We were delighted to be asked to run a photography course for the National Trust.  Our happy band of 8-13 year olds did a fine job, aided and abetted by the NT’s fine Educational Officer Anne Butler.

Apart from the pictures with children in them, all these were taken by the children.  Can you spot the ones taken by the nine year olds.

If you want photographs taken with flair, style and humour, ask your children to take them!

Educationalist Dr. Baldev Singh came along to Ashton Court in Bristol for our photography course and sent us this lovely note and picture:

Hi guys

Thanks for a great day. I was inspired and went to the Bristol Harbour
Festival. Captured this picture which summed up the great day on the
harbour..very hot, lots of families and children..full of life

Baldev

We had a great day in Malvern with a group from London.  Here’s John and Lorraine before and after a little tweaking getting to grips with landscape photography on the Malvern Hills.

And after a little play in Lightroom:

photography course in Malvern, Worcestershire

We started and finished at Malvern Theatres, and began with the traditional Photography Made Simple duck portraits in the Winter Gardens, before moving up onto the hills for landscape work.  A great day was had by all.

Rachel and Phil Hibberd will be teaching photography to the students at Malvern College beginning in September. We are truly honoured to be asked to teach at such a prestigious independent school. We have worked with private schools before, but we will now be part of the staff, working with the art department.

We are absolutely thrilled about this, and (unlike most teachers!) really looking forward to getting started in the new school year. More news to follow!

We are delighted to have beaten off stiff competition to be the photography course suppliers to Buy A Gift.  (www.buyagift.com)   They are lovely people to work with and chose us over numerous competitors because of our nationwide coverage and cheerful testimonials.

Thanks chaps

When we run our photography courses we see a lot of users of these cameras.  Users of these cameras are really stuck for lenses, not helped by idiots at Jessops suggesting that some people like to use manual focus. You need to buy AF-S lenses, which contain an autofocus motors and cost considerably more than lenses which don’t. For example the lovely 50mm 1.8 costs about £100 but won’t autofocus on your camera – you’ll need the £300 50mm 1.4.  These old lenses will work well on old cheap cameras like the D50 and D70,  but not the newer ones.

(Why don’t you want to manually focus?  Because it’s really hard to tell when the camera’s in focus – these cameras are really designed for auto and if you shoot shallow your pics will often be just out of focus.  So don’t buy lenses that make you do it all the time.)

However, the 35mm f1.8 is AF-S and will work fine on your camera, and costs about £150 or so. Because of the crop sensor it will mean that it appears to magnify to about 50mm, which is to say about as much as human vision. So it’s a nice length to work with.

Certainly worth considering before you give up on your camera and buy an old D50 or a new D90. Here’s Ken Rockwell’s review. Nikon have hinted that if they have sufficient buyers they will produce other focal lengths, so you could force their hand by buying one.  We have complained for years that new low-end nikons restrict your lenses and therefore your photography, so now’s the chance to influence production!

For our taste 35mm is a little short for portaits, but makes a great all-round lens – many early photographers used a 50mm exclusively and this lens will act as a 52mm on your camera.  It can handle low light in small rooms and give sharp accurate pictures.  Just watch that your shallow depth of field isn’t too restrictive and samey-looking.  Just because you can do shallow pictures doesn’t mean you should all the time!

If this blog is a bit technical and incomprehensible, please drop us a line and we’ll make it simpler.  The clue’s in the name!!

Dean and I had a grand day out at our new venue, Henley-on-Thames.

The main street during rush hour.

Dean zooms in on a nesting coot.

And here she is!

Plenty of geese lurking in Henley!

Running this course was a bit of a test for us, to see if the venue was suitable – after a great lunch at the River and Rowing Museum, and several ice creams we say Henley is a great place for photography courses!

Culzean Castle, on the Ayrshire coast about an hour from Glasgow, is a great location for photography courses.  We had a really varied group – so can you work out which pictures were taken by a 15 year old, or a management accountant a retired police inspector?  Didn’t think so!!

Photography Made Simple at San Bernardino County Museum is not us, sadly.

We had a great day at Culzean Castle in Scotland on Sunday, and Carol and her son Jamie wrote us a very nice testimonial. Have a look at our testimonials.
They also sent a link to their blog, which has a great picture.

Thanks for coming, Carole – see you again soon!!