Photography Practice for HELEN MOORE - Studio

I have started to have a real practice in the studio so that I can get a good idea of what  I need to do with the cameras and lighting, etc, when I get into the studio on Monday 8th for my Helen Moore shoot.
Photos started of very experimentatioal, trying to get the lighting and camera settings right when shooting with the fur.

Not enough lighting

Over-exposed 

ISO and Shutter Speed settings too high

I then, with some guidance, managed to get the setting to balance out and I went back down the studio and had another go. We also changed the image files to RAW.

Still not the right lighting, a working progress. But fur is photographing well.

Lighting getting better, trying out some different compositions and angles.

Fur photography really well. Vibrant colours coming out.

Playing with props and close-ups, lighting a lot better. 

Trying out with more props.

Trying out with film reels

Better focus on front - not lighting on the back.

Just adding a small spot of light to the centre of the reel at the back of the image really pulls the image together.

Changing angles

I think the practice went pretty well, I got some more ideas of how I would like to shoot, what settins I should use, and how long it would take to do everything.

Behind the scenes -

Studio

Studio

Me switching props around

Cassandra moving and positioning fur and props

Me positioning props again

Ready to shoot

INTERVIEW help for the FASHION INDUSTRY

I am looking into interviewing someone from the fashion industry for TRIBE magazine and, after researching online, I found this little help guide from christianbassett.com.

He talks through the interview process and all of the dos and don'ts that some people may not already be aware of. I thought it would be helpful to keep on this blog as a resource for myself and for anyone else who is in the process of preparing for an interview.

The Christian Bassett Interview Guide.

An interview is a two way process – the potential employer will be learning about you and vice versa. Information will be gained not only from the answers given to their questions, but also from the kind of questions you ask and the opinions you hold. There is no magic formula on winning an interview, but there are a number of basic skills and do’s and don’ts.

Be Positive

The most important thing is to have the right attitude. You must go to the interview with the sole intention of being offered a position. Too many candidates during the course of an interview give too much consideration to whether they want the job or whether they are suited to it. Do not give the interviewer the opportunity to exclude you by excluding yourself. Once you have an offer, you can then say yes or no.

Preperation

Preparation for your interview is vital. You have to know why you have chosen the particular job, and find out as much as possible about the employer. Do your homework on the company. Names of top people, directors etc. Obtain product information and a set of accounts, which will give you the size and feel of the business. Make sure you plan how you will get to the interview – do a dummy run if at all possible. Allow time to go to the toilet and freshen yourself up – make sure you arrive for the appointment early, but enter on time.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Most interviews are won during the first 3-5 minutes. What you have to do in order to be different, so that they remember you out of all the other candidates, is to hold their concentration for more than the magic 3-5mins. Each minute after is a bonus. The chemistry between you, the candidate, and the interviewer is most important – you must get on and it is you who has to compromise in order to win the interview.

Practice

There are just a few crucial questions that occur again and again at interviews: –

“Tell me about yourself”

This is where you have the stage for just three minutes so you have to rehearse your response.

·        Write down as you did in your CV your past history, write it as a story.

·        Rewrite it several times as though you were actually talking it through and make it last for 3 minutes. Add one line at the end like “Can I expand on anything in more depth for you?” or “Is there anything you wish to know about in more detail?”

·        Read it out aloud to someone else and modify it according to their response, then tape it and learn it.

·        Once you know your script then put some mannerisms and actions into it so the whole thing comes alive – be yourself, relax, and smile, add just a little humour into it and remember the last line or something similar, which invites the interviewer back into the interview.
 

“Why did you leave your last job, or why are you looking for another?”

Rehearse your answers so you are not caught out.

·        Do not tell untruths that can be checked. If you state something make sure you know your subject.

·        Always be positive, any negative things that may have happened to you – turn them into something positive.
 

·        No one can predict the exact questions that an interviewer will ask, but to prepare, think about how you would answer the following questions:
 

·        Review your past positions, education and other strengths.

