Doris Gaal
The internship at Blue Tomato was the perfect opportunity for me to explore the world of fashion and product photography.
Key data
Name: Doris Gaal
Field of work: intern in the photo and video studio
Company: Blue Tomato Snowboardshop, Snowboard Dachstein Tauern GmbH
I did my internship from February to April 2014 (extended until July 2014).
Brief company profile
Blue Tomato specialises in the sports of snowboarding, free-skiing, skating and surfing and offers a wide range of sporting accessories. The range encompasses over 400,000 products from over 650 different brands such as Burton, Volcom, Roxy, Nikita and Nike. The website is available in 14 languages and the products are dispatched to customers across the world. Source
What I did
- Getting to know the warehouse management system and administration software
- Preparing products for photo and video shoots
- Photo shoots with models; setting the flash equipment, ensuring compliance with the style catalogue standards; photos for the web shop and winter catalogue 2014/15
- Taking product photos
- Video shoots
- Editing photos in line with the style catalogue and preparing alternative product presentations for the catalogue
Why I enjoyed the internship
Photography has always been one of my favourite hobbies. During my classes at FH JOANNEUM and by playing around at home, I have further developed my knowledge of this topic. The internship at Blue Tomato was the perfect opportunity for me to explore the world of fashion and product photography. I received a warm welcome from the team right from the start of the internship. I was able to work independently from the outset because the work processes were explained to me clearly. After a few weeks, I was able to conduct the photo shoots on my own, something which I really enjoyed and showed that they trusted me. When, in the second month, a huge collection of winter fashion arrived for the upcoming season, it was immediately clear that this would not be a boring month! And it certainly wasn’t. But despite having to do a few hours of overtime, working at Blue Tomato was unbelievably good fun. The collection was soon completed and the month of April was therefore a bit quieter with a few free afternoons.
What I learned
I worked with both experienced and inexperienced models on the photo shoots in particular. I met lots of interesting people within a short space of time and developed my team skills in particular. I also enjoyed the very broad field of work: I worked with the products from the moment they arrived at the studio to their presentation in the web shop.
My biggest success
I was particularly pleased to spend a further three months with the Blue Tomato team after finishing my internship to prepare my workpiece for my Bachelor’s thesis.
Summary
- I had fantastic colleagues and superiors
- I was able to work independently
- I was involved in the decision-making process
- I expanded my practical experience in the field of photo and video shoots and was also able to put my team skills to the test
- The work times were very balanced
- I highly recommend this internship!