Last week I participated in a two day 1to1 with Doug Chinnery followed by a Creative Photography workshop at Dungeness on Saturday, also with Doug.
These three days have stored my faith in workshops and feel now I have a better understanding how to maximise the benefit from them.
However, to start at the beginning and explain my original experiences. First and foremost I need to explain a little about how best knowledge is absorbed by me. The experience at senior school, well grammar school, hasn’t helped. As a shy introverted lad in the late 1950s my senior school experience began at Drayton Manor grammar school in Middlesex where my first year was disrupted by an altercation with a black cab, how not a single bone was not broken still amazes me. By that summer my family had moved to Alton where is was deemed to be necessary to begin again in the first year. My last two years were spent at Dorking Grammar where my father decided that at 15 years of age it was time for me to get out and earn money. This meant I didn’t complete my final year at school let alone take exams. Over the years I have come to recognise the best method for me to learn is a combination of watching a demonstration of how to do something then hands on experience doing it over and over again.
Apologies for digressing but it is to put my views in perspective. The course taken immediately on my retirement was a classroom experience but contained a lot of practical work. It was based on B&W film and all manual from shooting through to printing. In retrospect there was not the time for the tutor to provide the attention I probably needed. In fairness the demands of students that had missed a number of weeks combined with my inherent insecurities resulted in me fading into the background.
The next step was to participate in my first workshop. It was two days based on the Jurrassic coast of Dorset. I went with an open mind prepared to listen and learn. It took place mid January therefore dawn shoots on both days were chilly affairs. Come to think of it so were the sunset ones. There I stood manning my tripod freezing my proverbials but enjoying the event itself. However, at no point was I taught or my camera craft, what little there was at time, challenged. Today I realise you need to go with a list of questions to throw at the workshop leader. Looking back I can’t accredit any part of my development to that workshop. I did, however, discover a very nice arty cafe in Portland to which there have been a number of subsequent visits.
On reflection I came to the conclusion the leader was in fact a location guide. This resulted in me staying away from workshops for about two years. Over that time an appreciation of Doug Chinnery’s work had grown and I discovered earlier this year he was running a bluebell woods workshop just outside Basingstoke. I really enjoyed this workshop, which was co led by Antony Spencer, 2010 Landscape photographer of the year. Both Doug and Antony have a relaxed teaching method and my knowledge base soared having their mentoring during the day.
Following this experience my next step was to invest in a two 1to1 with Doug, which took place last week. Day one was a shooting day with 4.30am pick up for dawn shoot at Surprise view Hathersage. The strong winds relegated us to Lawrence Fields rather than climbing up to Mother’s Cap. Just before 8.00am we crossed back to work the lower parts of Surprise View until it was time to get breakfast at The Pool cafe Hathersage. The next stop was the beautiful Padley Gorge for another shooting session until around 2.30 when we called it a day.
Throughout the course of the day the key areas were in field workflow from clothing and equipment to setting up a shot, the use of filters, choosing the focus point, exposure and then checking the histogram afterwards. My approach to composition was helped watching and the mentoring from Doug. He has a calm manner about him, an ability to communicate clearly and concisely and a depth of knowledge and experience to back it all.
On the second day was all about post processing work flow. The key to the approach both in the field and post is organisation was impressed on me. I use Lightroom and my organisation has to begin on importing the image files consistently going to the same folder, application of keywords, then a rating of each image, adding to a collection then onto the development module. A second full day which left me driving the three and half hour trip home with my head spinning with everything experienced.
Saturday quickly arrived and the Dungeness Creative Photography workshop also led by Doug. This covered blur and ICM with 10stop filters much to the fore and I used my pinhole attachment but this time hand held and estimating the exposure time by eye and the histogram. I began shooting at 7.00 am after deliberately arriving an hour early. We wrapped it up just after 3.00pm. The wind blew accompanied by rain and hail but our band of six hardy photographers continued undaunted. I found it interesting that there were predominately females on the workshop. To me this was unusual and was probably to do with the subject matter.
The shots achieved with a Tilt & Shift lens left me lusting vainly after one. I think an exploration of the poor man’s version, Lensbaby, maybe in order in the not too distant future!
The real bonus on the day was the arrival of Chris Friel, a master of blur and ICM, who joined us at lunch and spent an hour or so in the field. Chris is a guy who is more than happy to share his knowledge and techniques.
So in conclusion how do I feel today? The three days spent last week on workshops were very good on all sorts of levels. They are good value for money and each days costs included a meal either lunch or breakfast. The ratio of participants to leaders is 6 to 1. You need to be sure what you want to learn or fine tune on each workshop. My recommendation is to carry a written list with you. The participants need to have the confidence to ask any question no matter how basic as we all at a different point along our photographic journey. At no point in the workshops attended this year has there been a knowledge is power attitude from the leaders. You meet like minded people from all walks of life and it has been a great way form to learn and develop as a photographer.
A big boost to my photographic confidence last week was to realise how much I do know. This will help me go further on my journey, probably up into third gear!
Next week I am going to take a step further along my photographic journey by doing 1to1 half day developing my use of filters with the aforementioned Antony Spencer somewhere on the Dorset coast where I am spending a week on holiday.
A tip I picked up was to join Twittter which I have done (RayFids42), you then follow photographers and photography magazine and you discover all sorts of information. You don’t have tweet just follow and read. This includes the really top pros.
To finish I have posted below three images made last week
Moss covered stone on Surprise View
Padley Gorge pool
Photograhic Journey 