·        What do you know about our organisation?

·        Why are you interested in this position?

·        What are the most significant accomplishments in your career so far?

·        Describe a situation in which your work was criticised. Focus on how you solved the problem and the lessons you learnt from it.

·        How would you describe your personality?

·        How do you perform under pressure?

·        What have you done to improve yourself over the past year?

·        What did you like least about your last position?

·        What is your ideal working environment?

·        How would your co-workers describe you?

·        What do you think about your boss?

·        Have you ever fired anybody? What was the situation and how did you handle it?

·        Why should we hire you?

·        What kind of salary are you looking for? What other types of jobs/companies are you considering?
 

·        How do we know that you won’t leave the company for another role soon?
 

Prepare answers on paper to any possible questions that may come up and by doing this it will hopefully lodge in your mind if the question arises. Never be afraid to say, “I don’t know”.

Prepare your Questions

Write on a small card any questions that you want answered – make sure you have at least three good questions – at least when you are asked you are well prepared – you have to stand out from the other candidates. Sample questions could include:
 

·        Why is this position available?

·        What type of training will be offered to the person in this position?

·        What obstacles must be overcome for the person in this position to succeed?

·        What are your goals for this position?

·        How will my performance be evaluated?
 

·        What opportunities are there for growth in the next 12 months? Two years? Five years?
 

Do not ask what the salary is, what the pension is, and what holidays you get.
Your only job at the interview is to win it – they will offer you the position if they want you, and then we can negotiate the best terms.

The Interview – What to take

·        Job Specification

·        Your letter calling you for your interview.

·        Your C.V. (Two copies in case they want another one).

·        Copy of your application form.

·        Diary, pen, pencil, small pad or notebook.

·        Newspaper – a good quality one. Make sure that you cannot get caught out. A newspaper can lead you into any conversation so make the utmost use of it – you can argue and express yourself against articles in newspapers.

·        Name of interviewers.
 

·        Do not take notes during the interview, unless you get agreement first and then only note something that is vital.
 

The Interview – Do’s and Don’ts

DO

·        Relax

·        Arrive 10 minutes early. Late attendance is never excusable. If you are running late, call them, apologise and ask if it will still be convenient for them to see you, offer to come back later if not.

·        Clarify questions. Be sure you answer the question which was asked.

·        Get the interviewer to describe the position and responsibilities early in the conversation so you can relate your skills and background to the position throughout the interview.

·        Give your qualifications. Stress the accomplishments that are most relevant to the job.

·        Conduct yourself professionally. Be aware of what your body language is saying. Smile, make eye contact, maintain your composure and don’t slouch.

·        Anticipate tough questions. Prepare in advance so you can turn apparent weaknesses into strengths.

·        Dress appropriately. Make your first impression a professional one.

·        Ask questions throughout the interview. An interview should be a mutual exchange of information, not a one-sided conversation.

·        Do not bring: big bags, plastic bags, bottles of water, crash helmets etc. to the interview; and do not chew gum!

·        Listen. This is probably the most important ability of all. By concentrating not only on the employer’s words, but also on the tone of voice and body language, you will be able to pick up on the employer’s style. Once you understand what they are looking for you can tailor your answers accordingly. Connect and relate.

·        Motivate yourself, be positive and energetic.Be polite, stand up when you are introduced to someone.

·        Sit up straight, don’t lounge around, but do try to relax .

·        Talk face to face and maintain eye contact throughout the interview.

·        Sort out your hands – practice what you are going to do with them.

·        Try to talk to the receptionist or secretary if at all possible – their opinions are often asked.

·        Remember you are being interviewed as soon as you walk in the door – in the reception, loo, on the stairs, everywhere.

·        Be enthusiastic; speak up so the interviewer can hear your replies to their questions. Before leaping in with an answer, consider it for a moment before replying – do not rush
 

·        Try to find out as much as much as possible about the job – where you will fit in etc.
 

