Luke Smailes

Creative Director

I’m currently an aspiring Creative Director studying at North West Regional College, I currently work as a freelance photographer for festivals the likes of JikaJika!, Wäx and SHINE. Within this freelance photography I have been lead photographer within these projects and given full responsibility for the delivery of these projects within a team and gained useful networking through this. Technical skills acquired through this photography work would be being proficient at using Adobe Lightroom and using different types of cameras but mainly focusing on the Sony Alpha Range and knowing how they work alongside external lenses. I have gained skills through working with a team of photographers and other creatives within my freelance work and projects within the NWRC being able to communicate and work within a team and demonstrate leadership and working under a time limit with a lot of pressure. Even with my passion for photography I am always looking to learn more and expand on different styles of shoots and projects outside of this area as I have previous experience in shooting multi-camera productions, podcasts and shooting short films. At NWRC, I won the SSE Renewable Scholarship Award 2022-23 during my HNC Studies. In the previous year I won the award in Displaying, Creativity and Innovation for my work in the Best in Further Education Awards 2022.

JikaJika 2022