This is a tale of two photography students. One sold some pictures to a client and was bummed out. Another failed to land an assignment but ended up feeling

via Notes from the VisCom Classroom: A Tale of Two Students.

Luke helped to set the lighting for a shot before the bride and groom came over, and Mandy felt the urge to join him!

The era in question is the Era of Luke. I am a great believer in offering work experience placements to students who have an interest in photography. For the last two weeks I have had the pleasure of the company of Luke, a fifteen year old student from Welling in South East London, and his placement comes to an end today.

Luke has been all over the place with me – building sites in Birmingham; the Houses of Parliament; industrial estates in kent; weddings in Sussex; and portrait shoots in Surrey. He has met MPs and astronauts, mothers and babies, contractors and suppliers, and through it all he has been enthusiastic and eager to learn, and as this image from a wedding shows, he knows how to win friends and influence people.

Good luck with your future, Luke, and make sure you keep in touch.

Entrepreneur computer games developer Richard Garriott worked extensively with British schools before, during and after his trip to the International Space Station

A pro pos of nothing, I have been involved in working with a group of 14 to 16 year old students from a number of schools in the East End, in conjunction with an organisation called Venture Thinking. The objective is to introduce them to real world photography with a live brief and client.

Yesterday we managed to kill two birds as it were, when two of my projects collided. Cosmonaut Richard Garriott met me on the shore line at Coin Street for a photoshoot and took the time to meet the kids and tell them what life is like in space, and the students in turn took some time to engage themselves in helping me with ideas and logistics for the photograph. There is something kind of cool about being able to see the boy holding the light in this preproducton shot. A rush version of the finished image can be seen on my main site.