In a previous blog post I talked about my experiences working for Huddersfield students’ union. This blog will explore the main events that take place across the year.

Freshers’ week:

Freshers week consists of a multitude of events, from the freshers fair that fills out the hall full of local business, charities and societies for new and returning students to explore. Normally there is also several vintage clothes sales, records or books pop ups. Hudd live is a night full of fun and good music where students can go with their new friends. Finally, there is Hudd crawl a night of fun around the town, where students go from pubs and clubs.

As the photographer and videographer for these events it has been challenging but rewarding experience. It serves as a hectic and busy week where my attention is acquired often in multiple places at once, but I have learnt from each of these events and captured some amazing photographs and videos.



Elections:

As with Freshers week the elections consist of a hectic and busy week. Before any of the campaigning starts, it is my job to take headshots of all of the candidates because there is such a large number of people running for the various positions this often means that I only get a minute or two with each candidate. Working in such short periods of time has made me a better photographer both in my technical abilities but also in my people skills as I need to make the candidates feel at ease to get the best from them for the shots.

When the campaigning starts, I capture the candidates as they try to get their voices heard by the student population. Throughout the day, I move among the students, capturing candid moments of engagement, spirited discussions, and heartfelt speeches from the candidates' heartfelt appeals to the voters. Unlike the rest of the events for the student union I am tasked to focus more on video, as at the end of the week on the results night a video highlight plays. These events have made me a better videographer.



Varsity:

Varsity is a yearly sporting event that takes place between the university of Huddersfield and Bradford over the course of three days in April. However, the work for the event starts in December with planning meetings to come up with the marketing assets. This is my third year working on varsity, and each year I have had a hand in helping come up with the campaigns. This year consisted of two shoots prior, the first being a on location shoot where the student officers reading a newspaper detailing the victory from the previous year around different key locations in Bradford. The second of these shoots was studio doing creative headshots that then could be printed and put around the university and used on social media. All of this culminating in a three day shoot for different sporting events where it was my job to capture both the action on and off the field.



As I stated in my previous blog, working for the Student’s Union at Huddersfield has been not only a fun expire where I have made friends but really important for my photographic carer. Shooting different jobs my technical proficiencies and editing has greatly improved. In addition, I have greatly developed my people skills and grown confidence in photographing a large range of people from different backgrounds and different experiences.