DO NOT

·        Answer vague questions. Rather than answering questions you think you hear, get the employer to be more specific and then respond.

·        Never interrupt the employer. If you don’t have time to listen, neither does the employer.

·        Don’t smoke, chew gum or place anything on the employer’s desk.

·        Don’t be overly familiar, even if the employer is doing all of these things.

·        Don’t wear heavy perfume or cologne.

·        Don’t ramble. Long answers often make the speaker sound apologetic or indecisive.

·        On the other hand, don’t answer questions with a simple “yes” or “no”. Explain wherever possible.

·        Do not fiddle and fidget around.

·        Don’t keep running your hands through your hair – let the interviewer see your face.

·        Don’t hesitate when asked “Tea or Coffee”. Be positive – “Coffee please, white, one sugar” or whatever.
 

·        Avoid telling them about any problems – you have none! Be positive. Try to find out their problems and then you can tell them how your experience can help them.

If the interview is running late or is constantly interrupted with ‘phone calls’, offer to come back at a more convenient time – you must make sure that you get a fair hearing.

Closing the Interview

Too many people second-guess themselves after the interview. By closing strongly and asking the right questions, you can eliminate the post-interview doubts that tend to plague most interviewees. If you feel that the interview went well and you would like to take the next step, express your interest to the hiring authority and turn the tables on them. Try something like the following:

“After hearing more about your company, the position and the responsibilities at hand, I am certain that I possess the qualities that you are looking for in the (title) position. Based on our conversation and my qualifications, are there any issues or concerns that you have that would lead you to believe otherwise?”

You have a right to be assertive. This is a great closing question because it opens the door for the hiring authority to be honest with you about his or her feelings. If concerns do exist, this is a great opportunity to overcome them. You have one final chance to dispel the concerns, show your strengths and end the interview on a positive note.

A few things to remember during the closing process:

·        Don’t be discouraged if no definite offer is made or specific salary discussed. The interviewer will probably want to communicate with the office first, or interview other applicants, before making a decision.

·        Make sure you answer the following two questions: “Why are you interested in the company?” And “What can you offer?”
 

·        Express thanks for the interviewer’s time and consideration.

Follow-up

Immediately after the interview, make notes of anything you may have overlooked and note the questions where you may have struggled with the answers. Think of the qualifications the employer is looking for and match your strengths to them.

Make sure you are fully aware of the next stage after your interview. When and how they will contact you (via Christian Bassett Consultants), how many will be short listed for another interview, when that will be, what do they see as their first priority, how quickly do they want someone on board etc…

Immediately after the interview, write a follow-up letter to the interviewer, thanking them for your meeting, listing the primary job tasks as you understand them and how you can meet those tasks. You would welcome a second interview etc. – not too long – try to make it a page.

I hope these notes will give you a few ideas on how to have a successful interview. The main thing is to rehearse, act out the interview with your friends, partner, or even the mirror!

Finally, always give me a call at the earliest opportunity after the interview to give me your feedback and comments.

I just thought this little article was really interesting and could be really helpful! 

Ciao

Jenny Postle - LeuttonPostle - Knitwear Designer

Sam Leutton and Jenny Postle

Today the BRILLIANT Jenny Postle came into Uni and gave us a BRILLIANT talk about her work.
Jenny is primarily a knitwear designer but she describes herself as more of a textile designer who specialises in knitwear as she doesn't use knit in very unconventional ways. LeuttonPostle is a label created by herself and Sam Leutton who she met whilst studying her BA. They have created many collections together and their can be purchased from H Lorenzo in L.A, Primitive in London and avenue32,com, and their label is sponsored by LORAX who feature in some of their more recent collections.

Postle studied a BA in textiles at Central Saint Martins and for her graduate show, she created a range of samples and three garments featuring the 'E-Wrap Knit technique.

She then, after completing her BA, she went straight onto to study an MA in Fashion; Specialising in Knitwear.

