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Brochure shoot for university
My first approach to the university was to identify the right person to contact with my portfolio. Having set up the meeting, my next task was to undertake a spot of research which would hopefully broaden my knowledge of the campus and get a better knowledge of what other universities and colleges up and down the country were upto. Adopting my best student voice I telephoned 7 or 8 institutions requesting information on courses and campuses and unsurprisingly, a stream of glossy brochures were sent out to me over the following fortnight.
Most prospectuses followed the same structure-intro,lots of glossy pics of happy students on the campus interspersed with glossy pics of the local landmarks, nightlife, sporting teams, countryside etc, moving onto chapters for the various departments, schools or study areas which formed the bulk of the publications. In this respect I approached my portfolio meeting with the same degree of preparation as if I were about to have an interview for a full-time job. The last thing I wanted to do was to appear as just another jobbing photographer. I wanted to present myself as someone who could be relied upon for future work and as someone who is aware and up-to-date with the concerns and issues of students and faculty and the marketing of a large educational establishment to the wider public. It became apparent from very early on that future commissions beyond the current picture requirements was a very real possibility and I was determined to ensure that I stood the best possible chance of gaining, keeping and protecting this key client. I already knew that
the work would require good people skills and an ability to switch easily
between portraits, architectural shots, documentary and so on, in order
to cover fully all the picture requirements. For this reason my portfolio
was revamped for the meeting to try to demonstrate Versatility as opposed
to merely appearing as a competent journeyman or jack-of-all-trades. This
is a continuing headache for me as am aware it is with many photographers
and it is an issue I hope to address in a future article. Freelancers
regularly have to work across a variety of genres and styles, and on occasions
when that is called for by a client, then that is what the photographers'
portfolio should reflect. On this occasion my work was well received and
I was able to throw a few suggestions into the pot to add to a substantial
list of Pictures Required.
Before the shooting script had even been mentioned there had been a lot of discussion within the design department about the over all style of the pictures. While many brochures and prospectuses from other institutions featured slick, advertising images of an almost coca cola-like artificiality, it was generally felt that cheesy, overly-constructed pictures would lack credibility and appear too artificial. Pure documentary on the other hand was too dour - the aim after all was to sell the university and you don't do that by getting real. A sensible balance had to be struck with clean, positive images where some had to be set-up, but most images were (in the main) an accurate and up beat account of life at this university. Things moved swiftly from here. I found myself one minute taking intricate close-ups of minute plant specimens in microbiology labs to taking vast lecture theatres and sports halls the next. 35mm cameras were used for all the photography with a 28-80mm lens used as a standard all-rounder. Without exception each school asked me to take at least one shot in their department which featured a small group of students in a tutorial or discussion with one of the departments' lecturers. As an informal group photo this didn't present too much of a challenge, but it soon became apparent just what a cliché this one particular shot was becoming when they all started to look the same. It's a hard job to do -finding an innovative and fresh way of presenting this one particular image since it had to look natural and real even though many of these small huddled giggling groups were gathered together at the last minute and often included an imposter - students dragged kicking and screaming into the room to makeup the numbers. In one situation I managed to shoot a small clutch of students huddled round the lecturers laptop through a thick glass table which supported the laptop. This naturally entailed lying on the floor and shooting upwards and I am glad to say that not too many gaping nostrils were visible in the final image.
The other big cliché to get around was the old student-typing-away-at-computer-shot which always makes the carefully-chosen student look either very bored (ie from being asked to look involved and intelligent) or very drunk (from being asked to look happy). Thankfully we came up with a few alternatives to this tired old chestnut and moved swiftly on to more edifying subject matter such as laserbeams or particle generators.
Any technical problems
were always the result of light, or rather the lack of it(aren't they
always?).Fill-in or bounced flash were fine for most people shots and
portraits for profiles, but some of the pokey subterranean laboratories
required a more substantial flashhead where I would have to throw light
at the ceiling through a whitebrolly to cast an even overhead illumination
on my subjects. With time pressures mounting, some shots literally had
to be grabbed, and where shots had to be taken in available light this
often meant having to use my FL-W filter to counteract the greencast of
flourescent strip lights. This works well if flourescent strip lights
are the only source of light (such as in basements or where the outside
is in darkness) but where your shot features any kind of daylight-balanced
light, such as a window with daylight streaming-in, the filter naturally
renders this area of your image a delicate shade of purple.
In order to reflect the pub and club night-life of the area I had to make a trip to the local clubbing scene where students gather to have a good time off-campus. Many of the popular venues for dance nights didn't get going until about 12.30am and I was beginning to wish I had the stamina levels I once vaguely remember having had myself during my student days. The shots for this section were taken on a small pocket-sized compact which is unobtrusive in crowds and sturdy enough to take the odd knock. It also had a useful flash/slowshutter speed facility which meant that I could get in amongst the dancing crowds and take shots on B with a brief burst of flash. This gave close-up, club-style images right at the heart of the action and apart from the odd red-faced, beer-soaked, bleary-eyed trance-dancer, most of the shots reflected the excitement and movement of the occasion. Once all the pictures were taken the films were captioned and gathered together for the design department to edit. It took many more months before I saw any of the results in print.
I've had many more commissions from the same client since and I am certain that work would have drifted elsewhere had I not demonstrated a thorough understanding of the clients needs and was prepared at times to go that little bit further. From a personal point of view I try to make a habit of delivering work in person whenever this is possible, thereby keeping that all-important personal contact alive when even locally-based business relationships can be all-too-easily conducted by snailmail, email or telephone. Apart from the satisfaction of seeing the blood, sweat and tears of your toil in print, such commissions enable me to meet some very interesting people indeed. In student bars and faculty staff rooms up and down the campus I encountered a professor who proudly showed me his collection of rare snakeskins, a disabled sea-faring student who had sailed round the world, and a kick-boxing senior lecturer who built robots in his lunchbreaks. The stuffyworld of academia is not at all as it seems.
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