The biggest career influencing experience I have had at university has definitely been my internship. During my second semester of second year, I was lucky enough to get a paid internship position at Treborth Botanic Garden. This involved taking photos of the various plants and wildlife around Treborth Gardens, in order to help create a photo database of everything.
(all photos by Natasha Lee)
During my interview I used photos shown in previous blog posts, as well as some from other trips. I couldn’t believe I got the job! Being paid to do photography was something I had only dreamed about in the past, and now it was already happening. All of the staff and volunteers were incredibly friendly and helpful! I quickly got to work taking photos of the different plants kept here, my favourites being the ones kept in the greenhouses.
This internship presented me with some interesting challenges. I had to create a cloud database, identify the plants I was photographing, and organise and edit not only my photos, but the photos taken by other interns before me. However, I persevered with the help of Natalie Chivers, Treborth’s curator, and other staff and volunteers who helped me with the cloud database and identifying plants.
One unexpected opportunity that occurred during this internship was the chance to be a photographer for the second annual Draig Beats festival. This festival is held as a fundraiser for honorary university professor Dr Sophie Williams, who was a full time lecturer at Bangor University before contracting Japanese Encephalitis in 2015. Getting to be an official photographer for this special event felt like such an honour.
A selection of photos from the Draig Beats festival, including Dr Sophie Williams.
Looking through these photos always puts a smile on my face. It was such an incredibly happy day! Being able to capture such wonderful moments felt so rewarding. Before this event, I was worried I would only be good at taking pictures of animals, and that I would not enjoy taking these photos. But I thankfully proved myself wrong, and have come to realise that I love all kinds of photography. I can’t wait until the pandemic is over so I can come back to Treborth gardens, and do some more photography!
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