April 2nd 17:54
- Looked into possible FYP ideas that would work best with my personality. Decided I would be better at still photography rather than filming therefore decided to base my FYP around this.
April 9th 12:20
- Reflecting on U-Doc and U-Drama to what were my weaknesses and strengths in my projects, which could then reflect upon my FYP.
- Decided I work fairly well on my own, so have gone for setting up my own photography business, yet unsure which type of photography to base my company around.
- Downloaded all the PDF files on the Learning Network that I would benefit from
April 16th 21:36
- Decided on specialising in Wedding photography.
- Looked at photographers such as Jess Ascough and Darren Hull http://www.jeffascough.com/, http://www.darrenhullstudios.com/album/engagement?p=1&s=UA-251469-13#25
April 23rd 13:13
- Decided that I need something other than just Wedding photography to make a successful business. Spoke with Karin and chose to have a ‘Special Event’ Photography company, yet specialising in Weddings, Christenings, and New Borns.
- After this decision, I started by looking at more inspiring photographers, as well as photographers in my area which could be seen as competition.
- For the New Born photography, I was hugely inspired by Marina Murray. http://www.sweetbambini.co.uk/index.php I loved how her photos were so beautifully framed and presented.
- Created my Yola Site for my FYP.
April 30th 19:47
- Deciding on a Photography name. Wanted the name to represent beauty or memory; however I had the problem of finding something that hadn’t already been copyrighted. Therefore, I thought I would just call my company Natalie Elizabeth Photography.
May 7th 14:00
- Spoken with Kayleigh Carter and Jamie Blanshard on their successful FYP’s and spoke about advice they can give me.
- Creating Logo designs for my company name.
May 14th 11:38
- Working on my Yola site and building my Secondary research page applying all the photographers I have looked at so far and why I have been influenced by them.
May 21st 16:24
- Continue on building Secondary research, yet this time researching into different photography associations that are relevant to my style of photography.
- Looked at Wedding Photojournalist Association, Society of Wedding and Portraits Photographers and the Master Photographers Association
May 28th 18:32
- Continue looking at associations and signing up to relevant ones.
- Getting feedback on my logo designs
June 4th 12:29
- Contacting professionals in my type of business. Spoke with a woman call Kelty from Steep Street photography about her style of photography and any advice she can give me. Thinking about a possible USP.
- Putting together my primary research page.
- Created a Survey on surveymonkey.com asking the public about what they prefer in wedding and christening photography.
June 11th
- Holiday
June 18th 17:45
- Prom Shoot on the 21st. The shoot went really well, client had a quick look at the un-edited images and was really pleased.
- This shoot was mainly to get to grips with the manual settings of my new recent purchase, Canon 600D. To make sure I got the practise I needed, as well as getting successful images, I kept switching between manual and automatic. However, by the end of the shoot I found myself using manual quite a lot.
June 25th 14:56
- Edited prom photos and put onto a CD for my client. Client was so pleased with my photos and printed some of the images for canvas. Next time to make a profit, I feel I should of offered this service at a small price.
July 2nd 21:03
- Following the shoot, I wanted to read more about the manual settings of a camera. Therefore I downloaded some PDF’s from the learning network and started to read through the aperture and shutter speed articles.
- I wanted to put what I have read into practise so I went to my local country park and took some slow motion shots of the waterfall flowing through the rocks. I was really pleased with how these photos came out, although it took me a while to get the camera settings correct!
July 9th 15:25
- Read a PDF on ISO as some shoots will be in low light conditions and I needed to be careful of grain. From reading this article it also taught me how to adjust my ISO in Photoshops RAW editor encase I used to wrong ISO in the camera.
- After reading these articles, I wanted to talk about what I learnt most and put it onto my Technical Practise tab on my research website. Therefore, that if I got confused about something, I could easily locate it on my website. I talked about the main things that I felt were most important such as depth of field, aperture, rule of thirds, ISO and exposure.
July 16th 10:12
- Looking back at my previous photography, I tend to follow the rule of thirds as I care a lot about the composition of my image. I also noticed that with my photography, I like having even space aside of the focal point and the message within my photography to be clear. I then looked into photography practitioners such as Martin Parr and Henri Cartier-Bresson as their photojournalistic style of photography expressed culture very clearly and represented it in its true form. As with my photography, I want to capture the true emotions of that moment on camera.
- Read these two books: Photojournalism The World's Greatest News Photographers, Magnum Magnum
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July 23rd 22:49
- Style of photography decided
- After looking at Martin Parr, Henri Cartier-Bresson and other photojournalists, as well as speaking to the general public, I decided that this type of photography would be best for my business. By using a photojournalistic style, I would be able to capture the natural emotion of the event, as well as creating memories for people that they may have forgotten. It also allows me to make little interruption throughout the day, whether it’s a wedding or christening. However, when it comes to my New Born photography, this will be a more pre-mediated style of photography, as I just want to capture the baby in its natural beauty, making the baby the only focus of the image.
