This is my entry for my 2015 work experience of what i have gained in knowledge and experience during this period of time.
For the duration of my work experience my weeks were spent at my part time job at Kodak Express at a shop called Parkers Photographic, During this experience i am going to relay the responsibilities of; constructing a canvas, printing poster prints, product photography, expanding our business globally with the responsibility of managing the promotion of the business and repairing old camera's.
I also managed to have the oppurtunity and the pleasure of meeting a well known photographer David Freeman and work with him on a studio/location session with a Miss Hampshire finalist.
At Parkers Photographic I was given the responsibility of managing customers orders and fullfilling tasks not normally given to me on a daily basis, and this was because of my promotion. One of my first jobs was a restoration for an elderly woman who recently lost her husband, unfortunately the image was of poor quality and i had to restore it before printing the canvas and mounting it. The restoration took 3 days to complete due to the poor condition it was in, once completing this restoration i progressed to the printing and laminating of the canvas print. The laminate is a liquid which is applied by rolling it on manually, this has to be done carefully otherwise it will leave noticeable streaks on the final piece. After applying the UV protection layer onto the canvas print it has to be left to settle and dry completely overnight. Once this was dried completely i had to begin the construction process, i had to make sure i had all the correct equipment to begin with which consisted of;
- Staple gun
- 4 Canvas bars
- Hammer
- Screw driver
- 8 Wood picks
- Duct tape
To begin the construction process i had to build the frame and make sure it had a right angle on each corner, after this was done i alligned the print to the four corners of the canvas and made sure it was even and straight.
The next stage is to stick four staples in the wood and the canvas to make sure the canvas does not move from allignment, however whilst placing each staple you have to stretch the canvas over the bar to make it tight so it does not sag in the middle.
After these four staples comes the most difficult and important part of the canvas process, the corners. When making the corners you have to stretch and make them at the same time. The corners have three folds and have to have the final outcome of being a square so nothing is showing when you look at it from the front, and the edges have to be sharp as well. When securing the corners you have to make sure you avoid the centre of them where the two pieces of wood connect, this is because when you do the final stretch of the canvas the staples may spring out.
Once all the coners are secured and in place with two staples each we can start securing the four sides more with a couple more staples on each beam. we start to stretch it out with the wooden pegs, once this is done you tap the front and if it sounds like a drum then you know you have done it correctly.
During my work experience period at Parkers, i had many canvas orders of a wide variety of sizes, this made it more challenging and more enjoyable.
As well as having active constructive jobs i also had the chance to manage the sales over seas and organise our online shop for the chance of other countries to buy our merchandise. This meant that i had to do some still life product photography in the studio and do some post production work, checking the levels are all correct with the correct exposure. After uploading all the images i had to write a detailed description listing any damage on the secand hand items or just a general description of what is was, what make and how old roughly.
When the day started i had to check the online shop if we had any buys, and if we did i had to print the receipt, check the paypal, and find the object in question package it and wait for the UPS delivery service to come and collect them and take it off the online shop. This gave me the chance to learn about online trading and promotion of a business by managing the website and the online shop for trading, and learning about all the responsibilites on how to maintain a business nowadays as nearly everything is online now.
As well as managaing the online sales, i have now been given the responsibility of opening the shop and running it myself when my manager has his days off.
This part of my work experience was very enjoyable and it gave me the chance to learn about the business world and how to make a successful profit on not only brand new equipment but second hand ones as well. It has given me the oppurtunity to be able to manage a business and have such a big responsibility in the real world not only as a photographer but also to deal with customers.
My second oppurtunity of work experience was with a well known photographer called David Freeman, in New Milton.
I emailed a photographer i have followed since college, a couple of months ago i was wondering if he wanted some assistance on some new work he is producing to do with Miss Hampshire.
Out of the blue i got a phone call from him asking if i wanted to help him do some portfolio work or a Miss Hampshire finalist.
After accepting his offer he asked me my interest in photography and what equipment i owned and then he kindly offered if i wanted to bring my camera and my favourite lens to see how i work with models and what my signature trait is for a final image, he also wanted to get the chance to look at my portfolio.
After arriving at his home built studio he asked me to set up the lights to see if i knew what i was doing and to see if i did it correctly.
I first set up a grey background and had a soft box for the main fill light and a umbreall for the secondary light. Instead of working with a trigger he worked from a trigger wire connected to the umbrella as that was the main flash light.
After he had taken some shots of the model he gave me the chance to work with her for 30 minutes to see how i worked and what images i had taken in comparison to his own work.
After we were both happy with the studio images we went on location using natural lighting in New Milton on the beach by the Beach huts.
I learned a lot from David Freeman; how he works and how he communicates with his models when trying to capture the natural image instead of a obviously staged image which is what i liked about his work from the very beginning.
After the day had ended and when i arrived home i received another phone call saying how he loved how i worked, my outcomes from the day and offered me a job to work with him over the summer!
