I did the photography for an article about the success of City of Bath College media student Henry Gale to be placed on the Bath Chronicle newspaper and City of Bath College website.
The photography was taken in line with the style that City of Bath College requested, and in the style that would be suitable in the Bath Chronicle newspaper.
It was decided that the photographs needed to have a strong look to them using different lighting. I went into the photography studio with Henry for this and changed the lights around for the best style lighting for this. During the shoot I took photographs at different angles and different compositions, with Henry doing something different - such as looking into a camera, holding up a camera, or simply looking into the camera. I think some of them looked a bit like they needed to be more natural, so we also took some other photographs in the corridor that said that he was a college student. Some of the photographs came out a little dark because of the settings the camera was at and because there wasn’t much light in the room. I used a tripod which stopped the blurring, but I took these photographs in RAW as well as JPEG. Taking them as a RAW file allows you to edit them further and more naturally compared to if you are taking them as a JPEG. It gives you more control over things like the contrast and amount of lighting. Due to these photographs being darker, I brightened them up in Photoshop. Looking at the photographs after the shoot, I was happy with things like the composition and overall look, but I wish we did different style photos and maybe used a different location as well - perhaps at an outside location with Henry and a camera and tripod, or something like a clapperboard in his hand to say film student.
For our exhibition, myself, Adam Wiltshire, Catherine Nurse, Michael Turner, Louise Piper, Sadie O’Callaghan and Jenny Slocombe all agreed on the name “Seven Exposures”. I came up with this idea because of how there is seven of us so I think the number needed to be in there and it would be in line with past FdA Digital Design exhibitions which were 10 Pixels and Twenty Exhibition, and I thought that by having it in line, it would work nicely and show continuity. The exposures part of the name came after I was looking at keywords from the photography category. I chose this keyword because an exposure is a photograph and how it turns out. By having it called “Seven Exposures”, it would show seven different exposures from fresh and new graphic designers, photographers and web designers, and how we developed over the two years and what how we have developed in to what we want to do.
The exhibition started with the name - Seven Exposures, and us looking for a location. Myself and Michael Turner went out for a location recce to look for suitable locations for our exhibition. We found a few spaces in Little Southgate in Bath, in the new Southgate shopping centre area and in the areas surrounding the Roman Baths. We went to these areas because anywhere else would have been a bit too far out and we wouldn’t have got many visitors because a lot of visitors to the exhibition would prefer something central, and ideally, somewhere close to a bus or train station for easy access to the event. We then found out about the Fringe Arts festival in Bath. The Fringe Arts Festival is a visual arts festival that happens in various locations over Bath. We found that there would be a location for us on York Street in Bath - close to the Abbey, which is a popular tourist area, and because our exhibition would be happening during the festival, we would also gain more visitors that way.
Next, we looked at what work would we would like to have displayed at the exhibition. Although I have branded myself as a photographer and graphic designer, I decided to have only photography up in the exhibition. I did this because I liked more space for some of my photographs and because I knew that there would be Macs at the exhibition, I would have been able to display my graphic design work on them via my website - scottsalter.co.uk. I chose to have a big image from my photography assignment looking at tilt-shift. This photograph was taken at the Babbacombe Model Village in Torquay, and I played around with the scale on it. As well as having the model village in the photograph, I also got some real houses that were above the model village into the shot so the viewer would be able to tell that it was a model village. Using Photoshop, I also added a Gaussian Blur to make it look as if the model village was actually a real village but turned into a model village using tilt-shift effects. For my other two photographs, I used one of some architecture. I used this because throughout the second year of the course, I have been developing my style in photography. I like the clean, clear and neat look that you can get in photography. I also like my photography to look quite symmetrical so that there is a nice look to it on both sides of the photograph. With this picture of the architecture, I feel I did just that. It was taken later on in the evening near when the sun was setting so I was able to get some nice tones in the sky, and due to the location of the sun, I was able to get a nice silhouette style. The building featured modern architecture - it was just made from glass and so I was able to get a nice reflection in it. I really like this photo of mine, and I feel that it is one of the best images I have taken whilst on the course, so I really wanted to include it. It was also quite bright looking and I felt that it would stand out quite well. My other photograph was one that was taken using the macro setting of my camera. Early in the morning last Summer, I looked out and noticed the grass was wet - it hadn’t rained, but there was just simply a lot of dew on the grass. With the sun on the little waterdrops, some nice reflections were created, and I like how sharp and detailed the photograph turned out to be. If I said to someone that I wanted a photo of a piece of grass on the wall, I’m sure they’d think it would look green and boring, but in this photo, I got what I think was a really good style bokeh and viewers were able to see the tiny little bits of detail, and the natural lighting was really good.
