We caught up with one of our photography students, Kamila Gwardynska, to find out why she chose to study photography and how the course has benefited her.
Kamila is a photographer, a mother of 3 from Poland and is currently finishing her Postgraduate Diploma in photography. For the last 8 years, she has lived in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and is now living in the United States of America. It was after her first relocation to the Netherlands that she initiated her career change and set herself on "the photography course that I have been navigating towards ever since", she says. "It has been a challenging but also very rewarding and interesting time."
Kamila wanted to change career and focus on something much more creative
"I was very happy to abandon a financial analyst job and focus on something much more creative. I think this has always been my passion inside me and I was naïve a bit as well thinking that my passion and motivation is enough to be successful", she explains.
Kamila did not have any formal experience, so she started with some photography courses "to gain mainly technical knowledge". She was searching for and developing her style by taking analogue photography courses and working in a dark room to learn techniques. "I was also taking a lot of pictures when visiting new places and exploring Rotterdam where we lived. This was the moment when I thought I could be a professional photographer."
Image courtesy Kamila Gwardynska
The interest in Fine Art Photography style
"I found Fine Art Photography style more interesting as this engages the technical and software area of the photography together with an artistic element - the styling and decorations. I set up my first photo studio and photography business in the UK and I worked with many fantastic models and hair and make-up artists. This was a challenging time that gave me many opportunities to develop and work with the clients as well.". After moving to the USA, the photography student has copied her business model, "which for now looks promising."
And what motivated her to choose this area of study with the British Academy of Photography?
"After many years of really discovering and developing myself I came to the point that I wanted to formalise that chapter with a formal diploma during which I can still improve and be challenged.", the student explains. She claims that the Academy's offering of in-class and home study combination was very appealing, as she intended to "have exposure to group discussions but also needed the flexibility of working at my own pace".
Kamila also says that her main expectation was to have more hands-on experience and be exposed to different photography challenges - "First business advice people often give you is to find your niche and master it. However, in practice, it is very easy to stagnate in your small area even though you can be very good at it. This was also something that I experienced with my focus into Fine Art photography and the course helped me to look at things from a different perspective."
Image courtesy Kamila Gwardynska
As a working person with a busy schedule, Kamila felt that the course gave her the flexibility to pursue all her different goals
"For a working person with a young family you always experience peaks and troughs during the course, but the strength is to learn how to overcome obstacles. I am close to submitting my last assignment and the course is meeting and, in many aspects, exceeding my expectations.", she explains. As a person developing her own business, Kamila says she tends to look more into practical assignments.
She had several classroom-based classes and then she completed the assignments at home, which, as she claims, has given the opportunity to "have social interactions and have some time for myself. I met friends and I cultivated one friendship till this day even though we ended up in different countries."
Through the assignments, Kamila found herself developing different areas of photography
"Overall I found the assignments very challenging. I could not remember what exactly the first assignment was, but it was something with the technical aspects of manual settings of the camera. I already was quite familiar with all the interactions, however, I found it useful in terms of mastering all the technical basics of the professional photographer".
Kamila explains that she found the course useful and "through the assignments, I found myself developing different areas of my photography. Sure, there were things that I was not enthusiastic about at the beginning, but, going through those challenging parts, my motivation was to simply prove myself that I can do it."
Image courtesy Kamila Gwardynska
Kamila feels very happy with her progress through the course
"I feel very happy about my results up to date and I am especially satisfied by the progress I managed to make in the last months that brought me to the last assignment (business plan assessment, development), which is something I would need to do anyway in a new place".
The photographer explains how she would certainly recommend the course and advises that "it is important to understand your motivation and sometimes the stage which you are at. I think most of the people can learn and take a lot from the course, but this is not something to approach lightly".
And her favourite course project was... The Great Gatsby
"I had lots of fun working on one of the course assignments which was to create a poster for one movie".
Image courtesy Kamila Gwardynska
Considering a career in Photography? Here's Kamila's advice
"This is the area where supply is much higher than demand simply because the barriers to enter this field are very low: cameras are getting cheaper and more accessible and plenty of relatively cheap editing services that can fill the gaps at the beginning of your journey. This, however, creates “strong” competition in the low and average quality range of the market (this is where you are when you start), driving prices down – who did not offer free sessions or some silly prices to be noticed? Doing this business assessment it is easy to realise that technology will make average photographers redundant in the near future. However, my advice is to think about this as an opportunity where you can see that as a market for yourself as long as you can put your heart into it and work constantly on the quality of your pictures and your offering."
Image courtesy Kamila Gwardynska
You can find more about Kamila Gwardynska and her photography on her website, Facebook and Instagram.
Inspired by Kamila's story and looking to pursue a career in photography? Take a look at our full list of courses and start your learning journey today!
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