from start to finish
february always involves a trip up to Nottingham to see the students on the Biological Photography and Imaging MSc course that Brian Case set up in 2001 and I completed in 2003. Since then I have been returning every year to talk to the students for a day and returning again a few months later to listen to their presentations. This year wasn’t the same without Brian there, the old corridor seeming strangely empty, but it was good to catch up with David and to meet this year’s students…
the day has evolved over the years; being part of the ‘business and commercial application’ side of the course, it is now focused on how to set up a small creative business once the students leave University, an area that wasn’t really discussed when we were on the course and one that I always felt would have been a useful addition, purely because I wasn’t sure where to start looking once out in the open! this included marketing methods, the pros and cons of being self employed, areas to search on leaving Uni and the necessary skills needed to compete with the many thousands of other photographers, film-makers and web-designers.
essentially it is all about selling yourself!
of course, I also had to hammer home my opinion on the beauty of medium and large format film too !! it turns out that the course no longer use film at all, it is now purely 35mm digital, which whilst being part of the future (I use and prefer medium format), doesn’t always teach you all of the necessary photography techniques, in my humble and honest opinion…
at the end of the day I then went over to the QMC and met a new arrival, Esme, Colin and Liz’s new baby girl – massive congratulations Col and Liz!!
Col is AlpKit! (http://www.alpkit.com)
and I’d like to say good luck to my brother Tom, who is playing Nick Matthew (world number 2) in the Squash Nationals in Manchester (photographed here at the Canary Wharf Classic against David Palmer)
