Scholarship Focus – Mareea Vegas
My technical skills improved massively over the 12 weeks. I started the scholarship with no practical knowledge of studio work and a healthy fear of lights.
The course was challenging for me though I really enjoyed the challenge of working in such a vastly different way to that of which I’ve been so accustomed to. I’m so grateful to have been given the opportunity.
The other class members are monsters and by that I mean they have monster talent! The strength of photographers emerging these days is frightening. It’s really cool to see a new hybrid of photographers who have not only all the ability to be successful artists but also the kind of skills to be able to cross over into highly technical and commercial work.
I definitely felt a little overwhelmed with all the studio lighting options but one of my classmates said to me one day “Just think of these lights as being the sun, you’re just moving the sun around†and that really resonated with me as I’m a total sun follower and have always shot that way!
Our scholarship group became really tight over the 3 months and we’ve continued to keep in touch and work with each other.
I recently shot an editorial for magazine in Spain; they really needed a lot of video work as well as stills. I had noticed through the scholarship that Ken’s video work was particularly strong so I asked him to collaborate with me on the shoot and I know we will continue to work on more projects together. I’ve made some really strong connections with people in the class.
