough to enter my own work to some if not only for the experience.

I've heard off of my peers that there will be a photography exhibition being held in The Corn Exchange on Friday the 13th of December, I've decided to take up the challenge and agree to have my work shown at the exhibition even though it was a risky move because I'll only have 6 days to find images to submit, prepare my space and write a short information sheet on my chosen images. I am very nervous and have no idea what to expect, it's my first time doing anything like this but I'm excited for the challenge!