I signed up for the beginners course which consists of three 90 minute sessions for £40. I thought this was excellent value for money; most other classes I found were far more expensive and more advanced for my needs.
The aim of the classes is to get you used to the settings on your camera, what all the different buttons do and help you move away from the automatic setting so you're in control of the photographs you take. I was still struggling with my new camera and although I've been producing some decent pictures I'm still mostly working through trial and error and I found it frustrating when I wasn't able to manipulate the controls to achieve specific results.
Pete's lessons are great, easy to follow and he really helps you understand the fundamental basics of photography including aperture, exposure, ISO, shutter speed and composition. We were given the opportunity to ask any questions and provided with handouts of all the information we were taught. Each week homework tasks were set so we could test our newly acquired knowledge and skills and then the following week we would discuss our photographs and learn where we went wrong. And mostly I did go wrong! But that's why I was there, I needed to learn.
Here are some of the photographs I took for my Photo School homework. Some were so painfully boring that I've spared you the tedium!
As you can see, I seem to favour the portrait aspect, which I never realised until I submitted this set of photos. By no means do I think these are great photographs, they're just an example of stuff I was experimenting with.
After completing the three lessons I signed up for one of the Photo School photo walks. Pete puts on several different walks around Birmingham and I chose the Digbeth walk. I work in Digbeth every day and thought it would be interesting to take a stroll through the area and have a proper look at what's around me every day. Pete takes you on a guided tour, giving you plenty of opportunities to take photos, look at the views and architecture whilst listening to him tell you some facts and history about the things you see around you. I went along with a friend and there were three other people on the walk; it was a lovely way to spend a crisp, clear February afternoon. Here are some of the photographs I took during the walk, including one my friend took of me.
Next time I'll wrap up warmer, my fingers and toes were completely numb by the time we finished up at the Custard Factory; so we headed home for coffee and cake!
If you like walking, photography, local history and generally getting out and about in this fair city, I'd highly recommend signing up for one of the walks and you can do that here. Thanks for looking!
