Hello! My name is Sarah Loveland, a 22-year-old photographer, currently working part-time at a family photography studio whilst completing the final year of my photography degree. This series of blog posts are going to be a diary of experiences throughout my final year, looking at the process of creating my final piece, my professional journey and inspiration I pick up along the way, but first of all I thought I best speak a bit about myself and how I got into photography!

When I was younger, I was always quite a creative person, and around 2013, I asked for a purple Fujifilm digital camera for Christmas. This camera was obviously a very small and low-quality camera, but at this age, I was so excited, and it was my prized possession! I used this camera, and then when I got older and got a phone, I started to use that. I took a lot of pictures of holidays, flowers and random everyday things. 

In August 2017, we went on holiday, and my sister let me use her camera, which again was a small digital camera, but I thought it was amazing. My older sister has also always been very creative, and I have always looked up to her. I feel that this was where my love for photography really began. I used this camera on holiday and continued to use it when I got back. 

In September, I began to do photography as a GCSE, and that Christmas, I saved my money and bought my first proper camera- a Canon DSLR. 

I continued with my photography GCSE, then moved on to doing photography at A Level. In A-Level, I did lots of portraiture until lockdown hit. At this point, like many others, I struggled with my creativity and didn’t touch my camera for a long time. I completed much of my A Level during COVID, and so I had to encourage myself and begin to photograph what’s around me.

From here, I began my university journey! Throughout university, I have experimented with various styles and different cameras, and really began to find my style within 2nd year, taking photographs of objects in natural lighting and finding a real passion in family photography and old family photographs. Within my placement year, I worked at a family photography studio, and my passion for the family photography sector and capturing memories continued. After saving money over placement year, I was finally able to invest in a Sony mirrorless camera! It felt like a very surreal moment, but I was so happy to finally have my dream camera!

And now here I am in my final year! I have decided to do a personal project for my final project, looking at memory and the life of my Nana. These blogs will show a snippet of the journey through the final year and my processes within this project!