I met Andy at the railway station... I should say "at one of the railway stations" as there are actually 2 in Lichfield and, between us, myself and Andy managed to see them both! He was waiting eagerly at the Trent Valley station as I sent a text to say that we were coasting up to the platform... but I was actually on the train that was coasting up to the platform at the City station! Oops!! No wonder he couldn't see the train that I was adamant I was on!!!
We were soon reunited however and carried on into the City of Lichfield to see what we could find. Inevitably, we found a coffee shop first of all and, having partaken of a particularly large and perhaps not quite wholesome breakfast, we wandered in towards the Cathedral.
The purpose of the day was to ensure that Andy was confident at using manual exposures on his camera, and then a look at using the computer to offload, upload, download, and any and all other loadsa things that can be done to, with and from images on a computer! That is actually a mammoth subject and impossible to cover completely in one day, so it was rather an introduction to it, a look-see at the digital darkroom, accompanied by a manual (written by myself) that Andy could take home and carry on with at his leisure. He can also contact me at any time for more help and assistance if he needs it... and it is quite likely that he will, so please don't hesitate to call me Andy!!
So, what did we cover on our day out? Well, we started off at Captain Smith's statue in Lichfield.
Yes, he was the Captain of the Titanic, but no, he didn't come from Lichfield! Apparently (I don't know how much truth there is to this story, but I have it on good authority), Captain Smith was from Stoke on Trent but they refused to erect a statue in his honour and so his memory was denied until Captain Scott's wife (Captain of the RSS Discovery, which is in permanent dock at Dundee... go see it if you can, it's awesome!!).. where was I? Yes, Captain Scott's wife persuaded the good folks of Lichfield to have his statue there instead!
The challenge for Andy was to get a photo of the statue against the sky, while retaining detail in his face and all cloud detail behind. No HDR, no multiple exposures; 1 exposure, manually created by Andy with only very minimal guidance from myself. We took a colour exposure which we converted to black & white later on during our computer skills session. It has to be said, Andy coped most admirably... no pun intended, he was just a cap'n anyway ;-)
We then went into the Cathedral in search of lowlight, high contrast, interesting and beautiful images. Another big challenge for Andy and, again, he did an amazing job!
Having only been on 2 photographic tuition days with me, Andy is now very much in charge of his own camera.
Rather than let it decide what settings to use, Andy chooses it all himself. ISO, aperture, shutter speed, composition, framing, timing... all his own work and all very, very impressive!!
So, having loitered round the Cathedral (where we did purchase a photography permit each by the way), we headed back into the city via another tea room for an afternoon on the computer. All in all we had another smashing day out and I can safely say that we will be doing it again, but as friends rather than as work! Now that's not a bad job is it?!!
Thanks for another great day out Andy, and for all your hard work. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you!!
Rebecca, x
If you would like your own personal photography tutorial, contact me and we'll get it arranged to suit you! We have 3 whole days in total, you get 2 manuals written just for you that are yours to take away and keep, plus email assistance when you're at home, for however long you want or need it. All that for £185. If you would like to discuss it further with me, please do email me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment