final year – Marlena Sierota

For my book’s pages I chose Lumi Silk Coated paper (150gsm), as the image quality is very good; the paper appear slightly shiny, feels nice when touched and as it isn’t white, it gives a slightly warm feeling to the photographs.

I experimented with book sizes and decided that A4 is too large, A5 is too small, so I tried the version in between them-B5 and it’s perfect. I printed the book pages at the University printing bureau and delivered them to Spink and Thackray in Leeds for binding. I chose a light yellow hard cover and for the second book I selected a slightly larger size, orange cover and very similar to Lumi Silk paper. However, the prints quality in the second book wasn’t as good as the ones printed at the University.

Unfortunately, I realised that one of the images in the book was cropped. The same one that I printed for an exhibition and came damaged. Unlucky. Fallowing my mistake, I had to reprint the book pages again. I drove to uni on Wednesday the 24^th of April and the printing bureau was closed for an Easter break. I went there the day after, printed the pages and drove to Leeds to make an order. The fallowing Thursday, I collected the book which wasn’t as ordered. The letters on the front page was damaged and appears slightly dirty around the edges however, it wasn’t too bad. In addition, when I came home, I realised that they put two front pages in the book. I wanted to scream!

This means that I had to drive to Leeds again! I drove in London, Manchester and other big cities in the World, but I hate driving in Leeds. Never mind, the next morning I gave them a ring and made a complaint. I was told to bring the book back and they will sort it out for me. This time I sent my boyfriend, as I was stressed enough and had million other things to do before the submissions. Three days before the submission I finally collected my book! Thankfully this time it looks amazing and I am very proud of it!

I need to take a pictures of my book, make some changes and finally I will be ready to submit my work, both written and physical form.

If you would like to see my book and many other interesting work, come to The University of Huddersfield on the 7^th of June for the final year photography student’s exhibition. I can’t wait for it!

University of Huddersfield careers and employability service offer a range of guest speakers and workshops to attend. I recently joined “Working in Photography” by Alex Beldea.

Alex Beldea studying PhD in our university and we’ve had a few tutorials with him last year. However, this time he talked about his career in photography, his experience as professional photographer, his clients and job opportunities. I will mention a few of those:

Back in his country, Romania, he worked as a sport photographer. He came to the UK over 7 years ago to study photography. While studying, he volunteered for 3 years where he photographed musicians for HCMF. He claimed that both jobs improved his technical skills.

He volunteered as events photographer for University International Office. His volunteer job lead to many paid job opportunities.

He then took a placement year and worked at photo studio Hylton Photography in Leeds. It taught him how to deal with clients, see real photography work and improved his technical skills. This job opportunity lead to many collaborations, as Beldea is still working with Hylton and until now both photographers help each other.

Through university he gets many opportunities to cover events, in one of those he had a pleasure to photograph a royal family visit. He stated that it was stressful and challenging, as he only had 5 minutes for the shoot however, he claimed that it was a very good experience.

He worked for the University gym Team Hud.

He photographed York chocolate story museum Treat or Trick walking tour.

He photographed DJs, celebrities, food photography – still and moving image for Epicure.

Photographed Wander-clothing collection.

Discover Magazine-researchers within university.

Every summer for about two weeks he shoots Graduation ceremonies at the university, he works from 8am to 5pm, then edits at night.

Photographed costumes for final project costume departments.

Commissioned for Manchester Gallery as international photographer to exhibit his work about Manchester- Second Home

He worked on many personal projects. The Last Shift is about coal mining in Romania which is planned to be closed. He photographed coal mining workers who will soon become redundant.

In Tunisia, Beldea is making a project about a refugee camp. He is photographing and raising money for 35 refugees who are struggle financially.

Alex Beldea’s tips are: to be patience; work hard and find a way to show your work; work in many photography fields, as you will gain new skills and it could lead to more job opportunities; look for places to get feedback; join portfolio reviews, for example Red Eye in Manchester, Photo Meet in London; attend conferences as you may end up having exhibitions and this is the best way to show your work; alongside professional photographer’s jobs do internships or assisting jobs, as again you will improve your technical skills…

What a brilliant talk, one of best I ever attended. In my opinion Beldea is a very talented photographer and I love his commercial work, so as documentary; especially Valid for Travel. I always look at his photographs when looking for inspiration. Thank you, Alex, for sharing your story and giving us very useful advice.

If you would like to see some more work by Beldea, I will recommend you visit his website

alexbeldea.com

Tag: final year

My photobook is finally ready for the submission

Working in Photography by Alex Beldea