Jenny Postle MA

This collection was bought by leadin boutique, Browns Focus. From this, she gained much praise from international press.

Although she uses many different fabrics and yarns in one garment (featured on the garments pictured above), she explains that sometimes her collections are misconceived as being recycled or up-cycled and they are most definitely not, they are almost the opposite of this and she says that she is pretty much wasteful of all of the fabrics as she uses so much of them and there are so many scraps left over. She called it an "overdose of fabric".

 She then went on to show the first collection that she created with Sam Leutton after then decided to collaborate in 2011. This collection was shown in September of the same year.

S/S 12 (Shown September 2011)- Leutton.Postle

If you watch the video of the show, you may be able to notice some of the garments have A LOT going on at the front and a plain back - she says that she tell people that it was on purpose but really it is because she had put SOOOOO much work into the front and the back, she felt that the back didn't need as much attention.
"quote about front'
She also said that she never thought of the items in this collection commercially, just something she wanted to create. She doesn't want sexy, she wants ugly and weird, a bit monster-y. - She talks about an inspiration, Robbie Spencer- Stylist of Dazed and Confused who creates looks that she does work for and how she wants her pieces to look. She goes onto talk about how he uses 'quota' in a clever way in how he styles. If, say 20% of Chanel had to be featured in the magazine, he would, for instance, wrap a Chanel jacket around the models leg - it is adding texture to the shot but just because it isn't worn conventionality on someone's back, it is still there so the quota would have been met as they have still featured that piece in the magazine.

Styling by Robbie Spencer - Dazed and Confused.

She explained how she loved images like this wear the face is covered, she replicated this idea in a future show where she featured reverse appliqué masks.

A/W 12 Reverse appliqué mask

Fast forward to the A/W 12 show. A lot more ready to wear clothing was made. Jenny describes this as having a jacket looking liked a jacket and a skirt looking like a skirt, garments which are actually thought about commercially - "Balancing out the weirdness with utility". This collection featured a lot more textiles than knit. Everything was very layered and there was a huge element of illustration shown here.

 I personally really like the outfits in this collection. Especially the ones which had what looked like metallic foils embroidered into them.

The make up of these looks was created by Lucy Bridge who translated the idea from Postle of 'monster-y' onto the faces.

Spring/Summer '13 - A collection Postle describes as flatter. The fabrics were so much more 'flat' than previously collections, there were very few heavily woven fabrics or chunky reverse appliqué pieces. There were more block colours in this collection too, there seemed to be a theme running through of a vibrant cerise and a powdered, antique pink.
 I like how this collection features alot of sheer fabric, for example in the maxi length skirt shown, I creates a real feminine look which, although all collections so far have been for females, they don't have that 'delicate' element to them like this one. This collection, to me, feels pretty 60's-esque, with the classic semi-spread collars, the short angled sleeves, the playful, Babydoll-like shapes of the dresses and the bold pink lip.

In the A/W '13 collection LOREX became involved in the company. LeuttonPostle were going to be creating a fashion film as this was the 'next big thing' that the British Fashion Council were really pushing. So they created one inspired by Pans People, that very 80's look with the fuzzy screen, bright colours, crimped hair, and dancing around - a really fun look; which is what the brand wanted to go for, they wanted to show that they didn't take 'fashion' too seriously. The film was by Amy Gwatkin who now creates all of their other fashion films as well.

Although they were pleased with this film and it got good response, they felt like it put them into a certain catagory of we love fashion but we are different and kooky and fun. They tried to be really different but really they had put themselves into the 'other category' and so they weren't really different at all. So they set about to improve and change this for the next collection.

They did this in the S/S/ '14 collection. LORAX was included again but this time in a more matte and delicate state so that it was very subtle. Amy Gwatkin made another film for them and they tried to do something really DIFFERENT and INNOVATIVE. The film was inspired by the work by photographer Martin Parr who photographed typical English-ness. Not the stereotypical english tweed and pipe look, but they rough and raw images of Britain. The collection of images that was especially an inspiration in this film for them was 'Style Of The Times: A Portrait Of The Nations Tastes' - images taken in peoples homes of mundane aspects of the peoples lives and narrated them with humorous captions, perfectly describing each image.

