Thinking about my progression options....

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.