July 30th 14:32
- My company covers all type of event photography, whether it’s a christening, new born or wedding. Within some of these events, I noticed that some aspects are similar to fashion photography. For example, the bride’s photos on the day would be taken to beautify the woman, and therefore it may be a good idea for me to look into fashion photography. I took a brief look at fashion designer Channel and how their photographers capture beauty. I noticed that their images were very glamorous and aimed at capturing the natural beauty and physical attraction of the person.
August 6th 23:17
- Writing up my risks and dependencies as well as finalising my Aims and Objectives TAB.
Risks
Equipment
• As I will be using a lot of equipment, I will have to make sure that the equipment I need to borrow from the university will be available a while before the shoot
• There is a possible risk of the equipment failing on the day, therefore it may be handy to have back up equipment or to fully test the equipment before I go to a shoot.
Health and Safety
• As I will be going to various places to shoot my photography, the venue may need me to fill out Health and Safety forms
• I may have a fair bit of equipment on the day, therefore I must ensure that my equipment is clear to the public to make sure no one hurts themselves.
Primaries
• My business is highly dependant on my primaries, so if there is no primary, I have no work, therefore no money coming into the business
• My primary can cancel on me any time before the event, therefore I may ask for a small deposit before the event.
Dependancies
Primaries
• My business is highly dependant on my primaries, so if there is no primary, I have no work, therefore no money coming into the business
• Customer feedback is essential for me. I must keep my customers sweet to gain good feedback which will help me get into the market
Equipment
• Without any equipment, there isn't really a business. I need to make sure that my equipment is future proofed and I am up to date on all editing software and technology. Although I only have a 600D at the moment, I hope to save for the Canon 5D mark 3.
• To gain my USP, I am dependant on editing software to get my unique style
Budget
I already have a camera, and I can borrow equipment from the University, therefore the most of my expenditure will be on Travel and editing software.
August 13th
- Holiday
August 20th
- Holiday
August 27th 15:00
- Getting back into my Yola site after my holiday. Making a list of things I still need to do.
- Took my camera abroad with me to capture my fathers 50th birthday. One issue with this shoot was that I forgot to change the camera settings before, therefore all the images were taken in just RAW, therefore making it harder to show my client the images, as well as me selecting the best ones to edit.
September 3rd 21:45
- Finishing all my research pages, as well as collaborating my most important research for my craft page.
- This week I thought it was really important to start thinking of my final USP. I had thought briefly about what it could be; yet each one didn’t seem strong enough. So I started looking at what the fashion was with photography, which was when I looked at the instagram era, cinemagraphs and HDR photography.
September 10th 22:56
- Decided I feel more passionate about having filters on top of my images to help bring them to life, therefore deciding to have this as a USP.
- Went back and looked at Steep Street photography and how I could apply this to my own photography.
- However, I started to wonder if this USP would be strong enough to make my company successful and if I needed more then 1 USP.
September 17th 21:25
- Getting back to uni and settling into third year. Not a lot of FYP work done this week as wanted to concentrate on what I was doing for my 3rd year modules.
September 24th
- Completing the craft page and including all the most influential research I have looked at.
- Thought it may be important for me to do my SWOT and PESTLE analysis now! Wasn’t too sure exactly what they were, however looked it up online and had a look at previous student examples and managed to write up my own.
- Put an ad on gumtree as well as my local newspaper, advertising FREE Event photography.
October 1st
- Wrote up a draft of my 100 words about me and my business. Found this quite hard to do as I tend to waft on a lot, however after a few attempts I managed to keep to the point and explain what I needed too.
- Went through it with Karin and changed the wording a little. By writing these 100 words, it’s actually bought my business together and I could use these 100 words at the beginning of pitches to where I would sell my business.
October 8th
- Starting to write the first 2 slides of my presentation for RTP (researching the pitch). This was where I created a 10 minute presentation which would sell my business to a business mum or business start up Scheme Company. I then presented this pitch to my 1st maker and FYP advisor for feedback. The advice he gave me was that I can talk too quickly, however my pronunciation and English was very well spoken and that the first 2 slides introducing my business was well put across and to the point.
- Spoke to my FYP advisor about how I was struggling to book a wedding or christening shoot, and he therefore gave me the idea of just having the idea of ‘memory’ photography as a USP to my business.
October 15th
- I went away and undertook research into memory photography, and noticed that there was a gap in the market for memory photography and that this would widen my target audience to everyone, as everyone has a special memory. This could mean a new born, funeral, birthday, prom, wedding, christening or just a family capturing their natural emotions as they take a walk in their favourite park.
- Booked in a christening shoot from my add on gumtree for November the 18th
October 22nd
- Really coming together to understand my business, because without knowing everything to the best of my ability, I could be caught out in my presentation which would bring down my grades.
