Today I didn’t start until 10.30am. This was due to the teacher not having a lesson till that time. I started the day sitting in with both year 12 graphics and year 12 photography. These two lessons coincide with each other and are in the same room. I focused more on the photography students, and went round any students I didn’t get a chance to work with the other day. I helped one boy out that was stuck on where to go next with his project. He wants to focus his project on work people and what they use to work with, so close-ups of there tools etc. I suggested looking at artists that take photos of work people specifically, just to show the examiner that he has thought about different ideas for his project and different ways to photograph it, not just focusing on one thing and having one idea. I showed him some work of people I knew who do a similar thing to what he’s planning on doing. This helped him a lot and said he now has an idea on where to go next with his project. Next, John Papworth asked me to look at this one student work focusing on water as he knew I experiment with that at some point. I showed her the images I did, she wanted to know how I did the shoot with flowers in ice cubes, so I explained how I did it and how she should do it. I also gave her ideas on what to do next and advice on her current work.
Whilst looking around I noticed the students were stuck on editing their photos in Photoshop, so I suggested to john that I take them through editing photos on Lightroom and this will be better and quicker for them, as they can save presets for editing their images. He agreed this was a good idea and to take them through the process tomorrow with them.
For the rest of the day, I looked around the art and textiles students work. I gave them ideas and tips for them to use. The textiles students exam is coming up so gave them tip and advice on that because I was in their shoes a few years ago. One thing the teachers want the art and textiles students to do is to photograph the process of their work and know how to take good pictures of their final pieces etc. So I went round to the students one by one with a camera and showed and explained why they should photograph each stage of their work and how to do it in the best possible way. I explained to them that showing the examiner the process makes them understand their work better and that they may possibly get better grades by doing this. I showed and explained how they should photograph their final pieces and to show as much detail as possible. The student took all this on board and I even made them have a go at taking photos themselves.
Katie Abrahams 