Presentation, Portfolio and Project Costing

I did have a professional practice presentation about what I am going to do and if it is the right way for me to go. All tutors have agreed that I should be an editorial photographer and definitely I should try my best and assist other photographers before choosing my own path. Claire, who was an external examiner has mentioned that I should try to go to London for few days and find/get the editorial job there. I think it could be my chance an a good opportunity to do this while exhibiting my work at Rag Factory in late June.
Other thing - I should not put any attention to weekly magazine competitions, because as Angus and Jim has mentioned - they are not professional and not worth it. So I will go to the editors of the magazines to show my portfolio and also send emails to the magazines with my website details, CV, also one (the best) image attached to an email. It would be nice to work for magazines as Telegraph, Empire Magazine, Sunday Times, Big Issue, but at the same time I know I couldn't get a job as an editorial photographer anywhere as long as I don't have an experience. So I want to assist first.

These are the images I chose for my portfolio and I am going to print them in A4 size and have them in my folder:

As for the portfolio I am using only 8 images for now, my whole project in degree show will have at least 10 images in various sizes. The biggest problem for me was to cost my own work. I did ask for help from Sid Smallman, he said that he usually sells framed piece of work which is 16x16 inches for around 100£. I did ask my tutor Suzanne how should I price my work as well. She said that if I will have a project of 10 images in A4, I should sell each of them for 100£. I thought that it's way too much, but then I have realized that all the facilities for me would cost a lot, plus films and their processing/printing/scanning. That makes my images more expensive than  really good digital photographs. So I would stick to a 100£ per A4 image, even though I am planning to have some of my images in A3 and some only 10x10cm. So I assume that A3 should be around 200£ and 10x10cm ones should be no more than 25£. I am talking about framed pieces of work. Does that sound fair enough? Also I need to add sales tax to the price which in UK is 20% payable to the government afterwards.

So that you would get an idea of what I am going to do, I have posted Rinko Kawauchi's exhibition photograph, she is the main inspiration for me with this years project and I am going to exhibit my work in similar layout and different sizes.

Rinko Kawauchi

Also I did the invoice as we were required to do for this year's project, I did use a medium format camera for some of my shots, so I looked up on the internet how much it would cost for me to hire a medium format camera with lens and etc. Also, half of my images were shot in Lithuania, so I included return tickets as well as films cost to my Misc., Travelling section. The commission fee is basically the fee I would probably get as an editorial photographer, because cost varies from 50£ to 450£ per day. I just chose £300 even though I know it's not a realistic price I could get, plus, it is really hard to count how many hours/days I have worked on this project. And finally the production fee - I have scanned a lot of negatives for this project and this is the main factor for setting up the price. Even though I did not use Photoshop much, I still worked with my images varies ways - i.e. using darkroom facilities and processing films myself.
Many photographers have other sections like "Model fees", "Assistant", "Make-up artists" and etc on their invoice, but I didn't use either of them. My invoice:

CV and Business Cards

I have finished my CV up to date and what can I say..when you have everything written on the piece of paper, you realise that you need to do more, because it's not even near to the 'Enough'. I have learnt from my own CV that I MUST attend competitions and exhibitions, my Experience section looks very very empty. I know it will fill up with time, but I need to do something about it and not leave it as it is. So here it is:

Urte Ursule Sutkute

upeliu@gmail.com                                  UrteUrsule_Sutkute @ Flickr

07557338224

Personal Statement

I am Bristol based photographer interested in telling stories of the people and places hidden. For me, photography is a window to a different dimension – it always helps me see the world more beautiful, raw and breathtaking, allowing me to capture the smallest of details and most unusual of patterns, which otherwise would be hidden from a naked eye. It forms memories of the moments that are the dearest, something that I find to be of utmost importance. That is why a film camera is my first and last choice – everything from inserting the film to developing it and working in the darkroom feels so alive to me.

Education

2010-2013 BA Hons Photography, University of the West of England, Bristol

2005-2009 Julius Janonis Gymnasium, Lithuania, 8/10 A level studies

Technical skills

Expert skills with 35mm Zenit camera and 120mm cameras Bronica and Hasselblad

Advanced skills with Canon digital cameras

Advanced skills in using darkroom facilities, film development and scanning

Basic knowledge of using Metz flash lights, studio facilities and large format cameras

Experience

2013-04-10 Level 3 photography courses exhibition at 51, Stoke’s Croft, Bristol

2012-02-14 Level 2 photography courses exhibition at Bower Ashton, Bristol

Bear in mind that I will have 2 more exhibitions early in summer and it will look fuller. One is going to be at Bower Ashton Campus - our final degree show on 07.06.2013 and another - our course degree show in London at Rag Factory on 20.06.2013. 

Next thing I have worked on is business cards. I have a few samples:

I like the first and last the most. The fist card looks like a proper business card and is creative enough. With the second one I think it's too much of the information in it and not enough space to read what is written. If using the whole photograph on the background it should definitely be wider as in the third example, because using a close shot photograph doesn't work, in my opinion. Other thing I can't decide is if I should use the word PHOTOGRAPHY or PHOTOGRAPHER next to my name. I feel like it's suppose to be there, but at the same time photograph talk about itself. Also maybe add more information on the card, like if prints are available or where I am based, but I guess people who would be interested, they would visit my website and all the information would be there.. I was even thinking about the possibility to make cards with different pictures. The same information, but just at least 5 different looking cards. I guess the easiest would be to use the first sample then, because I wouldn't need to change the layout, just add another photograph.

Another thing is that for the deadline I will not have the actual business card made, simply because I don't have my website yet and I want it to be written on the card instead of or with the flickr information, but I will definitely have them until the summer and exhibition in London.