Professional Frameworks 3

Professional Frameworks 3.

The purpose of this Professional Frameworks 3 module is to help me to identify a series of personal objectives relating to the development of my own photographic practice after I leave University.

Not to only identify these objectives but to start to put them into place as much as I can now, wherever possible so that I will give myself the best possible chance of being a successful photographer after I graduate.

The Deliverable Elements Of This Module.

To successfully complete this module, I need to submit the following:

1. An online research blog.
2. A personal statement in both printed and digital formats.
3. A portfolio, either digital or printed. (If digital, to be submitted as a PDF on cd).

What are the key areas of the photographic world that I would like to work in?

The main area of photography that I am definitely most passionate about working in is motor-sports photography. 

I have been utterly fascinated with this area of photography since my early childhood .

Fig 1.

Figure 1 above is a shot that I captured only a few weeks ago at one of the many motorsports event that I regularly photograph at Oulton Park Racing Circuit.

This was round 2 of the 2013 British GT Championship.

My Dream-Job. A Motorsport Photographer.

Motorsport has been a huge passion of mine since my childhood, I grew up watching Formula One car-racing and Grand-Prix Motorbike racing in the early 1980's and have been utterly fascinated by the sport of Motor Racing ever since.

I have been actively photographing motor sports now since 2005 and in this time, I have attended about 50 different car and bike race meetings.

I have documented a huge variation of racing disciplines, some of the more prestigious events include:

• The British Superbike Championship.
• The World Superbike Championship.
• The MOTO GP World Championship.
• The Isle of Man TT.
• The British Touring Car Championship.
• The British GT Championship.
• The British Formula 3 Championship.

My dream-job when I graduate would most certainly be:

1.    To work with a professional racing-team in either motorbikes or car-racing and to work with them throughout the 2013 season as their official photographer.

2.    To produce images of each race-meeting for their own marketing strategies and their sponsors and to produce images of the team for the media.

3.    To document their year in racing and to write a book about their season at the end of the year.

In 2008, during my the first year of my HNC in Photography, I had the opportunity to work with a motorbike team for the year as their official photographer.

The raced in two of the support championships for the British Superbike Championship. During this amazing year, I travelled around the Uk with the team attending all 12 rounds of the British Superbike Championship and several test dates at different circuits around the country.

The most amazing part of this experience for me was when the team competed in the Isle of Man TT races. It had been my ambition since my childhood to go to see this race and to be part of a team that were competing there was an absolutely incredible experience for me.

I have also been to several Grand Prix motorbike races in Spain over the last few years in both Valencia and Barcelona. These have also been incredible experiences as I love to travel to other countries as a photographer and would love to have the opportunity to do this as a paid job after i finish my degree.

My local racing Circuit in the UK is Oulton Park International Racing Circuit in Cheshire. 

Oulton Park Website: http://www.oultonpark.co.uk

This is where I have photographed the most motor sport events.

I am now very familiar with this circuit and know all of the best vantage points around the track to some really good professional images.

These vantage points differ greatly depending on what type of racing event I am photographing.

For example, an area of the track that may be brilliant for photographing motorbikes may not necessarily give me as good a result if I am photographing a car-racing event so I have to have the knowledge to adapt my positioning accordingly.

Networking Opportunities at the Track.

I have found through many years of experience that one of the best ways of speaking to prospective clients about getting work as a motor sport photographer is by actually going into the garages and pit-lane area and just talking to people and showing them examples of my work.

After the competition of my degree, I intend to invest a lot of my time over the summer period by attending as many racing events as I can and doing as much networking as possible.

In order to be able to promote myself professionally and to network successfully, I will need several key items to help to promote my work, I see these items as being:

1.    A business name and logo (Richard Meftah Photography)

2.    A set of professional bespoke business cards, not cheap ones like                     

Vistaprint as I am trying to appear as professional as possible.

3.    My own online presence in the form of my own motor sports photography website. This will showcase the diversity of motorsports that I have successfully documented over the last few years and my techniques in this area of photography.

4.    A portfolio of work.This will either be in the form of a traditional portfolio    or my other idea is to present one in the form of a Blurb book as I feel that this would be a much more distinctive and unique approach to most other photographers work and would help me to ''stand out from the crowd''.