Gillman and Soame

Highlight: School dinners! Have they changed since I was at school when salad was lumpy mashed potato slopped onto a limp lettuce leaf with a runny tomato on the side. Now it's bowls of crispy green leaves, crunchy crudités, fresh fruit and nuts with baked potatoes and warm baguettes.

Lowlight: Getting up at 5.30am for half the month to get to school!!!

Fill in: So, one month, 15 schools, and over 5000 children from terrible toddlers to terrifying teenagers. There were tears, tantrums, hard stares and grimaces - and that was just me getting the kit up. The work, seemingly so straight forward in training suddenly became a mammoth task when confronted by the reality of giggling girls refusing to look up, boisterous boys refusing to smile, shirt collars refusing to lie down and receptions kids refusing to sit up. Each job threw up a new challenge, more frustrating than the last from concrete mixers blocking the school entrance, to mothers trying to turn a simple group shot into a creative family photo session, to getting lost in one particular school whose corridors and stairs would have given Hogwarts a run for its money. Am I coming back next year? You bet I am..To successfully get hundreds of children, from the awkward to the shy to the aggressive to the precocious, to smile nicely for the camera in a couple of hours is actually quite rewarding and as a mother - I know how just important that school photo is.

Tech Spec:

here is my shoot checklist

BEFORE

Location: power point 15’l x 10’w x 8’ h
Entrance exit
Windows position of cables

Set up: Background F8-F11 (half way up backdrop)
Front F8 (5’ 6” high)
Bench (five foot steps)
Shoot WB Shoot grey card
Tape down all cables.

Clipbag with marker, cards, batteries and tissues
Name cards and box.


DURING: Check class (board shot in-between each one)
Fill out Identiboard (class or comp)
Check tidiness (parents photograph them before school to prove they were tidy when they went in)
Check bench (kids kick it)
Check lights (kids kick them)
Check backdrop (kids knock it over)
Check name card (kids lose them - younger ones eat them)


AFTER: Re-Booking form
Download images – burn CD
Pack down


POST: CDs
Re-booking form
Yellow job sheet
Names to faces cards



Enquiries: http://www.gillmanandsoame.co.uk/