I have initially started
thinking about my progression options after I leave the foundation degree next
June. There are many general progression options but I have narrowed my options
down to the final three below. As I think other options such as exhibiting and
working for an agency would not be for me.
My progression options
are the following:
- Continue education and take a third
year top up course to top up my foundation degree to a full honours degree.
- Go into a
career as a medical/clinical photographer and combine two areas that I am very
much interested in.
- Start up my own
small business and concentrate on areas that I would be interested in.
Portraits, Weddings, Events.
I have decided since
thinking about my progression in detail that I do not want to continue on in
education and do a top up year. I feel that I will have the knowledge I need by
next June and I am not sure that a top up year would do me any good. I think it
would personally just be wasting a year that I could be potentially using to
get to where I really want to be at the moment.
I have also ruled out the
possibility of setting up my own small business. I think that for me personally
I would be much better off working for somebody else, another
company/organisation. As much as I would not mind producing portraits and
wedding style images I think I would rather do this on the side to earn some
extra money than as a full time career for myself.
I have been interested in
Medical/Clinical photography for over a year now and since I have been on the
foundation degree I have been researching into the area as a career and how I
would get into it. After doing quiet a lot of research I am very committed and
I am certain that this is definitely the career I want to go into.
I have found out through
researching on the internet that I would need a foundation degree in any area
of photography to apply for a Trainee position as a medical photographer.
I would then have to
complete two years training before I was to become a fully qualified medical
photographer. Whilst doing the two years of training I would have to undertake
a post graduate certificate in clinical photography for one year of my
training. This would mean that I would be given work by the university to do
whilst I was working and I would have several exams at the end of the training
to determine whether I would pass and become a medical photographer. The post
graduate certificate is a distance learning course and you obviously have to have
a job as a trainee medical photographer before you can apply to do the distance
learning course. I have found out through my research which is included in my
research file that I can study the certificate in clinical photographer at
Staffordshire University. This is great because it is not to far at all and
means I can travel there easily to pick up my work which I will need for
training on the job. Whilst I am training I would be earning around £15,000 a
year and once I was newly qualified that would go up to £22,000. This amount
will rise as you progress up the different band levels, which is only achieved
the longer you have been in a position.
I think this will be a
really great career opportunity for me as it is combining two areas that I am
very interested in.. photography and biology. It will also mean that I am
working for somebody else and I will get a reliable income each month which is
something I would be very pleased about. Photography can be a very hit and miss
career choice as you don’t know when you will have work a lot of the time and
things come up by chance. I would not want to live this way so working for the
NHS as a medical photographer would provide me with just the right career I am
looking for.
I have just recently
become involved with Alan Greenman who is the head of the medical photography
department at Burton Queen’s Hospital.
He has asked me to
photograph a series of portraits of the hospital staff in there different
working environments. These images are to be used for the NHS Excellence awards
which are happening in February 2012. He has said that they will be appearing
on posters and possibly in leaflets for the awards. He is also trying to get
access so that I can go onto the wards and photograph some general photography.
I had a meeting with Alan
only a few weeks ago about what he wanted me to photograph and I also had a
long chat with him about his career and how he was worked his way up to head of
department. I took along a lot of the research I had done into medical photography
and he said I seemed very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the different
things I will need to put in place in order to achieve the images for him and
also for the career I want in the long run.
I am going to use this
opportunity that I have with the NHS as the project I will be using to enhance
my progression plans. It is exactly the kind of project that will enable me to
see what it is really like to work within the hospital environment and make my
mind up once and for all if it is definitely the right career path for me.
This work experience will
further my knowledge of medical photography and give me some great images to
put into my portfolio that will be relevant for me for when I go to interviews
for trainee positions that are available. The only way you can get medical type
images in your portfolio is if you work in a hospital and without doing work
experience in a hospital there is no other way. I know I am very lucky to have
this opportunity as maybe other candidates that want to become medical
photographers wont have this kind of work in there portfolios when they go for
interview.
