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Is it Friday yet ?
I've been a bit busy so far this week. So...
Rather belatedly, here's what I did on Sunday.
I was booked onto a one-day course entitled "Photographing London", covering different techniques for photographing architecture and cityscapes, and catching candid street shots. The course required you to have a manual SLR, and to take it with you; the morning covered techniques, the afternoon was wandering about London putting 'em into practice.
Sadly, the morning wasn't quite as detailed as I'd hoped. Although most of the people were used to using SLR's, they all had them set to (semi-)automatic. Taking light-meter readings, and setting f-stops according to shutter speed? "Eh?", they cried. So a lot of time went that way.
I did learn some basic stuff which I hadn't previously known (that's what comes of getting a camera at a young age and learning by trial and error - you can miss out really basic concepts, like the relationship between f-stop and depth-of-field), so the course would have been worth it just for that. However, the lady taking the course also did quite a lot of talking about composition, and perspective, with a whole host of slides to illustrate what she was talking about. (Note to self: check out Elliot Erwitt's stuff, the photos of his she showed looked really cool.)
It did involve a bit of hard work - thinking, and such. And on a Sunday! We knocked off for dinner, but were given a whole bunch of lighting problems to consider. Sadly, as I suspected there aren't really any magic tricks (unless you count filters and such), but I do now know a few things to try.
The tutor did also cover quite a lot of stuff about taking photos of people - not least the problems of people who don't want to be photo'd :) She had quite a lot of advice about "shooting from the hip" - ie having your camera on a strap, and taking photos without actually looking through the viewfinder - and how to take photos without being noticed. Choose your own ethics :)
Pottering round London in the afternoon was fun - I haven't got my photos developed yet, so I don't know how successful my attempts to take "clever" shots will have been. It's very useful having someone professional on hand at whom you can throw random queries about lighting/reflections/film speed. And nice, for once, to have a bunch of people to chat about photography with. I've been considering for a while that I ought to get back to doing more photo stuff... this might actually kick me into bothering.
Oh, and in case I'm not the only one who doesn't know... apparently www.7dayshop.com comes very highly recommended as a good source of cheap, high-quality film.
Oh, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cuthbertcross, look at what I'm listening to. Nice new shiny CD :) Shall I send a copy to Badgercon for you ? I'm quite enjoying it - there's a few songs that sound like filler, but gems such as Suicide is Dangerous, Reefer Song and Sorry about the Shag (not to mention the old standard Fuck Off) more than make up for them. Anyone who's never heard Mindless Drug Hoover - think one bloke with a guitar, singing songs that Half Man Half Biscuit might have been proud to have written...
Rather belatedly, here's what I did on Sunday.
I was booked onto a one-day course entitled "Photographing London", covering different techniques for photographing architecture and cityscapes, and catching candid street shots. The course required you to have a manual SLR, and to take it with you; the morning covered techniques, the afternoon was wandering about London putting 'em into practice.
Sadly, the morning wasn't quite as detailed as I'd hoped. Although most of the people were used to using SLR's, they all had them set to (semi-)automatic. Taking light-meter readings, and setting f-stops according to shutter speed? "Eh?", they cried. So a lot of time went that way.
I did learn some basic stuff which I hadn't previously known (that's what comes of getting a camera at a young age and learning by trial and error - you can miss out really basic concepts, like the relationship between f-stop and depth-of-field), so the course would have been worth it just for that. However, the lady taking the course also did quite a lot of talking about composition, and perspective, with a whole host of slides to illustrate what she was talking about. (Note to self: check out Elliot Erwitt's stuff, the photos of his she showed looked really cool.)
It did involve a bit of hard work - thinking, and such. And on a Sunday! We knocked off for dinner, but were given a whole bunch of lighting problems to consider. Sadly, as I suspected there aren't really any magic tricks (unless you count filters and such), but I do now know a few things to try.
The tutor did also cover quite a lot of stuff about taking photos of people - not least the problems of people who don't want to be photo'd :) She had quite a lot of advice about "shooting from the hip" - ie having your camera on a strap, and taking photos without actually looking through the viewfinder - and how to take photos without being noticed. Choose your own ethics :)
Pottering round London in the afternoon was fun - I haven't got my photos developed yet, so I don't know how successful my attempts to take "clever" shots will have been. It's very useful having someone professional on hand at whom you can throw random queries about lighting/reflections/film speed. And nice, for once, to have a bunch of people to chat about photography with. I've been considering for a while that I ought to get back to doing more photo stuff... this might actually kick me into bothering.
Oh, and in case I'm not the only one who doesn't know... apparently www.7dayshop.com comes very highly recommended as a good source of cheap, high-quality film.
Oh, and
cuthbertcross, look at what I'm listening to. Nice new shiny CD :) Shall I send a copy to Badgercon for you ? I'm quite enjoying it - there's a few songs that sound like filler, but gems such as Suicide is Dangerous, Reefer Song and Sorry about the Shag (not to mention the old standard Fuck Off) more than make up for them. Anyone who's never heard Mindless Drug Hoover - think one bloke with a guitar, singing songs that Half Man Half Biscuit might have been proud to have written...
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:awards self Twix.
:)
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I couldn't find (by idle googling) anywhere closer to home, though. I'd recommend this place, it's just a bit of a faff getting to London.
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Snap-tastic
Yay! Enthusiasm is a good thing, and should be encouraged. And enthused about. What sort of things are you actively interested in going out and snapping?
Oh, and in case I'm not the only one who doesn't know... apparently www.7dayshop.com comes very highly recommended as a good source of cheap, high-quality film.
Thanks, I didn't know about them, but a quick look does confirm that they are nice and cheap.