Global Opportunity Series: Cayman Islands
The Grand Cayman Islands have beautiful beaches, a variety of ocean life, and is one of our featured OGO blog article this week! Ohio University students work with an alum who is a professional photographer and gain experience in fashion and water photography. I was able to ask a few questions to one of the students who went there this year. Mack, who is a junior studying Commercial Photography (with a social media certificate), was happy to answer a few of my questions. Wagner is a junior and is from Amelia, Ohio, a suburb near Cincinnati.
Q: What professional skills did you develop during the trip?
A: The professional skills I learned from this trip were being a team lead which involved leading a team of photographers, assistants and models as well as assigning roles, gathering products and making sure they got to/from Cayman and distributing final photos to the client and models. Something very valuable I got to experience was working one-on-one with a client who is a working professional in the "real world" which is something you can't experience in a classroom.
Q: What are your career interests/goals?
A: My career interests are working at a publication or working in the creative part of a company. I originally was only interested in fashion and beverage photography but after being a team lead for O'Brien Waterski I have expanded my interests to water spot photography.
Q: How will you use the Cayman experience to help achieve those goals?
A: One part of the Cayman experience which is extremely beneficial is the content you get for your portfolio. I would have never been able to get photographs I did in Ohio. Being able to say that I was a team lead and also a primary photographer for 4 different companies photoshoots makes me stand out from the rest. Having this experience on my resume and in my portfolio will help me immensely in finding a job/internship.
Q: What was an unexpected part of the Cayman Island experience?
A: Something unexpected on this trip was learning more about myself and how I operate in the field. 90% of the time everything went as planned for the shoots but their was another 10% where things didn't go as planned and you had to adapt quickly. Through this I learned what skills I am good at and what I need to work on.
Q: Any good stories from your time there?
A: So for our shoot for O'Brien Waterski we planned a shoot on the beach to photograph the products (lifejackets, still photos of water skis, etc.) but I also wanted a boat to that we could pull someone behind using the O'Brien skis. After a couple of months of searching and talking to different contacts I had been given I finally found SWS Cayman which is a charter company. They told me they would pick us up on the beach right outside of our hotel but what I didn't know was that we would have to go into the water at waist with all of our gear to get onto the boat. My other two teammates and I were carrying at least 10 life jackets, a pair of skis and all of our photography equipment above our heads while the waves crashed against us and the boat. Its something I look back at now and I laugh about but at the time I can remember panicking when I underestimated the height of a wave and it came crashing into my camera bag (everything was fine in the end).
Q: What was your favorite island?
A: So the Cayman Islands consist of three islands; Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. We stayed on Grand Cayman which is the biggest island and never left. I guess I could say my favorite place on the island was Smiths Cove. Smiths Cove is a beach with a lot of rocks which make it a great place for marine life to inhabit and snorkeling was beautiful there.
This is part of the Office of Global Opportunity series. If you are more interested in these types of programs, check out the site here!