Date announced for Serious Amateur photography course

Wednesday 3rd June is the date set to start the Serious Amateur photography course.
To book please telephone; 01946-595476 or email; Click to email

Digital Photography for Serious Amateurs is aimed towards those who may know a little about their D-SLR camera already and we show you some greater possibilities; we go deeper into some more advanced techniques including HDR, off-camera flash and multiplicity with more use of software such as use of layers in Photoshop and Photomatix.
– A total of 11 sessions over 6 weeks (6 classroom based and 5 field trips)
– Runs on Mondays 6-9pm, the field trips are usually at weekends.
– Full price; £100.  Concessions available for over 60’s and other benefits.

Helping to re-brand a local school

Aspatria’s Beacon Hill school are rebranding their material across the range, from their website to brochures to signage and they chose me to help them do it.  It was a great opportunity to help a really nice school who have an emphasis on supporting the relationships between teachers and pupils.  It was a privilege to be able to assist.

A visit to Coco Plum Island!

This was an amazing trip, so much to do and see, I shot so many photographs, these are some of my favourites!

New course dates announced

I’m really pleased to announce new dates for my courses!

The beginners course starts on Wednesday the 15th of April and runs for 5 weeks.  We have field trips at weekends where we go and put into practice what we’ve learned in the classroom.  This is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about your camera and how to take the photos that you want and not to leave everything to the camera to make the choices for you! … and no you don’t need the latest SLR with very expensive lenses!  Even ‘bridge’ camera users will be able to apply the techniques we use.

Then on Saturday the 6th June the Studio introduction course starts with an introduction in the classroom, followed the Saturday after (13th June) with a live model in the studio using our lighting and backgrounds.   You will learn how to work with a model and some good external lighting techniques.  Even if you don’t plan to take this up it’s a really fascinating introduction to how lighting works and affects the look of your photos.

For more information on pricing and how to book click this link.

Studio Photography course a success

This was amazing, everyone was incredibly enthusiastic and got an incredible amount from the course.  Thanks to Charlotte who modelled for us today, fantastic results for all!
To see the available courses please click here.

Serious Amateur course completes

We all had a great time on the Serious Amateur course, on the 5 field trips we managed to snap some fantastic images and the photos each of the group produced were fantastic!
For more on the courses available please see here.

Sleeping Beauty comes to Egremont this Christmas

The Whitehaven Theatre Group are running a production of Sleeping Beauty for Christmas 2013 and the promo-shoot was great fun!

Kankku trip in the Lakes

Kankku is an off-road driving experience company based in Windermere.

Model photoshoot with Emma

Emma is a great model, she helped me out with part of my photography course and I loved this picture!

Photography course dates announced (updated)

I’m pleased to announce start dates for some of my courses;

– Digital Photography for beginners; 14th Jan 2013 / 3rd June 2013
– Digital Photography for the serious amateur; 5th Nov 2012 / 15th April 2013
– Digital Photography in the studio; 19th & 26th Jan 2013
More info;  http://www.photographynorthwest.com/photography-courses-whitehaven-lake-district-cumbria/

Please call 01946-595476 to book any course

My 10 tips for photographing fireworks

With the International Whitehaven Festival starting this week I posted in a recent thread on Flickr about some tips on taking firework photos.    I hope this is useful…

10 top firework tips from me;

1. Use a tripod!  And also use a remote shutter release so that you don’t transmit vibrations when you press the shutter button on the camera with your finger.
2. Make sure you have a full battery and lots and lots of memory card space (obvious but you’ll be surprised!).
3.  If your camera struggles to focus in low light, set it up before hand while it’s light and switch your lens to Manual focus and don’t touch it.
4. Don’t use auto modes (including Aperture and Shutter priorities). Use manual.  And turn the flash off 🙂
5. Shooting in raw instead of JPG will give you better pictures. But be aware that raw will use a lot more memory card space and you may need to process each shot individually depending on what software you use.
6. Exposure?  Get the right amount of ambient light with the shutter speed, a few seconds should be enough for each shot. Adjust the aperture to get the exposure on the fireworks right and use your ISO to control the overall brightness of the scene..
7. Don’t use a long exposure because the results will just be a complete mess of whited-out over-exposed-ness. Instead, try to time each main burst from start to finish.
8. Don’t be afraid to blend two or more shot together afterwards to get the shot you need.
9. Don’t get in anyone’s way!
10. Don’t forget to enjoy the show! I’ve shot loads of fireworks where I’ve concentrated so much on the pictures I didn’t get time to enjoy it.

My Photography Courses are proving very popular!

Word about my Photography Courses certainly has got around and the demand as high as ever.  We will be adding more dates for the Introduction to Studio Photography course as we go through the year – the first three studio courses after Christmas were fully booked within a few weeks!

The Beginners course has now concluded and Summer term dates will be announced soon.
The Serious Amateur course starts in mid-April and we only have a few places remaining so be quick 🙂

I have to report that I didn’t expect the large demand for these courses, especially being tucked away in West Cumbria.  I really enjoy hosting them and I know that everyone who attends reports leaps and bounds in both skill and general confidence.

Don’t forget that to book your place on my course or to request an information pack please contact the centre directly;
– Telephone; 01946-595476
– Email; Click to email
– Website; Click to visit

New section added for picture sales!

We are proud to be able to announce a partnership with a local shop (‘The Tenth Bull’ in Whitehaven) that stocks our photographs!

Please click the small arrow in the black strip above and to the right to view this section, or click here to go direct.