I designed the poster and A5 postcard flyer for the exhibition. At first, I based it on a modern look with grey, white, and black colours. However, I thought it looked a little dull, and our lecturer, Luke Salaman, thought that it should include a piece of our work instead. The logo remained the same, but the layout was made much better by a photograph taken by myself, Michael Turner and Louise Piper during group work. It was of a silver slinky - the silver brought in a modern and fresh look, and so did the lines that were created from us using different lights. We set a long exposure so that the lights turned into light trails. This gave a really nice flow of different colours of light, and also worked really well for the text on the poster. It nicely flowed along with the bits of light in the photo. I was pleased with this new idea and think that it added colour and worked really well in the poster.
Friday 24th May 2013 was the opening evening for the exhibition. We opened at around 7pm at our premises on York Street. At first I was a little worried that it was a bit off the main shopping path, but I think that the open evening was a real success and we must have had at least 200-300 people attending the opening evening! I had some feedback about my photography work that was displayed at the exhibition and I’m glad I chose the tilt-shift style photograph to go up. It generated conversation because it was quite confusing looking to some - some of the attendees at the exhibition didn’t know whether I used a tilt-shift lens or not. It was nice talking with people and sharing my views on it, as well as listening to their views on it. I placed 9 business cards on the table on the opening night. I chose 9 because I had 9 different front designs for the business cards. By the end of the evening, 5 were left which I found quite pleasing, and I also gave some business cards to people looking at my photographs.
Looking at the space we used for the exhibition, I think that it was a great success. There was a large amount of space for the amount of people who was there on the opening evening and due to it’s layout, it created the perfect space for conversation. From Michael’s boat and light pictures, Louise’s abandonment style photos, Jenny’s liquid style photography, Catherine’s food photography, Sadie’s Instagram pictures to Adam’s graphic design work, I thought that everyone’s work was really quite amazing, and it was nice to see everyone’s really good work brightening up some plain white walls. There was also a different section for the first years’ work based on the theme ‘Presence’. I think this area worked really well and there was also some really great work in there too.
The opening evening was successful, but looking at the promotional side of the exhibition, I don’t feel it was as much. After looking at the twitter page the next day, I noticed we only had 15 followers and 7 of these followers was us! I think that we could have done much better using social media. I noticed that the twitter account was following people like Hootsuite and Russell Brand - they aren’t local, they aren’t known personally by us, and they’re not photographers or graphic designers. On the twitter account, I think that we should have been tweeting to local photography, web design and graphic design businesses, local twitter accounts, we should have been retweeting things more and replying to tweets to start conversation, gain followers, and get more people that we don’t know, interested. I’m not sure if this would have worked as well (as anyone can search for this - not just people from Bath and the local area), but we should have been tagging things like #photography, #webdesign, #graphicdesign, #design, #photographers and more. We also had a facebook page, but this only had 25 people following it/liking it, but I feel we should have been liking other pages too and commenting on local media pages and inviting people to the exhibition via facebook too. With other assignments going on, I feel this may have caused this to happen, but it wouldn’t have taken that long. No posters were put up to advertise the exhibition either. They were designed so that people not on social media could still find out details about the event.
Looking at the location and area of the exhibition, there would be three things that I think should have been changed.
The first is the entrance to the Seven Exposures exhibition. It was in a really good location, and the windows were full of Seven Exposures posters, but I think more of a Welcome or “Come In” style sign should have been made, or just even something like an arrow. I think some people who were walking past whilst I was watching the exhibition on Sunday 26th May, looked a bit unsure what was really going on and whether or not they should have gone in. I noticed that when it got busier and more people were coming in and out of the doors, more people were coming in because they noticed other people inside.
