I'd always wanted to develop my photography and have a better technical understanding... but doing this blog and, of course, having a beautiful daughter gave me two brilliant excuses to finally get round to it.
The Nigel Wilson Weekend Photography course is rated as one of the best in London, and it was easy to see why.
By lunchtime on the first day, Nigel had managed to demystify half of the controls on my DSLR and I was starting to understand properly how to use aperture and shutter speed.
It was great fun to be let loose onto the streets of Soho to put our new skills into action!
Just a few twiddles of newly-discovered buttons and one perspective transformed into another
New ways of making a photograph quickly led to new ways of seeing, and seeing anew
What I really loved was trying to make a great shot out of the ordinary and the ugly.
Traffic signs lit by the morning sun
Fag butts crumpled into gaps in a wall suddenly became a fascinating landscape...
And I got rather excited by the mottled surface of a metal shop front...
Something sensuous in those curves, no?
The fender on this beautiful old car needed little skill to shine
And even the streets seemed paved with gold
As well as studying the technical basics, Nigel taught us a few tricks. We learnt how to do panning, a great effect to capture speed and feel like a proper photographer!
Of course, I had to get a couple of food shots in. The lovely people at Randall & Aubin let me in to take photos of the crayfish in the window.
Cheeky chappies, these! You lookin' at me?!
Up close and in the right light, even a bowl of apples can look sublime.
I thoroughly recommend the course, and you can find details of it right here. I will be putting my new skills into practice at home and online. They will come in very handy in my upcoming trip to Hong Kong - watch this space!
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