'We wanted a cottagey stately home kind of feel.' 1991

I think we are lucky to have informed taste - with my position as a fine arts valuer. 1991.

'Underneath it all she really is a lovely girl'. 1992.

The film involved the same concept of a girl in her very boring home talking about very mundane topics whilst wearing fabulous outfits, you cant quite believe that he personality and her house is so dull because of the way she looks.

The film was excellently received by worldwide press and was listed as one of the TOP 10 fashion films world wide against all other designers and design houses, including all of the major ones.
This goes to show that when you use and do something different with what you have you can become successful, you don't have to spend millions.

Fast forwarding again to the most recent collection from LeuttonPostle. A/W '14.

This collection, as you can see, is very monochrome, a different step for LP as to what they have created previously with so many colour combinations. The texture is also refined using mohair and Lorex. The garments are said to look printed but in actuality they are all knitted, this idea was created to give knitwear a very youthful and fun feel and take the image of a stereotypical knit jumper out of your head.
Again, another fashion film was created for this collection with a similar theme as the last film as it was so successful. This film features sisters who live in Blackpool and work at Blackpool pleasure beach. Again, like the last film, the girls look amazing but there surroundings and what they talk about are so mundane, it's a brilliant contrast.

Most recently, LeuttonPostle have worked with the cider brand Kopparberg, in Kopparberg, Central Sweden.

They were commissioned to take the idea of the traditional Swedish knit jumper, and modernise it (like the had done with their last collection). This would be used in the campaign for Kopparberg's new winter Spiced Apple Cider.
They de-constructed the typical Swedish knit and put it back together again, here is the result...

This was the first time that the company have featured a male in their collections, this is because Kopparberg wanted this to be a uni-sex campaign.
Kopparberg x LeuttonPostle

She then finished off by talking to us about how we can really get into the industry and how we can gain more experience. The best way to start is to intern. She told us that she doesn't really know anyone in fashion, especially in styling, who didn't intern. It's just what you do, "it's rough but it's the way to do it".
A really good Tumblr blog to look at on this is http://wheniwasanintern.tumblr.com/
As an intern you can work your way up to become an assistant and so on. It is really a STAMINA job.
This was all really helpful information as obviously I will have to intern in the very near future and it is great to get some tips on how to go about it and what it is really like.

She also gave us a lot of other pieces of advice after asking her questions about different aspects of her work.
One of the things she advised us on is to look at art, most of her inspiration comes from that, she also looks at fashion but not to be inspired by, to see what is relevent. In this career "YOU ALWAYS NEED TO BE RELEVENT" if you don't keep up to date with what is going on then the things do won't be successful because they won't be relevent anymore.



She talked about her main inspiration for her designs, The Memphis Group, an Italian design and architecture company founded by Ettore Sottass in 1981. She told us of a time that she as at an art gallery and she was overwhelmed by how busy it was, she couldn't hardly see anything because everyone was in the way and suddenly she turned around and saw this piece (pictured), and she just burst out crying. She had been so inspired by this group and to see there work in person was so overwhelming.
She said, "Find the thing, the designer, the movement, the painter, the sculpture that changes you".


leuttonpostle.com

Macro Photography

I have compiled most of the work that I have done so far in photography workshops which have been taken as practice for studio work I will be doing in the near future.

The following photos were taken using the macro lenses. I really enjoyed using these and found it really interesting actually focusing in with your body, moving the camera closer and further away from the object rather than just using the zoom on the camera itself.

I'll admit, these arn't the most visually inspiring images in the world, but they are just some examples of my practice with macro photography. I have gone and got myself a macro lens for my own DSLR so watch this space for more experimental shots. Sorry not sorry, hahah.

Cheers