Student Photographers Snap-up Wedding!
22/11/2011
Crawley Snappers with Newly Weds Kim & Nathan
Local newly-weds Kim Garner and Nathan Green took the leap of faith and decided to allow photography students based at the College's Crawley campus to take their professional wedding photographs at their big day on Friday 11 November.
The couple, who live in Crawley, decided to employ the student snappers to capture the most important day of their lives after stumbling upon an article in the local paper, which featured the group's Summer Professional Project, where they photographed Brighton-based band, KOVAK. Nathan said: "We hadn't realised that the Crawley campus offered courses in photography until we saw the story." Kim added: "We had been looking for a wedding photographer for some time, and hadn't come up with anyone who stood out, so we thought 'why not?'"
Students Lorelle Tilbury, 16, Cain Gilson, 23, Azar Khan, 17, Lauren Kelly, 18, all from Crawley, Emma Dawes, 16, from Horsham, and Charlotte Tamplin, 18, from Hartfield, in East Sussex, jumped at the chance to get involved, and put their College work into practice in a real-life situation. The students, who are all first year students from the Level 3 Certificate in Creative Media Production, were hand-picked for the project based on their work to prepare a portfolio of photographic ideas or 'Look Book' for the wedding in response to Kim and Nathan's brief.
Having planned the shots as much as they could in advance, the students headed down to Brighton at 12.45pm on the big day - two hours early so that they could explore the venues beforehand. They worked in two teams of three, and with a Lecturer from the Media Department overseeing each group. Chris Beer, Course Leader for Media at the Crawley campus said: "We split into two groups as we didn't want it to look like paparazzi had descended upon Kim and Nathan!" said adding: "Staff at Brighton Registry Office were immensely supportive in making this a success".
Throughout the day, the group photographed the wedding party at a number of locations including the Registry Office, the Palace Pier and the King and Queen Inn, in Marlborough Place, which meant the students had to contend with various challenges at each setting, which they would not have encountered in a studio situation. Photography Lecturer Don Allen, who liaised with Kim and Nathan during the planning stages, and supported the students on the day said: "You can't beat doing things for real - out of the classroom! This was particularly exciting for the students, as they saw that the experience gained on this project could lead to one day setting up on their own!" Chris Beer added: "We were really excited by this opportunity, and extremely grateful to Kim and Nathan. Working in the real world is what we are preparing students for and experiences like this are vital to help them develop as professionals."
Following the day's success, the students are now working on editing the photographs and producing the wedding album for the couple. Student Cain Gilson has also been approached to photograph another wedding, after impressing on the day. He said: "I was really, really pleased that my work got me a place on the shoot. I was nervous but excited too, and Kim and Nathan were great to work for. Now I have an enquiry to do another wedding all by myself, which is absolutely brilliant!"
