A couple of weeks ago I attended yet another great event organised by Joe Blogs, this time a photography workshop sponsored by Currys and Canon. The idea was for us to step out of our comfort zone and start shooting in manual.
I definitely needed something like this, as I feel that I have yet to explore all the possibilities of my Canon 600D and sometimes it’s difficult to find the time to read a manual or watch all the tutorials. I had used a point and shoot for year and years and only got a proper DSLR a couple of years ago. It was an old Canon Rebel XT I got second hand and even though it had its limitations (it’s around 10 years old), it was great to start practising. Now I have a much better and more modern camera that eliminates some of the issues the older one created, so it’s about time I learn how to make the most of it. Being a kinestetic learner (I know this because I took a test at work, you know, important stuff) I learn better by doing and a workshop was the perfect way to go about it – having the chance to experiment and ask questions as we go is great! Paul Hames was there to be our teacher and photo mentor and we all had a great time (and hopefully will start taking better photos). We had a few pointers and technical advice given and then were set free in the city, to go out and explore with our cameras.
What were my main takeaways from this? There were a few more technical bits that I wrote down but I feel these are the main ideas anyone needs to remember to be a better photographer, regardless of skill level and equipment:
