College - The HNC

College is finished, whoop whoop.  I’m so glad to be able to say that, as at times I thought I’d never get through it.  I don’t remember crying about the course but there have been tears, usually as a result of the cheeky buggers that manage the equipment store, accept the lovely Sean, he was brilliant.  I’m sure they deal with a lot of crap but c’mon.  I certainly recall having the weight of the world on my shoulders; maybe I was just overly sensitive.  I knew on applying for this course that I would be forced to do things I haven’t done before and how it would probably be a little awkward and uncomfortable.  However at the same time I think I thought it would be easy, how wrong was I!  My course was made up of the following subjects this term, Photography Theory, Darkroom and Creative Techniques, Portraiture, Image Editing, Creative Industries, Still Life, Applied Techniques, Social Photography, Corporate Photography, Stock Photography and the dreaded Graded Unit!

I started my course in September and realised by Christmas that I was struggling physically.  I made the decision over the Christmas holidays that I was not going to apply for my second year.  By the time I came to my annual review in February at hospital, my consultant said that my lung function had taken a nose dive since August and that confirmed that me being in close proximity to lots of people on a daily basis doesn’t help me, especially when we were in the basement of college with circulated air ventilation and no windows.  I can feel my CF followers instantly cringe. 

I struggled through that first 18 weeks of the course.  I was hospitalised with a chest infection and missed three weeks of class time.  But, I persevered and was in college full-time the last three weeks just to get through my work.  Luckily my deadlines were extended and I did manage to finish.  On my return after the Christmas break I was faced with a dilemma of, should I finish my course here after getting through that eighteen weeks or should I do it all again to leave with my HNC in Photography and not let all that hard work go to waste.  I’m not someone who gives up easily, but I do get easily over whelmed with mountains of work to get through.  I loved my class and I wanted to continue even though it was making me ill.  I knew that if I wasn’t going to go into second year I could effectively drop a class or two because the way the HNC works is that you need to obtain 12 credits for the group award and 15 to get into second year, which is all classes in first year.  Anyway, I took the decision to strip down my course and ditched my darkroom class, which you all know I can do anyway and stock photography, which I thought would be like watching paint dry to a portrait photographer. 

It’s not been all bad though, I’ve met a really great bunch of friends.  I’m sure we’re all going to keep in touch and I will go in and meet them for lunch now and again, even though the food in college is terrible and over priced.  The things we do for love……ah I feel a song coming on!  There’s so much more I could say.  I’ve laughed so much this past ten months being with these guys every week.  I’ll leave you all with a wee selection of some of the work I’ve done this term.  I will be back soon to tell you all about my Graded Unit and what sealed the deal to my overall grade A for the year.