Lesson 2 Pictures

Below is a number of photos I took during my second lesson which shows my willingness to be creative. As the lesson went on I started to see pictures in places I didn't know pictures existed!

I hope you enjoy viewing these as much as I enjoyed taking them:

This is my favourite photo by far and it can still be better, the light reflecting on the surface with the rain looks really good

This photo is the roof from the front of our college, it has an amazing design which needed to be photographed

Again this is another one of my favourites, it is a photograph of one of the outside walls from our college looking straight up, it's a shame the sky wasn't blue!

This was my first astract attempt and it's fairly random!  This is the bottom of a black bucket which has what appears to be dry paint in it, the contrast looks pretty good

Lesson 2 Tip - The Basics of Taking A picture

Before taking a photograph there are a few essential things to think about, all of which will improve the photographic experiance:

1 - Always wrap the camera strap in your hand
This is obvious, if you drop your camera you'll regret it

2 - Stance
Always keep your feet in a T-Shape with your feet flat to keep you good posture

3 - Which Way Up
Will your picture look better Landscape or Portrait, think about the picture you are taking before deciding

4 - Breathing
Take deep breaths which will relax you and reduce potential camera shake

5 - Hold Camera Correctly
Personally I make sure I have 1 hand underneath, again to reduce potential camera shake

6 - Use Focus Lock
By depressing the button on your camera half way you will be able to gain focus, do this before depressing the button fully to take your picture, you don't want to miss out on a great picture because the focus is all wrong

And finally.......  my tip is to keep smiling, your photo will be better if you are enjoying it!

Lesson 2 - 23rd April 2012

So I headed to college this week in high spirits, hoping that I would learn as much as I did in Week 1.  This week didn't start off as positive though as our planned trip down to the banks of the River Dee was called off due to the weather.  So off we headed to the classroom.

Mark informed us that we would be splitting into 2 groups, the first group was for the people that had been on the previous course with him, off they went to find Abstract photos, the rest of us remained behind to learn about Abstract photos.

Mark informed us that the skill of finding a good Abstract photo is being able to identify pictures out of nothing, looking out for shapes, forms, patterns and colours.  Primary colours such as red, blue and yellow are an advantage as a good abstract photo will bring you straight into the picture.  Abstract is all about getting in close and making sure you get a good focus

Mark then reminded us of the basics of photography (see next blog) and off we went for a wonder around the college taking pictures of anything we could find.  Mark was looking for us being creative with our pictures, taking photos from various angles and trying to identify a good Abstract.

We also took photos which followed on from last week, so we were looking at Portraits and Objects with a good lead-in.

Towards the end of the lesson we headed back to the classroom for a recap of what we had learned from the lesson.  We also took the opportunity to have a look at some work from fellow class members so next week I have decided to print off a few of my better pictures to show around, it will be good to get Mark's opinion

Finally we were given homework for next week and that was to learn how to change Shutter Speed, Aperture, AV and ISO on our camera.  I have already decided to teach myself the effects of each one as well to hopefully give me a good head start.  Tripods are also a must as we once again are planning to head to the River Dee for some late evening shots

All in all I'm delighted with how it is going so far and I can't wait for next week

Lesson 1 Tip - Basic Positioning for Portraits

The final tip I took from the first week was in regards to Portraits, different rules come in to play depending on your subject.  If you are taking pictures of Children it is better to get to their level, this is clearly shown by the 3 pictures below of my eldest daughter Dannielle (taken from The 3 Height Rule).  The first picture shows the subject being over powered, the second picture is just right whereas the third picture gives you the sense of the subject overpowering you.  Again, depending on what you are trying to achieve the photo’s each serve their own purpose, for me the best portrait is TO BE FINISHED

<PHOTOS>

Adults are a different kettle of fish, as long as you’re not a million miles above your subject it would appear that you get a better picture.  This is shown in the two pictures below of a fellow student.  The first is a picture taken from a lower level and the second from a higher level, as you can see the picture from above brings out the features of my fellow student.  Now whether these rules work in general I will soon find out as I take more photographs

Photo taken from below

Photo taken from above

Lesson 1 Tip - Basic Positioning for Landscapes

This is something we only briefly touched upon in Lesson 1 and is something I’m looking forward to doing more of in lesson 2.  The idea behind this basic positioning appears to be fairly simple.  Depending how you would like the object you are picturing start by select the correct height for the photograph.  Next, try to focus on a good lead in (see earlier tips from this week) as your Landscape pictures will generally be in Landscape style and the object you are picturing can be easily lost.  A good lead in will help the picture especially if you are using a wide angle lens.

Lesson 1 Tip - 3 Step and 3 Height Rule

When taking any photograph have a little quiet word with yourself, what would the photograph look like from a slightly different angle, the only way to tell is by applying the 3 step rule.  You need to make sure you choose a good starting position for your photograph and then take your photo.  Once you have done this try taking a side step to your left (or right depending on what you are trying to achieve) and retake the photograph and repeat the steps again, as you can see with the three below photo’s the results are major!  The three photographs below were taken outside of Chester Crown Court

<PHOTOS TO BE TAKEN>

There is no ‘3 Height Rule’ as such, it is something I made up myself but it is a very useful tip.  When taking the photographs think about the height of the photo you are taking.  By applying the 3 Height Rule you can take a photo standing up, crouching down and kneeling down, it is remarkable how much difference this makes to a Photo, take a look at the three photo’s below of my eldest daughter Dannielle and look at the differences

<PHOTOS TO BE TAKEN>

TO BE FINISHED

Lesson 1 Tip - Deleting Photographs

I learnt this tip the hard way!  If I don’t like a photograph as I’m viewing it on the camera I usually delete is straight away however this is a BIG no no!  Mark saw me deleting a photo and informed me that I should only delete from the Computer as with the right amount of work on the computer any photo may be saved so always see what you have on the computer screen before deciding to get rid of it as you may surprise yourself!