For the duration of my work experience my weeks were spent at my part time job at Kodak Express at a shop called Parkers Photographic, During this experience i am going to relay the responsibilities of; constructing a canvas, printing poster prints, product photography, expanding our business globally with the responsibility of managing the promotion of the business and repairing old camera's.
I also managed to have the oppurtunity and the pleasure of meeting a well known photographer David Freeman and work with him on a studio/location session with a Miss Hampshire finalist.
At Parkers Photographic I was given the responsibility of managing customers orders and fullfilling tasks not normally given to me on a daily basis, and this was because of my promotion. One of my first jobs was a restoration for an elderly woman who recently lost her husband, unfortunately the image was of poor quality and i had to restore it before printing the canvas and mounting it. The restoration took 3 days to complete due to the poor condition it was in, once completing this restoration i progressed to the printing and laminating of the canvas print. The laminate is a liquid which is applied by rolling it on manually, this has to be done carefully otherwise it will leave noticeable streaks on the final piece. After applying the UV protection layer onto the canvas print it has to be left to settle and dry completely overnight. Once this was dried completely i had to begin the construction process, i had to make sure i had all the correct equipment to begin with which consisted of;
- Staple gun
- 4 Canvas bars
- Hammer
- Screw driver
- 8 Wood picks
- Duct tape
To begin the construction process i had to build the frame and make sure it had a right angle on each corner, after this was done i alligned the print to the four corners of the canvas and made sure it was even and straight.
The next stage is to stick four staples in the wood and the canvas to make sure the canvas does not move from allignment, however whilst placing each staple you have to stretch the canvas over the bar to make it tight so it does not sag in the middle.
After these four staples comes the most difficult and important part of the canvas process, the corners. When making the corners you have to stretch and make them at the same time. The corners have three folds and have to have the final outcome of being a square so nothing is showing when you look at it from the front, and the edges have to be sharp as well. When securing the corners you have to make sure you avoid the centre of them where the two pieces of wood connect, this is because when you do the final stretch of the canvas the staples may spring out.
Once all the coners are secured and in place with two staples each we can start securing the four sides more with a couple more staples on each beam. we start to stretch it out with the wooden pegs, once this is done you tap the front and if it sounds like a drum then you know you have done it correctly.
During my work experience period at Parkers, i had many canvas orders of a wide variety of sizes, this made it more challenging and more enjoyable.
As well as having active constructive jobs i also had the chance to manage the sales over seas and organise our online shop for the chance of other countries to buy our merchandise. This meant that i had to do some still life product photography in the studio and do some post production work, checking the levels are all correct with the correct exposure. After uploading all the images i had to write a detailed description listing any damage on the secand hand items or just a general description of what is was, what make and how old roughly.
When the day started i had to check the online shop if we had any buys, and if we did i had to print the receipt, check the paypal, and find the object in question package it and wait for the UPS delivery service to come and collect them and take it off the online shop. This gave me the chance to learn about online trading and promotion of a business by managing the website and the online shop for trading, and learning about all the responsibilites on how to maintain a business nowadays as nearly everything is online now.
As well as managaing the online sales, i have now been given the responsibility of opening the shop and running it myself when my manager has his days off.
This part of my work experience was very enjoyable and it gave me the chance to learn about the business world and how to make a successful profit on not only brand new equipment but second hand ones as well. It has given me the oppurtunity to be able to manage a business and have such a big responsibility in the real world not only as a photographer but also to deal with customers.
My second oppurtunity of work experience was with a well known photographer called David Freeman, in New Milton.
I emailed a photographer i have followed since college, a couple of months ago i was wondering if he wanted some assistance on some new work he is producing to do with Miss Hampshire.
Out of the blue i got a phone call from him asking if i wanted to help him do some portfolio work or a Miss Hampshire finalist.
After accepting his offer he asked me my interest in photography and what equipment i owned and then he kindly offered if i wanted to bring my camera and my favourite lens to see how i work with models and what my signature trait is for a final image, he also wanted to get the chance to look at my portfolio.
After arriving at his home built studio he asked me to set up the lights to see if i knew what i was doing and to see if i did it correctly.
I first set up a grey background and had a soft box for the main fill light and a umbreall for the secondary light. Instead of working with a trigger he worked from a trigger wire connected to the umbrella as that was the main flash light.
After he had taken some shots of the model he gave me the chance to work with her for 30 minutes to see how i worked and what images i had taken in comparison to his own work.
After we were both happy with the studio images we went on location using natural lighting in New Milton on the beach by the Beach huts.
I learned a lot from David Freeman; how he works and how he communicates with his models when trying to capture the natural image instead of a obviously staged image which is what i liked about his work from the very beginning.
After the day had ended and when i arrived home i received another phone call saying how he loved how i worked, my outcomes from the day and offered me a job to work with him over the summer!