Evaluation

Throughout the course of Professional Studies (Employability Skills) I gained a range of skills in professional practice. Throughout the first few lectures I learnt about Personal Development Planning and different career pathways. Learning about Personal Development Planning enabled me to become a more effective and independent learner as well as seeing changes within myself as a result of monitoring my own development. This particularly helped me with my report writing, in terms of structuring and planning for primary and secondary research.

The lecture in Week 5 about report writing gave me advice on writing and structuring the report in the right way. Prior to this lecture I thought that a report was similar to an essay, however, I realized that it is a more structured form of writing, which is designed to be read quickly, and also based on fact rather than pure argument. (At some points I did get slightly carried away in terms of writing in first person too much.)

I decided to write my report question on ‘Wedding Photography’. The main reason I went about this topic is because I would like to have my own sort of Photography Business after Graduation. By completing a survey and receiving feedback from people already within the Photography industry I have gained great advice and inspiration for my future ideas.

The best feedback responses I got back from my survey explained to me what the role of a photographer has to actually do on the day of someone’s wedding. , I got a deeper perspective from Wedding photographers in a one to one personal way. To be a Wedding photographer you need to be prepared, insured in a worst case scenario and also plan ahead before the event.
Wedding photography is the high-profile moneymaker. Most photographers generally recognize it as being a highly skilled job – not only taking photographs but also dealing with people at such a emotional time.

Before writing up my report I had to do a presentation during one of the Professional Studies lecture. In my presentation I spoke to a group of people on my table about what I was going to do my report about and my plan for writing it. Each slide addressed different concepts and a logical progression- I made sure there were no more than six lines of text on one side, so that I could speak more to the viewers rather than making them read of my presentation.
Overall, the presentation turned out well, I felt comfortable talking about my ideas and planning because it was something I am passionate about. I displayed photographs I had taken of a Wedding within my power point to allow the viewer to get a better idea of what I was speaking about and allowed them to see different styles of photography.

To conclude, the professional studies lectures have taught me to become more familiar with my chosen creative industry and the professional roles and careers within it. Not only had the lectures helped me gain more knowledge but also made me a better person in terms of time management and also communicating using a range of formats.