Students aim to put clients in the picture

Two senior Makoura College students are on the hunt for work and professional experience as portrait and event photographers.

Long-time college friends Beau Elton and Britt Leveridge are 17-year-old Year 13 students at the school, who this year decided to combine skills behind the camera to heighten their chances of attracting paying clients.

The pair formed LEVEL Photography, creating a company name that fuses together the first syllables of their surnames, and founded levelphotographynz on Facebook .

The two had been friends since Year 9, Britt said, but had taken up photography as a study and career choice independently of each other.

"We want to get work and experience and get our names out there while we're still at college. We were doing it separately out of class but we had done some joint school projects and that's where we found we could work together."

The LEVEL maxim was "affordable price, professional results", Britt said, as the pair believed they could offer quality photographic portraiture for families, children and individuals at a fraction of the usual cost.

Beau said they were yet to complete their first job despite some work being already "pencilled in" that could soon bring them a debut assignment as professional photographers.

"We want to work for people who otherwise couldn't afford the several hundred dollars it would cost. We've seen some of that work and can achieve the same quality for far less."

The two aim to use professional experience to inform their senior photography studies and intend to also concentrate on photographing school events in the region, such as sports days, concerts and one-off events like the wearable arts show.

They were hoping word-of-mouth, their school enterprises and their social network pages would soon bring them work, Beau said, though "in the meantime, we'll carry on with our own projects as well".

For more information or to view Beau and Britt's work, go to facebook.com/levelphotographynz or email

levelphotography@live.com.