The second thing I would change is the photographs above the desk/opening evening bar area. I don’t think a lot of people noticed these and sometimes I needed to point out these photographs. They looked a bit too tucked away and were right near the stairs. They were smaller than the large prints and with them being up so high, people needed to get closer, but on the opening evening, it was quite busy and with others behind the desk/bar, I don’t think this was possible. I think that these photos should have been put under our big photos as originally planned.
The third thing I would review is descriptions. It was nice to see guests wonder about my photograph, but after attending other photography exhibitions, there has always been more of a write-up next to a photo. It’s told the viewer of the photo what it’s about, who took it, and technical details. On our labels, it just said our names and one word to describe the photos. I also think that above the desk/bar where our smaller photos were, instead of having these photos here, we could have had the exhibition logo or description of what Seven Exposures was about. It was on the posters on the windows but the text was quite small, and I feel there needed to be something inside. The first years’ area of the exhibition had a description / introduction, and I think this worked well.
These are only small things, but although we didn’t have them, I think that the exhibition was still as successful as we had hoped for. I think something should have definitely happened more with the social media and promotion side of things, but the opening night was very popular, generated conversation, and the public, as well as our guests, were able to look at some amazing work by new graphic designers, photographers, and web designers.
Scott Salter branding
Branding Guidelines - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51513016935/scott-salter-branding-guidelines
New Look Business Cards - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/49706954876/new-look-business-cards
Scott Salter photographer (old design) - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/21324052131/scott-salter-photographer
Website - http://scottsalter.co.uk/
Networking Events
Venturefest (full write up in professional studies folder) - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/36213622355/venturefest-bristol-2011
What makes a great app? (full write up in professional studies folder) -http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/41222412083/what-makes-a-great-app-networking-event
Guest Lectures
Social-i - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51076442962/guest-lecture-social-i
Bella (sketchbooks) - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51513125853/guest-lecture-bella
Work Placement
Green Stationery Company (full write up in professional studies folder) - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/45669130611/work-experience
The feedback forms from the employer were handed in to the media office by Mike.
Freelance Bidding
Shop front photography - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/47191743924/bidding-for-freelance-work
Product photography - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/50927558497/bidding-for-freelance-work
Clients (full write-ups and work in Professional Studies folder)
ADS Records - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51513223635/client-ads-records - the full write up and work is in my professional studies folder.
City of Bath College - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51561206822/client-henry-gale-bath-chronicle-city-of-bath and work is in professional studies folder
Business card - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51513327528/client-work - the full write up and work is in my professional studies folder.
Exhibition
Poster - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51513514290/poster-i-designed-for-seven-exposures-exhibition
A5 flyer - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51513645292/the-front-and-back-of-the-a5-flyer-i-designed-for
Photos - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51514088366/photos-from-the-opening-night-24th-may-2013-of
Evaluation - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51561097185/exhibition-evaluation
Industry Professional interview
http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/51514239953/industry-professional-interview
Competitions
Bath in a Snapshot - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/40188200194/competition-time
O2 - http://scottsalter.tumblr.com/post/49094663683/o2-photography-competition
Albert Palmer is a wedding photographer from Bristol. Although he’s based in Bristol, he’ll travel to any location in the UK or around the World. In his wedding photography, he says he wants to capture the emotion, life, and the energy of the day.
Albert provides his clients with a full day of coverage, 400+ high resolution digital photographs, a private online gallery used for sharing, and a slideshow of images for £1,750. His work has been featured in wedding magazines such as ‘Bristol & Somerset Your Wedding Magazine’, ‘Perfect Wedding’ and ‘You & Your Wedding’.
I began by asking him if he had always wanted to become a wedding photographer. “No - I was one of those people who never really knew what I wanted to be”
What qualifications, experience or training does your job require to produce work at a professional standard? I think this is very personal. People learn in different ways. You don’t need any qualifications - experience is very important though
From what I’ve seen on your website, your work is of an excellent standard :) but how do you know it’s of an excellent standard? Do you get any advice from other photographers or friends and family? I don’t think my work is particularly outstanding. Sure, I’m very proud of what I do and the work I put out - but I very rarely think of it as excellent. I very rarely seek advice at this stage in my career. Sure, when I first started I asked for people’s opinions, but as I’ve grown more experienced I don’t really give all that much thought to what over people think. I work mainly for myself. And then if people like what I do then I get hired.
