Youth Centre Opening

On Saturday, 20th November I attended my second event as a photographer. This time it was for the opening of the new youth centre in Widnes. The centre is the start of many new developments for youth within Halton. The centre's opening was brilliant, the council spared no expense and went all out on the hollywood theme for the opening. They had entertaining from singing to dancing as well as a magician. Food was offered and there was a special appearance from Titan the Robot, which personally was the highlight of the day. The centre is state of the art and free to all users, as well as being opening 7 days a week. Overall, I really enjoyed the day and it was a great confidence booster for me, as this was only days after my first attempt at being a event photographer this gave me the chance to work on ideas and gain more experience in this area. The experience I gained was excellent as this was an all day event, I was able to wonder round at my own leisure and photograph whatever I wished with time to spare... so for that reason I found this event to be easier but no less useful. As this was in the middle of the day and the building had windows, the lighting was quite good and was easier to capture shots with good exposure without increasing my ISO, as I did this during the speaking contest and alot of my images had noise on them although this didnt really happen during this event, which was good for me. Below are a selection of images I took at the event...

Halton's Public Speaking Contest 2010

On Tuesday, 16th November I attended Halton's Public Speaking Contest 2010 as the events photographer along with another student from my college photography course, James Wrigley who was also a photographer for the evening. The contest was held at Kingsway College and it is a chance for all schools within the borough to showcase some of their best students from both key stage 3 and key stage 4 who excel in english especially verbal communication. As part of the contest each student has around 3 - 5 minutes to discuss or argue on a subject of their choice... the subjects ranged from global warming, society to music. All students who participated did really well as this isnt as easy as it sounds and I should know as I was one of the competing students in the first public speaking contest although I came second, I really enjoyed the opportunity and it was a useful tool to develop. This was my first attempt at photographing an event as it was only the third week into my course after I had started although I feel I did quite well and the evening went well. It was an excellent learning opportunity for me and I learnt alot, such as how to quickly set up my camera for when I didnt get the shot I wanted and to take as many shots as possible in the amount of time. I feel this opportunity helped me in my course as one of the projects was a documentary based project which is similar to what I did on the evening of this event. Below are a few of the images I captured at the event...