Sweden - Day 6 (Ski Day)

Friday 11th Feb

Ahhh what a brilliant day!! Woke up dreading the ski trip as I haven't skiied before and thought I would constantly be on the floor! I did fall about 10 times but after a few hours of that I got the hang of it and loved it! I even went down a red slope which I think was the second steepest there. It was awesome :) The weather was beautiful too which helped! Got back about 5, absolutely knackered! We then had a big feast of tacos and fajitas with a few Carlsbergs thrown in ;) and headed for bed, looking forward to the lie in on saturday morning :)

Sweden - Day 5

Today was a partial rest day for me. Went with Tom for his first day at Haroldsboygymnasiet, took some photos of him joining in with the girl's hairdressers games class. I then had a small tour of the place and we got lunch at the canteen. I caught bus back and walked back in. Nobody was home when I got in so I just went and did some work on the computer. I then tried to have a 10 minute nap, but my alarm didnt go off so it ended up being an hours nap! whooops!

It was a good nap though ...

We then had a few beaut sandwiches before spinning classes. I hadn't been to them before so I was a bit worried that I would be dead after 2 minutes but it wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be and I enjoyed it :) We then went to Pitchers, a different sports bar to have a last meal with Nick and Marie before the head home. The service was crap but apart from that it was a really fun night, despite getting constant stick from Dale for being Scottish!

Sweden - Day 3 and 4

Day 3 - Had a tour another tour of Lugnet college and was introduced to more teachers from different departments. I then sat in on a photography class to see how they are taught. To be honest they are taught in the same way as us and the things they were teaching as it is only the equivalent of O levels so what they were being taught I already knew so I didn't really learn anything from it.

I then went down to Kristinegymnasiet to meet Tom and Dale, we went then went shopping for a while and they took me to their families home. We then went to the gym in the afternoon but because of all the rules and regulations I didnt have the right gear with me to just walk around the leisure centre so I had to sit out for a while in the cafe! :)

I then got back to Amanda's at half 9, at which Nick phoned me to tell me that the woman two of the lads are staying with had heard about my situation and offered me to stay with her. A wave of relief washed over me!

Day 4 - Went to Lugnet for half 8 again, met Nick there to discuss my programme at lugnet, then I spoke to Martin the photography teacher who had a look at my pictures and gave me some advice on shooting sports photography so that was useful. I then went to Kristinegymnasiet to have lunch with Dale and Tom as it is free there, we then went to meet Carina ( the woman who I was going to be staying with ) to introduce myself properly and to arrange with her how I would get my stuff from Amandas. We then had a 5 a side football match against some swedish players and ENGLAND WON!!!! 10 - 8 :D :D it also resulted in a swedish player being taken off in an ambulance. I then got taken to my new home and Carina took me over to Amandas to collect my things, it was a bit awkward but she must of felt the tension too and she hardly made the effort to make me feel welcome. At night we went to Dribblers (sports bar) and watched some football. It was a really good night and its made me feel much better about the experiences im going to have whilst out here.

Sweden - Day 2

Monday 8th February.

Today was our first real day in Sweden. For me it started with a 20 to 10 pick up by Inga Lil (our point of contact during our stay) outside the flat. We then picked up Joel and Josh from their placement and drove to Kristinegymnasiet, the college which Dale is based at. Everyone was already there so we went straight into our introduction meeting where we were given maps and schedules etc. I met Andy there, my point of contact from Lugnet Uni. We left the meeting half way through and he drove me up to Lugnet and gave me a little tour of the place. He then took me to the "good canteen" as he called it and we had what I called Brunch because it was at about 11. After that I was left to roam for 2 hours so I walked down to Falun town centre to find my way for the future. As I was walking I had a text from Josh that they were in the town centre so I went to meet him and Joel and we had a wander in search of a cash machine and supermarket for bus passes. We then went back to Kristinegymnasiet as they had to meet Tom and Dale as they were all going elsewhere. I had to leave at this point as I was due back at Lugnet at half 2 as I was sitting in with an English class.

Sitting in with the English class was a bit daunting for me. I'm not a confident person so it was a bit embarassing being sat at the front of the class and introduced! After that was over a small group of students and me went out of the classroom and had a discussion (which is what they were doing). I was quite surprised how well they could speak English. In the hour I was there there was only 2 words that they didn't know how to say.

I then got the bus from Falun to Hosjö. This was very scary! I first got on the wrong bus and then when I did get on the right one I was a typical tourist with my map of Falun out, pointing to where I wanted to go. The bus driver was very helpful though and made sure I got off at the right stop. After getting here Amanda and I went for a food shop, which is quite a long walk! She also showed me where to get a quicker bus in the morning as the one I got today took about twice as long as the other one.

