Photosmudger On the Road

Right, for those completely in the dark about all this, here's what you can expect on an average day when we come to call at your college:

• Professional support from Nikon and Calumet all day long - excluding lunch and periods when caffeine is being taken. Are you puzzled by the menus on your D700? Do you want to know what sort of lighting stands you ought to buy for your new flashes? The wise and venerable people from Nikon and Calumet will be on hand all day to answer any such technical queries. Nikon will also have a decent range of kit for you to get your grubby hands on and play around with, though not take away.
• All the info you need to sign up for the Nikon/Calumet student discount. It's a no-brainer - sign up when you can.
• A goodie bag, filled with, erm, goodies! Of course, your definition of goodies may differ slightly from those of Nikon and Calumet, but that can't be helped! Don't expect any sweets, as they're bad for your teeth.
• An in depth talk about the realities of life as a Professional Photographer, given by me, Mr Tom Miles. I've not written the full script yet, and it'll be different to last years so as not to bore any repeat visitors. I'll be covering aspects of business, creativity, getting and finding work, technical problems, financial issues and how you can set yourself up for a professional career. Wherever possible I'll be relating this to jobs I've shot, so there's something to attach the abstract concepts to, and some pretty pictures to look at! I'm obviously open to any questions as well, plus bribery when it comes to judging the entries for the afternoon's brief.
• At about midday, a select group of students will get the chance to take part in our assignment. We ran this last year with great success, and will be following a similar format this time round. You'll get some information in advance relating to roughly what sort of brief you might be getting, along with the requirements for the work to be handed in. We will not give out the final details of the briefs until mid-day, and then you'll have a limited time (usually about 3 hours) to come up with ideas, shoot them, edit them, and hand them in to us. Myself and the folk from Nikon and Calumet will be "around" during this 3 hour period, and are quite happy to help, as long as we don't end up actually pressing the shutter. And we'd rather not appear in front of the camera if at all possible!
  
• Once all the images have been handed in we'll lock ourselves in with them for about 20 minutes, then let you all back in and hold a group critique session. The idea is to mimic real world feedback as if you'd handed the work in to a newspaper or magazine, although we tend to steer clear of shouting at people and throwing hissy fits.
• At some point we'll try and have some lunch, though this doesn't always work out.