Personal Development Plan • GROW Model

GOALS

What are your personal goals in the short, medium & long term?

My goals in the short terms are to carry on taking photographs of things that I love: fashion and events, as well as families and creative portraits. I also want to rekindle my love of the outdoors and take more photographs of nature and landscapes. In the long term, I want to become a successful freelance photographer, who has a job they can be proud of. I always look up to successful freelance photographers as I know it takes a lot of hard work and talent to get there, but I am sure if I try and succeed and put the hours and time in, I can make a success of myself.

What area of the industry are you aiming for and why?

I would love to work within the fashion industry, taking photographs of models for magazines and companies. Although, I do realise that I will have to do “run of the mill” things, such as family studio shoots, to pay the bills and be able to photograph my passion as a hobby. I would also like to teach children the art of photography at either A Level or degree level, as inspiring people always makes me feel good about myself.

What skills will you need to achieve this?

I need to build my confidence skills, which I am currently working on. I used to be scared to do a photo shoot on my own and would always bring along an assistant, a friend or partner, because I felt safer. However, I have recently photographed some models on my own, which is a big step for me! I also need to be more organised, which is something I have always struggled with.

Are you considering further education? If so where might you wish to study & why?

I was considering studying a Master’s degree in fashion photography, as I feel like the course I am studying at Salford does not explore commercial photography at all. Following this, I want to study a PGCE (or the other way round), but I understand this requires a lot of experience and is very hard to get placed on.

REALITY

What have you done specifically so far to achieve your goal?

I work mainly in the fashion industry, and make contacts with companies and models that I can see being very successful in the future. I am building my reputation as a photographer over social media, and people regularly see me as “Through Laura’s Lens, the photographer girl” when I am in town and at work.

What challenges have you met and overcome?

Being a female photographer has been challenging, as there is a lot of male competition in the photography world. I recently wrote my essay on this problem, and it made me more willing to challenge this thought of men being better photographers. I have worked in a variety of different situations where I have been treated differently because of my gender and it has made me more passionate to change this stereotype and become more successful than any male photographer.

What skills do you want/need to develop?

As mentioned in my personal development plan, I need to develop my studio skills by using alternative lighting and gels. I found myself stuck in the cycle of using the black background and one light to create a dark atmosphere. Recently, however, I have been using different backgrounds and lighting techniques to further my knowledge, and working with other people on studio days, to share knowledge and develop each others skills.

OPTIONS

What routes are there into the career that you want?

I can either work freelance, or be employed by a fashion brand as their in house photographer. I would prefer to work freelance, as then I could work for a number of different brands and experiment more with ideas and concepts for different styles of fashion brand. My dream would to be Vogue’s in house photographer, but they are steering more to commissioning freelance photographers for certain projects, so this would be something to aim to.

What else could you do?

I would also like to go into teaching, and inspire people to take photography more seriously and achieve their creative dreams. I would prefer to teach A Level or degree level photography, however, I would also like to run creative workshops for younger children on photography, as well as other arts based subjects. I do not think that art is studied enough in primary schools, and children need to be creative in order to succeed in other academic subjects.

How should I be promoting myself?

I currently promote myself through Facebook advertising; however, I need to sign up to creative platforms such as LinkedIn and Creative Hive to network more.

WILL/WAY

When will you take action?

I plan to take a year after I finish my degree to gain a job in the photography industry, and try and establish my name as a freelance photographer. Failing this, I plan to future my study on degree level and think about options in teaching.

What do you need to do now to move towards your goal, e.g. Work experience, volunteering, networking, skills development, academic studies?

I need to network more with models, make up artists and other photographers to build up my reputation and credibility as a photographer, as well as working with other professional and established photographers to see how they became successful. I am going to America this summer to teach photography to children on a summer camp, so I need to take this experience and learn from it, to decide whether teaching would be something I could do in the future.