First photo session

Spent about an hour taking pictures in the main workshop after reading and signing H&S at Work document plus Equal opportunities policy document before I was allowed into the workshop to photograph.

Had a really good first visit and was allowed to work my way around the workshop. There are several boats under construction and they should all be finished by Tuesday 9th June as this is boat launch day.

I'm really excited about this assignment and hope to do really well.  The boat building academy is somewhere I've never been in before.  I've walked past when they've been open and the intoxicating smell of wood drifts out the door.  Now I have permission to go in and take pictures, I only hope I can do it justice.

Made contact

I went down to the Boat Building Academy (BBA) this afternoon (May 25th 2016( and was met by an enthusiastic principal, Yvonne, who was most helpful. She explained that there were several photographers working with the boat builders but as long as I phoned up to check in advance it should be okay. I'll have to sign an undertaking not to use my pictures apart from agreed areas.

I took a picture of a wooden mast in final stages of preparation. The way this guy handled the wood was almost lovingly.

I love watching the way that the person working on their project gives it such love and attention.  Each piece of worked wood is stroked lovingly as it is formed and sanded down.  I'd like to use this image in my final choice but as it was taken on my iPhone, it's probably not fine enough.

Assignment 4 Advertising

This is one subject that I'm really interested in along with portraiture.  I worked for British Airways in the 1980/90s as a marketing executive in their Cargo, Cabin Services and Flight Operations and this was part of my job.  Whilst BA has an agency to handle all their major advertising and marketing each division had smaller units to do the more specific stuff and this was part of my remit.

I've had some ideas about the assignment already.  Living in Lyme Regis, where the scenery is gorgeous most of the time, it would be too easy just to run around, take a few snaps and call it a day.  I bounced ideas off my photographic friends and one suggested I focus on the life boat and its crew.  This was muddling round my head and I started to think through what to photograph that hadn't been covered before and how to put a new slant on it when another friend suggested, what I think is a better subject.  We have one of the few boat building academies in the country here at Lyme which builds amongst other things wooden boats.  The smell of the wood as you walk by is amazing and seeing boats created from pieces of wood tugs at the senses.

I've heard that the staff are very accommodating when it comes to taking pictures so I'm off this morning to talk to them about featuring the boats, students and staff in the calendar which I need to produce for this assignment.

And their web address is:

http://www.boatbuildingacademy.com/