After hearing that Topshop where hosting a series of summer schools over May/June to do with Photography, I leaped at the opportunity. Usually, the creative subjects are lacking a diverse range of courses, the sciences (medicine, veterinary) and essay based subjects (English, history) are bursting full of chances for students to spend the day at a University listening to talks and partaking in classes to do with that subject to get a "feel" for it. Sadly, I am often let down by the lack of creative push from my school - roughly every week I receive 4 or 5 emails abut a new science or law talk, yet only twice has there ever been something about the creative arts. This disappoints me but I am at an academically driven school so I am not surprised when it cannot cope with the growing demand for creative opportunities. Nevertheless, there are classes and courses being run frequently (admittedly it is hard to get onto them and they are mainly for older students so they run throughout the day) but after digging around a bit you can find something. Being on study leave meant that I was free to do what I wanted with each of my days without an exam (I assume my school would have wanted me to stay at home and revise) and I chose to attend to one of these classes.
Admittedly, when I first arrived at Topshop for the 'Shoot Street Style' class with Jay McLaughlin (street fashion photographer) , Yanin and Leanne (both fashion bloggers) and released that I was probably the youngest (17 years old) and least experienced (after all I am no blogger or photographer yet, I am still doing my AS Levels), I was definitely nervous. Surrounded by fashionistas, bloggers and uni students, I did feel out of place and quickly sent a text to my mum stating it might had got the wrong idea about this event. But there was no time silently slip away (one reason being the fact that there were only 11 of us and it would be incredibly obvious) as the talk began. Thankfully, it was a relaxed and easy environment, with Jay sharing some top tips that will certainly be of use at some point in my future. We then got to grab an Olympus Pen Pl-7 camera, which unfortunately might have been the most beautiful camera I have ever held and that I may have to spend £400 on one for myself, and shoot some photos of a model that Topshop had provided for us. As I'm used to shooting some of my closest friends I found it a bit awkward at first, but because we were shooting as a group at the same time on the streets of London, it started to become a lot easier. Initially I had the camera on the usual colour settings after swapping the 35mm for a 45mm lens to get a shallow depth of field by putting the camera on a shocking low f1.8, but then I began to mess around with it to increase some of the contrast in the photos (and I do mean mess as the camera was set to German meaning I had no idea what I was doing) and was really pleased with the outcomes. The camera was so easy to use and the touch screen and WiFi capabilities made it all that much better. Thrilled with the outcomes and below I have included some of my favourites from the day. Big thank you to Topshop, Olympus, Jay and the model Charlotte.
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| (High colour contrast setting) |
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