Website Link

I have finished designing my website, and uploading images to it. After long consideration I finally decided to buy the domain name, as it will make my website look professional. It cost me £34 for two years, which I'm more than happy with.

Morgan Mayhew Photography

Placement search update

I have received some replies to my emails, from Tom Ames Photography and Julian Mitchell Photography. Although they both declined by request for work experience, it was still really exciting to get responses and talk to people in the business.

Julian Mitchell's email:

The fact he says he'll keep my name on file is promising, and I made sure to reply with my thanks.

Tom Ames' email:

This email has given me the name of another photographer and his company, who I have looked up and also emailed. I plan to start ringing people in a week or two, if I receive no more replies.

Market research

I have spent several hours researching into the portrait photography market, to see how many photographers and studios there are in Suffolk and beyond. The main thing I used for this research was Google and Google maps, which were more helpful than I thought they would be. The downfall of this method is that if a photographer/studio don't have a website then they won't necessarily be included. Another downfall is that the photography may not be working anymore, which I can overcome by checking the copyright date at the bottom of the page.

This search has told me that there are roughly 25-30 portrait photographers in Suffolk, and a good 75% of these also do weddings. Below I'm going to make a list of prices they charge for weddings, on order to find an estimated average.
Sara Thomas Photography - £1200
Paul Jenkins Photography - £1055
Julian Mitchell Photography - £1200
Pja Photography - £1395
James Davidson Photography - £1750
Phillip Montgomery Photography - £1295
Thomas Ames Photography - £1050
F.E.A.D Photography - £325
Martin Beard Photography - £1050 (estimate)
A&G Wedding Photography - £795
I've calculated the average of just these ten photographers to be £1111. This tells me roughly how much wedding photographers make in the ares I live, and shows me the competition if I decide to go into the market myself. I have also just emailed almost every single person on the list, asking about work experience etc.

Contacting more placements pt 2

I have found another retouching company called Taylor James, which was founded in 1999 by Glen Taylor. They have been creating visual campaign's ever since then, using photography, CGI, live-action, and post-production. 

I really love all the work they've created, and it has spurred me on even more to try and gain some experience in this field.

I found out their contacts details from their contact page, and decided to send them an email. I went into a little bit more detail about what my tutors have asked us to do, which I didn't do in my email to Metro. I'm thinking this might make a difference. Below is a screenshot of the email I sent:

That email was sent from my University email address, on the 20th of March. After ten days, I still haven't received a reply, so I plan to send another email from my personal email account. Below is a screenshot of that email:

If I don't receive a reply in another ten days I plan to ring them and ask someone, as it will get me an answer quickly.

Contacting more placements pt 1

Another area I'm interested in is retouching, and have done some research into where I could contact to get a placement in this area. The first place I have looked is Metro Imaging in London, who have put together a very talented team of creative retouchers over the last twenty years. They work closely with their clients to achieve detailed and more than satisfactory outcomes.

Above is their retouching page, which I had a look through before deciding I really liked the look of their work. There are a few ways I could have contacted them, and I chose to email them using the general enquiries option shown below.

I proceeded to email Mr Window and ask if it would be possible for me to gain some work experience. Here is a screenshot of my email:

To my surprise, I received a reply within 48 hours. Unfortunately, it wasn't good news. Here's a screenshot of my reply:

Now that Metro has declined, I plan to look up more companies and get in contact with them too.

Website preparation

I have finally decided that I want to use Weebly to make my website, as it's easy to use and reviews make it sound very trustworthy. In order to prepare myself for setting up the website, I have resized my images in photoshop.

The original images were around 4000 pixels wide and I've resized them to 800, while I set the resolution to 72. Once I've done all my images I will start to design my website. It will include a page for portraits and a page for landscapes. As well as a selection of projects I've created for University. Constructing Narratives is the first one that we've been asked to include, I also plan to add my Documentary images, and photos of my Situated practise book. That is the minimum I plan to use, and will add personal projects at some point too.

Weebly allows you to connect straight to other websites such as Twitter, so I've decided to make myself a professional Twitter. In order to follow other photographers and galleries, to network myself with other professionals.

I used an image of me photographing for my icon, and my background image is a photo I've taken for my latest University brief. I now follow a lot of photography and art twitters such as The V&A and Rankin. I will update it with anything to do with photography, and have already updated it on a photoshoot I did at the weekend. This was just the push I needed to create my professional account, as I've been debating whether to make one for ages. 

Contacting placements

I have decided that I'd like to work in portraiture for my placement, and therefore have began searching for local photographers. Many I have come across also do wedding's, which I'm also open to trying.

The first photographer I found was Tim Driver, I liked the look of his work and sent him an email. I have also telephones him twice, but have received no answer both times. I plan to send another email, and telephone a few more times to try and get a response.

A friend of mine recommended the photography studio in Rendlesham, which is only a twenty minute drive away from where I live and therefore easy to get to. I rang the gentleman who works there and he informed me that there is currently no calling for weddings, but if more work crops up he will let me know.

The third place I found is an actual studio as well as photographer, which is based in Ipswich so will also be easy to travel to. I have phoned the studio twice and received no answer, so my next plan of action is to go and visit the studio. That is the progress of my placement search so far.