Shattered, but enjoyed the opening night and a well deserved beer afterwards! Which also marks the end of a course. It’s been a lot harder work than I think any of us envisaged. But despite the long evenings, weekend shoots and stress to hit deadlines I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve made some good friends, tried many different types of photography, learned a lot of different techniques and feel that I am a much better photographer for it.
Here is my final exhibition video:
Final video is put together. Bracket is ready. Business cards are on the way. Just need to go to the LPPG on Monday 16th to get it on the wall. Really pleased and relieved it’s all done. Looking forward to people’s reactions on opening night, 18th June. I’m sure I’ll enjoy discussing the project with anyone that will listen as well!
It’s a cliche but it’s been a long journey with lots if ups and downs. Plenty of stress, hitting deadlines, leaving my camera shooting for 8 hours & hoping it’s going to come out and working out narrative to bring my sequences together. Plenty of lost evenings and weekends, keeping this blog up to date as well as researching and writing a 2000 word essay with the same deadline. Plus on top of that a group exhibition to organise, with no real leadership. Only promoting and direction from lecturers. The group is all pretty equal, so there was no outstanding ‘manager’ to delegate jobs.
Being a bit of a geek I got into photography more for the kit as well as the quality of the images. Although I have definitely improved as a photographer over the two year course I feel I am still weak on the creative side. I’ve struggled with the open ended ‘self negotiated’ projects. I chose time-lapse because I had been fascinated by the results from my Pride and Prejudice project. I did contact sporting venues about access for crowds coming into and out of grounds, without luck. I would have liked to look at bigger grander sequences, but with a full time job, time and security of my equipment were always issues. So my project ended up being about me and what I did in my time. I am very pleased with what I have produced, but after 2 years studying as a photographer I feel I’d maybe be better with prints on the wall than a video.
So, what next? A rest from photography and so much studying. Get back to taking photo’s because I enjoy it, not because I need to. I will still update my blog, but not in so much detail and without deadlines. If I get a spare hour or so. I’ll put some posts on, if not it’s not the end of the world. I’m not going to push Starmead photography for the near future. If something comes up I’ll definitely consider it. But I’m just happy with a break for the moment. However, in the future I would like to do some weekend or evening work to pay for kit and my HNC investment.
My wife and I are expecting our first child in September. No doubt the camera will be out. If my wife meets other Mums at groups there may also be opportunity for some work photographing other babies!
The majority of the group has been looking at getting prints done for the exhibition. I will displaying a video, so need some sort of TV or projector. I discussed this with my lecturers last Wednesday. Here are the options that we discussed:
Projector:
The college could lend me a projector, but I felt this would be awkward. If I forward projected I would need to have the projector on a stand or suspended from the ceiling. Suspending from the ceiling definitely wasn’t an option and I just felt that a stand would get in the way of people at the exhibition. Along with the health and safety problems of cables running on the floor. I could possibly back project onto something, but this would need a substantial ‘booth’ putting together to keep all of the equipment safe.
Hire a TV:
I could hire a TV with a USB socket for two weeks, but this would be expensive, plus insurance may be an option with it being in a public gallery.
Borrow an iMac from college:
I liked this option, it would give me great control over the video playback and operating times. i.e. getting the iMac to shut down and startup at specific times. I would need to make it safe though.
I work for a company called Impact Air Systems where I am a draughtsman for sheet metal fabrication. I used my lunch break to design a bracket, which I could then get fabricated by our sister company Impact Ducting Sales.
I needed something that I could screw to the wall of the gallery, would be substantial enough to carry a 21.5″ iMac, had a hole to loop the security cable through, didn’t have any sharp edges and be able to carry business cards.
I went for a two part design, the back section could be marked, drilled and fixed on it’s own. The iMac then sat in. The front cover could then be bolted on. As well as the security cable, this would secure the iMac onto the bracket and provide a pocked for business cards.
I used the 3D CAD software, Solidworks, that I use every day for my job to model an iMac, a wall and my 2 piece bracket. Here is a screen shot:
Here are the fabrication drawings that I did (PDF): IMAC BRACKET top IMAC BRACKET
Here is a photo of the bracket, with iMac, sat on a table, all fits nicely, the galvanised steel finish goes well with the iMac colour scheme:
Starmead Photography 