- Starting to write up que cards for the pitch and putting together the slides on powerpoint.
October 29th
- Start building my professional website. I started looking at creating my own website from HTML 5, however thought this would take a lot of time and therefore decided to use one of the pre-settings on Wix.com and just adjust it to my own branding.
- Start to think about building the branding on all promotional material
November 5th
- Presentation week and need to be ready for my presentation. I needed to make sure I knew my business inside and out to ensure the pitch and Q&A went as well as it possibly could.
November 12th
- Go back to building the promotional material for my website. Got some feedback from my lecturer who said that my logo was a bit bland and didn’t stand out, so I therefore went back to the drawing board to create a logo that fitted my style as well as standing out. I searched on dafont.com for fonts that I could use. Created a few styles which I then got feedback on from the public, which helped me make my final decision.
- More editing on website
- Called my client for the christening to find out the details of the day
November 19th
- This was the week of my christening shoot. As this was my first shoot from a client I had never met before, I was quite nervous. I got to the shoot on time and spoke with my client about the exact details of the day and what type of shots she wanted to capture.
November 26th
- This week I was editing my photos from the christening shoot. As I took the images in RAW, it was easier for me to correct them using Photoshop. I managed to get the images edited and sent to the customer within a week. The customer was really happy with the images, and then booked me for her wedding in 2014.
- Carry on building website
December 3rd 17:45
- The week before deadline week and this was pretty hectic to get any FYP done. I managed to decide on the packages I would offer and the average price. I wasn’t too sure how much to price people and therefore started off at really cheap prices such as a wedding for £120 as it was only a student project. I thought that I could change these prices later on for when I graduate as I would have much more experience.
December 10th 13:16
- Not a lot of work was done this week as I was focusing on my other projects which had deadlines the next week. However booked myself a memory shoot over Christmas.
December 17th 11:23
- Holiday, yet experimenting with the 5D
December 24th 23:30
- Holliday
December 31st 14:17
- Had my first memory shoot booked from a previous client, which made me very happy as it was clear that my previous client was pleased with my services and therefore referred her friend to me to get the photography of her little girl taken. I really clicked with this client and found them a pleasure to work with, which I found produced higher levels of photography as I felt comfortable running around and pointing the camera in each of their faces!
January 7th 12:05
- Editing the photos from the memory shoot to get them back to the client within a week.
January 14th 19:43
- Started back at University
- Hearing about all my second semester modules and planning my work load
- Having a little panic over possible clients as some dropped out over Christmas. I realised I needed to do some more advertising for my business as I wouldn’t of had enough projects to hand in at the end of the year
January 21st
- Created another add on Gumtree as well as advertising on my Facebook as I knew many friends with new born’s and young children.
- A friend approached me about doing some photography for her make-up company and thought it would be good experience taking close ups of make-up and hair for my wedding shoots.
January 28th
- Finalising my website. Getting all the finishing touches done as well as making sure the branding stands out across my website.
February 4th
- Had the chance to go to London and work with a top London fashion photographer. This experience taught me what photography is like within the fashion/media industry
February 11th
- From previous lectures in ‘Business of the Media’, I started to put together a draft business plan, which would be used as one of my hand-ins, alongside a brochure, website, and printed portfolio with CD’s of these documents on.
February 18th
- On the Saturday, I had a new born shoot booked in Farnborough. I wanted to get this shoot as I felt my new born photography would be what attracts the ‘yummy mummy’ audience into my company.
- As this shoot was very close to the deadline, I spend most of my week editing these photos, as I took over 700. From this task I learnt that taking photos of more than one baby can become an issue as the babies seemed to play up around each other which made it hard to create a natural, happy atmosphere.
February 25th
- Posting the final images onto the website into a show reel.
- Creating a draft portfolio to place on my website – Chose a selection of about 25 images but weren’t too sure which ones to use and therefore asked my lecturer out of all my photos which ones he thought represented me well.
- Looking at the finance section of my business plan. Even though this was a simple task, I had to get someone to help me out on Excel as I hadn’t created graphs since year 8.
March 4th
- Starting to finalise my project. This involved going through all my images and sorting out which selected few I wanted to put into my Portfolio. I wanted my portfolio to have my strongest images in as well as showing a variety of my work, so this became quite a task. I asked friends and family to help me chose which images to use, based on what would attract my clients.
- Finishing my website and adding the last little bits.
- Promoting the website.
- In class I managed to create my brochure, which was when I decided to change some of my prices for the packages I offer. I realised I was charging way too little and the prices I were charging would only just about travel petrol and half my time at the wedding. I needed to price my package on everything as a whole, which included travel, equipment, time editing photos, postage and printing as well as editing software. I quickly increased these prices and placed the changes on my website.
- Printed off everything I needed for hand in a day early so I wasn’t panicking on deadline day.
March 11th
- Hand in Project! J