Do you have anyone to assist you? From time to time I do if the couple want a second photographer.
I’m looking to start myself out as a freelance photographer. Is it quite tricky at first to get clients? What tips would you give me at first? I don’t think it is all that hard to start. Price yourself low, make people aware of your skills and gradually build up your skills, portfolio and price.
How much about photography, and working with clients, have you learned on the job? Everything. I’m completely self taught.
What equipment and software do you use? I use dslrs, a bunch of prime lenses and Lightroom.
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Poster I designed for Seven Exposures exhibition.
Front of a business card that I designed. Full report is in my professional studies folder. 
My first client was Alex Dale-Staples from Bath. I worked on this project with Michael Turner and Louise Piper.
Alex Dale-Staples is from Bath and is an alternative genre singer and guitarist. Originally, our brief for Alex was to take some professional photography of him, record a music video for him, and to work on his social media websites to get him more known and to gain more likes, follows and subscribers on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
However, following immediate needs, that brief was scrapped and we turned to creating a website for Alex. The client wanted a website under the domain of “adsrecords.co.uk” and wanted to feature himself on there and those who had signed up to his record label - ADS Records.
Full report in folder.
We had a guest lecture by Bella. During the lecture, we learnt about the importance of sketchbooks and we looked at how we should be using them and what for.
Over using a piece of paper, we learned that sketchbooks are good because they are harder to misplace. If you have an idea, thought or feel like you’ve suddenly thought of that perfect logo design, you can just quickly and simply sketch it into a sketchbook, and by placing it in a sketchbook it’ll be easy to find - it won’t be on screwed up bits of paper shoved into your bag - it’ll be in a neat book.
We were shown an article on a website called lifehacker.com that told us how writing (and sketching!) is better for you to take in information. When you are using a pen, pencil or paintbrush, you are drawing the lines of a word, picture or idea. They are unique and will be different. They won’t be man-made and looking like the same as everyone else. If it’s in a book, and has a date or title, it’ll probably be easier to find than tonnes of files titled “Untitled” on a computer. Computers can also be distracting - you can’t access facebook or twitter via a book. By using a book, you’ll be constantly concentrating on what you are doing because there isn’t anything a book will throw at you - there won’t be any notifications!
A section of that website says “Writing stimulates a bunch of cells at the base of the brain called the reticular activating system (RAS). The RAS acts as a filter for everything your brain needs to process, giving more importance to the stuff that you’re actively focusing on at the moment”.
Books and sketchbooks can also be used as a different way of writing things. Bella told us that when she first started, she used to use her sketchbooks as diaries. Instead of writing what she had done or was doing on that day, she would draw a picture - something like who she was seeing, or where she went, or what the weather was like. By doing so, this involves more creation and imagination and it’ll simply be nicer to look over at instead of reading through handwriting. Although it involves less work, it’s similar to taking a photograph. It’s recording something on a certain day at a certain time and is a different form of writing.
I believe that I am pretty poor at sketching. I’ll sketch logos or website layouts, but when it comes to drawing something in particular - something more art like, I wouldn’t be bothered too because I know it wouldn’t look good. However, Bella told us that even if we feel our drawings are bad, everyone has a unique style, and we are still recording information just like anyone else. We were told that anyone who is afraid of showing their poor points, is someone getting it wrong and not being creative. Using a sketchbook will also help in things like University interviews because it shows continuity in idea making. Ideas designed on computer software will need to be included too, but it doesn’t really show a starting point for those ideas if you’ve not sketched something. It’s good to see how you got to a certain design.
I think that Bella’s lecture was very helpful to someone like me. My drawings can be quite bad, but after saying that everyone has a unique style and that no one should be afraid, I feel as if I shouldn’t be afraid and even if they are bad sketches, they are still sketches. They are evidence of a design, or something like a logo working or not working, and it’s showing how I got to a final idea. In future, instead of just starting by looking at a blank canvas in Photoshop or Illustrator, I’ll use something a lot more creative and free like a pen and paper! By using pens, pencils and paper, it’ll also allow for a more natural and fancier look. Sometimes some things may be too hard or take too long to create in Photoshop or Illustrator using all the different tools. However, with a pen and paper, you can simply create whatever is in your mind right in front of you. Once you have a final design, that’s when you can use software to create it!