Lesson 1 Tip - Lead In's

One of the most import things I learnt during the first week in relation to the composition of a photograph is the lead in.  The Lead in can effectively make or break a photograph and it’s something that I’ve been looking at a lot while taking photographs this past week.  A lead in can be anything and when I say anything I mean anything.  If you are taking a photograph of a person then get them to turn slightly to their side and use their shoulder as a lead in.  The idea of this is so that you have something on the image to focus on, something which leads to the main part of the picture, in this example following the shoulder line will lead to the persons face. 

If you are taking pictures of landscapes look for objects that can give you a good lead in, the example below shows a popular area near the River Dee in Chester.  The picture is taken from the top of a foot bridge and as you can see the curved pattern of the benches gives you something to focus on, it’s these patterns you should look for to enhance your photograph.

Chester in the evening 

To show how a lead in works with a building, take a look at the below picture: 

The picture is clever as it uses the Company Sign to lead in to the building.  However, this picture can be improved greatly by lining up the top of the building roof with the top of the sign as shown below:



My First Published Work - Yay!! ;-)

This photo is current on the Companies Facebook page so you could say it is my first published work :)

Lesson 1 - 16th April 2012

So lesson 1 was finally here, firstly I set off in plenty of time to reach college and I must say I’m impressed by the new reception building at the front of Handbridge College.  However I was about to be impressed further by the receptionist who managed to bring up my details from my previous course at the college…… 11 years ago!   So after paying the modest £47.50 for this 7 week beginners course I headed off to the Learning Centre, an area of the college I spent a lot of time all those years ago and after meeting a fellow photographer, Tony, I made my way to the classroom....................

Out tutor came in and introduced himself, Samuel M Chaloner (or Mark for short) handed out a booklet to the 12 of us entitled ‘Photography Improver's Course’ along with 2 huge portfolios of his previous work and it’s fair to say he has some cracking credentials, some of the work inside the portfolios were really impressive and it became apparent (well to me anyway) that Mark is an excellent Portrait photographer.

During the first 5 minutes, while we were waiting for the stragglers to turn up and Mark took this opportunity to have a wonder around to see what equipment we all had brought with us, at this point I was panicking a little as of my fellow students had brought fairly impressive modern cameras along with them.  It was at this point that I was hoping that my Bridge Camera would be ok.  Luckily (for my own relief)  a fellow student pulled out a basic digital camera, now when I say basic I don’t want to sound disrespectful as I know different cameras have different functionalities and I have very little knowledge hence the reason I’m on the course!!

The next thing that happened surprised me even further, Mark informed us we were going out into the ‘field’ to start taking photographs!!  I thought this course was to learn all the functions of the camera, I wasn’t expecting to be heading straight out to take snaps!  So after being offered a lift with Tony we headed straight up to the County Court Car Park and met up with the rest of the group.

Mark started by telling us what we would be doing on today’s lesson.  He described in detail how we would be looking mainly at the Composition of photographs.  Not for the first time during the evening I was surprised, how was I going to learn about shutter speed and when to use a flash etc……  During the next 5 minutes, while I was trying to take in all the information, I pondered about what Mark had said, how would I remember this all??  I learnt as the evening lesson went on that everything Mark had told us at the start fitted in perfectly in a well produced lesson.  Although it was not what I expected I took away some valuable points from my first lesson which I will blog about separately

-          Lead-In’s

-          3 Step & 3 Height Rule

-          Deleting Photographs

-          Basic Positioning for Portraits

-          Basic Positioning for Landscapes

So we head into Week 2 and we have been asked to bring along out Tri-Pods (if we have them) as we are hoping to take some photographs of sunsets among other landscape photos (weather depending of course).  Mark also informed us that we will be heading to the College during Week 3 to look at our photographs on the computer; I am already looking forward to it!

My Camera - Panasocin Lumix DMC-FZ150

So the first thing to do was to chose an appropriate camera and this proved to be more difficult than I thought as I don't have a clue!!  after seeking advice from a good friend of mine I decided to start with a Bridge camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150.  This to me is ideal, it as a lot more features than a standard digital camera and I don't have to worry about buying lens after lens for a Digital-SLR.

One thing that I have noticed so far is the cost of the equipment, if I decide to turn this into a profession then I may need some up front capital to start the business, time to start saving!

The camera itself is amazing!  The principle is exactly the same, you point and click but I'm thinking that the with differing functionality the world is my oyster!!  You can take photo's in Black and White, you can zoom in up to 24X Optical Zoom and it is equipped with a 25mm wide lens

Why Photography....???????

So as I'm 30 years old with no career plans I have decided to turn my attention to Photography, but why?

While I was away on my holidays earlier this year in Scotland I went snap happy with my dads camera and I really enjoyed the photo's I was taking.  Everytime I take a photo I love it, the way the photo's appear on the screen so you can hold the memory for eternity, if you choose to do so fascinates me.

So once I returned home I searched for Photography courses in my local area and the adventure beins..