This morning I presented my Underwater Portfolio to Dieneke Jansen (Photographer & Senior Lecturer at AUT) as part of the 2013 Festival of Photography.

The sessions were one on one for 20 minutes held at the NorthArt Gallery in Northcote.

I didn’t know what to expect from the session or what to prepare so over the last 2 weeks I have refined a set of 26 photographs down to 14, sorted them in an order and flow that I am happy with, had them printed and found a way of presenting them both physically and digitally.

Before I go any further I have to say a huge thanks to my wonderful friends who came along this morning. As I said before, I didn’t know how the sessions would run and whether other people could hear the reviews but I had a big group for moral support – and it meant a lot!

Dieneke asked me what I was looking for from the session, what sort of feedback I wanted. I said that she would hopefully see two different styles in the portfolio – ID photographs and what I considered to be more art in style. I was wanting to know whether I was on the right track and did they have the “Wow” factor that would make people stop and look at them and then look some more.

I presented my work both in printed format and using my iPad.  I found this fantastic app – its called FolioBook Photo Portfolio (by Architek, Limited). It is worth the money! I could add galleries and categories and arrange them how I wanted. I’m pleased I took both.

We talked through composition and lighting. She called a few of the more I.D. type photographs ‘National Geographic images’ which left me grinning like an idiot and gave me some great suggestions on how to crop them a little differently to make even more of an impact.

Dieneke recommended that I split the portfolio in to the two different styles and really treat myself one day and get one printed in the style that I would like to see them displayed or in an exhibition.  She has my contact details now so I’m really glad that I took the time to prepare the smaller collages with my name on them and she even said that she would like to spend some with me editing them a little bit more!

And finally Dieneke suggested I consider studying more (something I have been thinking about) so coming from a Lecturer, that’s a piece of feedback I will be taking on board!

I’m really pleased I signed up for this review and that I put the preparation in to it.

A big thanks to Rob Treacher from AM PM for printing my work and making it look lovely, to Anna for helping me find exactly the right portfolio, to Ken for telling me I could do it .. and to everyone who came along today!

My Underwater Portfolio is here;

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