PHOTOGRAPHY LESSONS IN LONDON AND BROMLEY

As I mentioned in a recent blog about my neighbourhood, I bought an old Canon 5D Mkii so as to get my head round Canon menus before teaching some Canon owners. It helped, more or less! Anyway, last weekend I actually taught two classes – a couple of people up in the City of London and then one to one with a local guy here in Bromley.

Here’s news of how those classes went. For information about my photography lessons, please see here or here, or contact me to see how I can help you improve your camera work and / or editing.

This class came about when Jonathan’s wife asked me if she could give him photography lessons with me for his birthday. No problem at all – a great idea in fact – and perhaps one that other people might want to try. Many people get nice cameras (sometimes for their birthdays) but don’t have the skills to do much with them. Only a few sessions can make a big difference.

Having checked that Jonathan was happy to work in a group, I opened the event up, and we were joined by Liz. Both my photo class clients have DSLRs – Jonathan shoots with a Nikon, and Liz with a Canon, so I was glad to have done at least a little preparation on how Canons organise themselves.

The city with its incredible architecture is a photographer’s paradise – a great place for a photography lesson!

The Gilt of Cain Sculpture Installation – Fen Court

Nikon D90 50mm lens at f2

The photography lesson was aimed at the basic exposure parameters and the effects they have. Having checked which cameras and lenses my clients had, I took my old Nikon D90 along, so that we could all use 50mm lenses on crop-framed DSLRs, achieving similar perspectives and depth of field. We started with the effects of wide and narrow apertures.

One of the great things about the City is that, even if you have a fairly clear route in your head (I didn’t – just the aim of getting to the Lloyds Building, St Helens and Leadenhall Market) you always stumble across new things. Such was the case in Fen Court – the superb Gilt of Cain instalation commemorates the Slave Trade that made London so rich, and Wilberforce and the Abolitionists who were nurtured by John Newton at nearby St Mary Woolnoth.

We spent quite a long time in the Court, photographing the installation in every possible way. We were very struck by the poem by Lemn Sissay which appears, in broken form, on  Michael Visocchi’s sugar cane-like granite columns. On what could be a pulpit – or perhaps a slave auctioneer’s rostrum – is a quote from Wlberforce. See images below for more on this excellent reminder of one source of Britain’s wealth.

Having worked on aperture, we switched to looking at the effects of different shutter speeds. We had a bit of a test of “how slow can you go?” – I was really pleased to get a usable photo of Liz at 80mm (DX body) at 1/5 of  asecond, handheld.

Leadenhall Market is always a magical space (Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, no less!), and a very different vibe after the towering blocks around the Lloyds building. The market is a great place for photography lessons and I have used it before. We shot slow exposures there, and then back on to Bishopsgate to practice panning techniques – my two pupils did really well!

Our time in the City was enlivened by Bartholomew Fair events – hence the two very dressed up ladies in the gallery!

Panning on Bishopsgate

Nikon D90 18-25mm lens @ 26mm f22 1/8 secs

Jonathan and Liz, captured by my Canon. We took stock over a drink in the New Moon, Leadenhall Market. I am so glad to say that they both thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The next photography lesson with these two (meeting Trafalgar Square, I think) will be on on 7 October. The theme will be the use of the zoom/focal length in composition and perspective. There is much more to zooms than making things look closer! The group can grow – do come along! Suggested contribution of £25 for the session.

Michael contacted me having googled photography lessons in Bromley. He lives just round the corner and it all seemed to click when he first made contact. Not least, he received a Lumix FZ1000 for Christmas, which is a camera I know well and love, so giving him some one-to-one tuition on how to get the best from it was right up my street.

Once again, a nice camera is no use if you don’t know what to do with it. Michael had not long returned from a major far-eastern holiday – and hadn’t taken the Lumix. I hope that after a very few sessions he will not be leaving it behind again!

The lesson kicked off with the most basic controls – how to focus and zoom. The FZ1000 has several different focussing options, including a very good eye-spotting mode. I had planned the lesson as a whole to be about the use of the zoom, not only to bring objects closer/make them larger, but to control creative juxtapositions and perspective effects.

Starting really basic – with the Waterstone’s sign – and moving to portraits – squirrels – pigeons – rats! – kept us busy for a couple of hours.

It is always an interesting challenge to meet someone from scratch and just head out into a two hour photography lesson. Michael is from a different generation, and works successfully in a technical field himself, so didn’t need to hear anything twice. And also, like Jonathan and Liz, he has a real photographer’s eye all ready to develop. I’m really glad to have met him and have the privilege of teaching him some camera basics.

Do you fancy improving your camera technique? Or need to start from scatch with photography? Or would you like to give photography lessons / photo classes to a friend or partner?

I enjoy teaching – and my clients enjoy the lessons. I charge £50 per hour for one-to-one tuition or a suggested £25 per session in a group photowalk in London. Contact me to make a booking.