Photography students at Solihull Sixth Form College have been getting out of their comfort zone to take on the challenge of nature photography.
Year 12 A level Photography students were set this project as a live brief in the Spring term. It meant working for a client to a brief set by the client. This year, the client was the College and the students were tasked with taking photographs to be used on three nature information boards for the campus grounds. The College is situated on the edge of a nature reserve and adjacent to Malvern and Brueton Parks, which means it gets a lot of wildlife on site, including birds, foxes and there is even a badger sett on campus.
Students researched the work of various professional nature photographers as part of this project. Each student focussed on different aspects of nature, with some interested in birds, others in flora and some on landscapes. This provided the students with both a focus and an inspiration for their own photography, with some students seeking to focus on colour, others on texture and others on their framing of photographs.
Rebecca Baugh, a teacher of Photography at the College, commented:
“The students are used to taking photographs in a controlled studio environment, so getting outside presented significant challenges for them. They quickly discovered that the varying light levels and the facts that the wildlife was so unpredictable posed substantial difficulties, so they had to be creative and patient to capture the images they wanted. I’m delighted with the work they have produced.”
The students spent time in post-production, utilising Photoshop and Lightroom software to create the desired effort with their images. They then presented their final chosen images (seven photos each) to staff from the College. The difficult process of deciding which photos would be used on the information boards has taken place and the boards are currently being produced go up around the campus in the summer.
28 April 2022