Last year Belinda attended at least 9 courses with us, the majority were with Peter at Kingston Lacy in Dorset but she also attended some with Dominic at Lacock. This year she is coming back for more! We are delighted at this and I asked Belinda if she would write a review of her experiences with Going Digital for us - she has done this and so I have decided to use it for this months South Wales Blog as the team in S.Wales is the same as the one in the South and the South West regions. I do hope you enjoy reading Belinda's report and perhaps one day it will be your report appearing on this page for us. Before I hand over to Belinda's report - I would just like to convey our thanks to her for taking the time to write such a lovely article!
Going Digital – a student’s appreciation
Having retired in 2011, one of the key items on my “retirement bucket list” was
to improve my photography skills. I have been a keen amateur photographer
for some years, but although I have always been lucky enough to own a fairly
decent camera (and travel a lot to use it!) the controls have always been firmly
set to automatic! My knowledge of what the other settings meant – or did –
was fairly limited, and good pictures were definitely a matter of luck, rather
than skill!
So I set about finding out ways to improve – and like many people
these days I started with an internet search. This located Going Digital, and
this was of interest to me because of the local venues, range of courses
and the price – which seemed to represent very good value. I should also
mention here that I have some mobility restrictions and use a walking stick,
so accessibility at venues was an important consideration in my choice.
Balancing and carrying everything can be challenging at times, as some will
know. With persistence anything is possible!
Going Digital largely uses National Trust venues, which is ideal because of
the range of photographic opportunities available at many of these beautiful
sites. I was able to seek advice from the tutors in respect of accessibility, and
a very good guide that the National Trust produces supplemented this. I would
also add that the NT has gained a member as a result of my photographic
exploits!
I started out with Explore your Digital Camera – Parts 1 and 2, which I
undertook over a single weekend. Part 1 was very much about getting off
automatic settings and understanding more about depth of field, aperture and
shutter priority. This was followed up in more detail in Part 2, and both days
included valuable opportunities to shoot photographs and receive evaluation
and critique of these from the tutor afterwards.
Due to personal circumstances there was then a gap before I did my next
course, which has turned out to be my favourite one – Close Up and Macro
Photography. This was followed by Landscapes Parts 1 and 2, Photographing
Family and Friends, Portrait Photography using Flash, Composition and finally
Photographing Wildlife – Birds of Prey. My own circumstances meant that I
did the composition course later than planned and ideally I think I would have
done this after the original Parts 1 and 2.
I have already mentioned Macro as being a particular highlight, but I also
enjoyed the particular challenges posed by Portrait Photography and Wild
Life Photography. The chance to photograph a professional model was
outstanding and the challenge of photographing the wild birds of prey was
wonderful.
All the courses have been interesting, informative and well presented.
The format of the day has generally been a presentation, followed by a
photography session then critique of the shots. This has then been repeated
in the afternoon. The evaluation sessions have been particularly valuable,
since I have learned not only from my own successes and failures, but also
from those of other group members. We have been encouraged to share
and comment and because of the supportive learning environment this has
worked very well. I use an Olympus camera and although the vast majority of
the other students that I have worked with have been Nikon or Canon users,
I have in no way felt disadvantaged. I have also seen bridge cameras and
compact cameras used on occasions – with some excellent results.
So has it been worth it? That gets a resounding yes! I have definitely
improved and I am getting more confident about the settings I use and the
composition of my pictures. I am finding that family and friends comment
favourably on my work and I am definitely braver about the projects I attempt
and better able to critique my results. I have not felt limited by my mobility –
I have been able to pace myself on the study days and I have been actively
encouraged by the tutors, where appropriate with suggestions for alternative
subjects. I have met a lot of like-minded, very nice people and the workshops
have been fun as well as productive. Special thanks to tutors Peter and
Dominic who have been simply outstanding.
I fully intend to attend further Going Digital workshops in the future – some of
them will be second time around workshops to measure progress and develop
my skills further. If you are a keen amateur photographer and want to develop
your own skills, please give Going Digital a try – you will not regret it!
Belinda Atkinson
February 2013
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