Guildford Inside Out - University of Surrey

The University of Surrey was established in the 1960s on a self-contained campus, not far from the town centre. Whilst the students increase the town's population by about 50%, their presence is virtually invisible in the town centre as almost all student activities take place on campus. I knew from earlier visits that during normal lecture days, it would be hard to find photographic subjects. I therefore needed to go to the campus when there was some event or activity.  
Being aware that the end of term was approaching, time was limited. The university website contained details of various public events that were planned in May and June: shows by the performing arts students, a poetry festival, Surrey Youth drama festival and an open day at the end of June. The last two however were not until the end of June, which would not leave much time for completing this assignment. In addition, I came across the examination timetable which showed that the exams would be taking place from 24th May to 14 June, just the time I was looking to take photographs at the university. There are two or three exam sessions every day for this period, which would allow several opportunities to take photos, at various times and locations as long as I could get access.
Image 7 - Emerging from the examination

Nikon 50mm: Iso 200 f1.8 for 1/80th second
I was fortunate that there seemed to be free access to the university buildings. Furthermore, I was not alone in waiting outside the exams for people to emerge. I had decided not to take photos of students waiting to go into the exams as I did not wish to intrude at a relatively stressful moment. When leaving the exams, however, I hoped that the students would be in animated conversation telling their friends how the exam went.
I chose this particular location as there are tall windows on the left hand side providing good levels of natural light. The windows face north and there is not therefore too much contrast. I positioned myself to photograph the students face on as they made their way out. I set the aperture to f1.8 to give a shutter speed that would freeze their movement. The shallow depth of field also helped the figures in the foreground to stand out against the background figures. It was also good that the walls and carpets provide a colourful environment consistent with the objectives of my brief.
Two of the photos captured something of the animated conversation that I was looking for. I chose Image 7 above as I think that the crowded background contributes to the scene. I preferred this to the following picture, where there are few background figures, although the central figure here is more expressive of the elation of the moment:

Image 8 - Graduation

Nikon 18-200mm at 50mm (equivalent to 75mm): Iso 1600 f5.6 for 1/3200 second
I had selected Guildford Cathedral as one of my subjects for the "buildings in use" project earlier in this course. By chance, I went there on an afternoon when the university was holding one of its graduation ceremonies. Anticipating my subject for this final assignment, I took various photographs of the graduates and their families. I selected this image for inclusion, even though the camera settings were not set correctly for these lighting conditions. When I arrived at the cathedral, people were already starting to leave, so I whipped out my camera and started shooting without remembering to check the settings. It was several minutes before I realized that the camera was still set for photos of an open-air nighttime concert at Guilfest music festival a few days before.
The photograph shows four female graduates throwing their mortar-board caps in the air. The faces of the two nearest girls are the main point of interest initially, but the eye subsequently follows the direction of their gaze to the mortar-boards in the top corner of the frame. Even though I allowed a lot of space above their heads when I framed the photograph, the caps were only just inside the frame.
The predominant colour is the red and cream of the cathedral walls, but this contrasts strongly with the saturated blue of the collars of their graduation gowns.
It seemed appropriate to include the pictures of the university exams and the graduation, as this is the "core" business of university education.