A week in the Life of a Photography Assistant
As a Film & TV student at the University of Hertfordshire I am keen to excel in this career and I have taken on a photography assignment for ADS Agency. Pre-assignment brief: January 2024 I was provided with a creative brief. The job is for five London site locations to be photographed in order that the agency can compile a) original photography as opposed to standard shots from a stock image sharing site, b) video footage of some of the sites and c) my experience of the photoshoot as a blog post. · Questors Theatre, Ealing · Perceval House, Ealing · Middlesex University, Hendon · Newham College, East Ham; and · O2 Dome, Greenwich. I selected the equipment in advance. For the shoot, which I split over two days, I used was a Canon 250D with a sigma 18-300mm lens. As a back-up I had with me an iPhone 14 with a 0.5-5x lens capable of taking shots of entire buildings.
Assignment February 2024; Day 1
The way I approached the assignment was to split the shoot into 2 days; one to cover west London, and a separate day to cover east London. I planned it this way to allow more time at each location. Day 1: · Middlesex University, Hendon Main challenges: allowance for overcast weather; rain. This could potentially damage the lens as well as alter the image quality. There was high traffic of students and to obtain the images that I wanted took longer therefore. I wanted to show the grandness of the main building and the intricate details in the building. Extreme wide shots were needed to achieve this. · Ealing Council, Perceval House, Ealing To capture Perceval House I had to position myself across the road which made the shoot challenging due to the cars and buses passing on the Uxbridge Road. However the spherical, red brick architecture and windows are impressive and I wanted to capture the symmetry and show the balance of the building. I used a great deal of patience to get the desired shots. · Questors Theatre, Ealing As well as wide shots to show the scale of the theatre and to highlight it’s distinct feature such as transparent windows, and the main sign, I took a short time-lapse video from the Council building to the theatre.
Day 2
The O2; I travelled by public transport to the location. I took pictures of the entrance and of the Dome itself from a variety of angles including on an elevated staircase. I wanted to showcase the landscape of this iconic landmark. Finding the best location took time; in order to avoid obstructions visible when close by, I found it best to move further away. · Newham College The building is clad in scaffolding so it was difficult to take good photographs. The beauty of the building is hidden although cropping the entrance shot can erase the scaffolding.
Post-assignment; March 2024
The process I followed post-photography was 1) Transfer images via an SD card; 2) Select shots into top group; and secondary group. I got a second opinion on my top group which helped; 3) Transfer videos; and 4) Transfer to agency. I kept records during the assignment to help document the assignment in a blog.