Keeping busy

The last week has been more hectic than I had anticipated. No sooner had I started to relax on Monday evening than I was heading off to hospital to see my brother and pick up his car, and not getting home until almost 4am. There was a time when 4am was actually quite a reasonable hour to head to bed, but in those days I wasn't getting up at 6am the morning before.

My shoot last week went well. I had to travel to the north of England for this one, so had a couple of overnights while I was there. I was photographing a sports team, which I had mixed feelings about. On one hand, it was exciting and a great opportunity. On the other, the usual thoughts about all the things that could potentially go wrong erupted in my mind. Most of all, I was conscious of trying not to annoy them or get in the way. They were polite and very courteous,  and I shot a lot of action shots while they trained in preparation for a game at the weekend (which they won spectacularly). I also managed to get a few of them to pose for me in static shots, which came out nicely. As always though, there are things which I would do differently if I had the opportunity to do it again, but that's what learning is all about.

My next shoot was on Monday, as part of my day-in-the-life series with a hotel in Edinburgh. The plan here, was to shoot in shifts over different, non-consecutive, days to show the behind-the-scenes workings. This was my second shoot, and I still have a couple more to do before I'm finished. Again, it's all about the learning curve. The curve sometimes isn't necessarily photography, but more about how to handle myself in different situations to get exactly what I want from a shoot.

This week, I've mostly been concentrating on organising my up-coming projects. I've managed to secure some samples to photograph in the studio from different companies in Scotland. My intention there is to produce a series of images which would look good in high-quality print magazines or catalogues.
I've also organised another shoot with a charity as part of my college work, doing a behind-the-scenes for an editorial style shoot. This weekend, I've got a friend posing for my mental health awareness advertising project (another one from college) and I'm heading off to the New Start Business exhibition in Glasgow to get advice about starting up once I leave college for good.

Next week, we've got our college auction and we've also got a visit from Martin Parr, which I am thoroughly looking forward to.


I do enjoy keeping thoroughly busy at the moment as it helps me calm myself a bit at the thought of how long I have left at college. If I feel that I've actually done something useful with my day it makes getting to sleep a whole lot easier. On the days when I feel I could have used my time more productively... those are the days I end up lying awake at night thinking of ways to fill my diary as much as possible.