I think today has been quite interesting and exhausting at the same time. I also have a blister on my foot from my Doc Martens but i've learnt alot.

To be honest I'm not quite sure what I'm meant to be doing at Lugnet Uni or why I am based there. They seem to think im on a media placement with them and that they have to give me something to do each day but most days I will be at the other places with the guys.
I am back there tomorrow morning for another brunch and I have to be there at half 8 so an earlier start for me tomorrow. We are then all meeting at Kristinegymnasiet at 3 as the Swedish students who are coming to England later in the year are taking us for a tour of Falun so I am looking forward to that :)

Sweden - First Post

So we have arrived in Sweden. For the next 3 weeks ( February 7th til February 28th) myself and 4 sports students will be on placements across the town of Falun and Borlänge.

The trip here consisted of :-

• A taxi from Wakefield to Leeds (pick up at 3am!)
• A plane from Leeds to Amsterdam
• A plane from Amsterdam to Stolkholm Arlanta (delayed by around an hour)
• A train from Stolkholm Arlanta to Borlänge (delayed by 40 minutes, due to this we missed the second train Borlänge to Falun so instead we got...)
• A coach from Borlänge to Falun (delayed by 15 minutes)
• A minibus to each of our placements - mine is in Hosjö, a 20 minute bus outside of Falun town centre

For my placement I am staying with an 18 year old student called Amanda who also goes to Lugnet Uni which is the school I am based at. In preperation for this I had emailed Amanda during the week before our arrival so I knew a bit about her before I came out.

The first night was an experience. Unfortunately it was quite difficult to speak to Amanda as she doesn't understand that much English ( it may just be because of my accent or because I speak too fast). I also asked all the basic questions right at the start so after that there wasn't much to talk about which resulted in a 3 hour silence in the evening. I also didn't realise that I was sleeping on the lounge couch which is also Amanda's bedroom as she lives in a studio flat so that has been a bit awkward. I should have been more prepared before arrival as I hadn't taken anything to eat but it had previously been arranged that I would provide my own food. This resulted in me having nothing for breakfast the next day as Amanda had hardly any food in her flat either. The first night has been a bit weird but I'm hoping that as the week goes on she may come out of her shell and it will hopefully become more comfortable living here :)

Candle Shoot

For our last brief before we broke up for christmas we had to shoot a lit candle in the style of a product shot. We also had to do this on location. As I am not from Wakefield I don't really know much of the place and so I just did my shoot at my flat in my living room. I shot this at night and closed the curtains and only used my christmas lights on my sideboard for bokeh and a table lamp to the front right of the candles to create highlights to show the shape of the tealight holders. I also had to hold the camera to shoot this as my tripod wouldnt go low enough for the angle I wanted and my coffee table (which the candles are on) isn't very tall.

I don't think this really looks like a product shot but I felt that if you don't have a brand name on the candle then most pictures end up looking like just a good picture of candles. This was shot on my canon 450d with a canon 50mm f1.8 lens. The only editing I have done on this was put the clarity up a little and exposure up by just 0.05.

If I could do this again I would use some white card to bounce some of the table lamp's light back onto the left side of the holders as I think they are a little too dark and you loose the grain of them. It would also help to defuse the harsh highlight spot on the right sides.

Bianca Robinson & Jasmine Davis

My 1st year dancers were Bianca Robinson and Jasmine Davis. They were friends and so they both wanted the same thing and wanted to be shot at the same time. I thought this would be good at first and make them feel less awkward if they had a friend in the studio at the same time but it ended up being a distraction. Also with these dancers it was very hard to arrange meeting up with them as something tended to come up on either side. Eventually though I shot them in the studio. The white background was left up from the previous shoot.

After taking a few headshots and looking back at them some of the shots the background was turning out grey which looked better. The dancers preferred it to. However when I started shooting I found it hard to keep the background grey in every picture as I wasn't sure what was causing it. I then turned off the backlighting to dim the background. Eventually I also ended up turning off one of the softboxes. To get the grey background I ended up having a very dark exposure on all the studio pictures so when editing I had to lighten the exposure first. I am happy with the result though and I think they show off the dancers well and showed part of their own style and attitude also which was part of the brief.

I changed the outdoors pictures to black and white as I love black and white photography and it was an overcast day again. Although some of the pictures looked fine in colour they just gained a bit of punch with black and white which was done using a preset on lightroom.