Worcester Photography Composition Workshop

Seems like a while ago now (sorry I've been away again) but at the end of March I ran a workshop, dragging some hardy souls around Worcester to practice compostion in a city/urban environment. What's good about Worcester and the site of the other composition workshop I planned in Gloucester is that they have a good mix of old and new, waterfront, dock areas, city architecture and lots of opportunities to find interesting shapes, patterns and textures.

We concentrated largely on the redeveloped dock area at Diglis Basin and the area around the Cathedral. We started using wide angle lenses only. This got us thinking hard about what to include in the shot, how to make it interesting with such a wide field of view and what shapes to look for that the wide angle could accentuate.

Here's the lock-keeper's cottage at Diglis Basin. I thought a black and white treatment worked best.


Another black and white of a bit of urban decay. Just round the corner to all the new building going into the sparkly dock areas is this neglected sea cadets' hut. Conveniently there's a wall dropping down to the riverside path so I could get a low angle across the gravel without lying on the floor!

Later in the day we switched to longer lenses to again force us to think in a certain way. This one shows some of the flood levels that have been reached over the years.

A close-up detail of the intricate workmanship on one of the doors to the Cathedral.

This house in the green next to the Cathedral - I think it's one of the university buildings - stood out to me as it was the only one not obscured by parked cars!


Another wide shot that takes in the buildings around the green with the tree and it's little blue circle of flowers as both framing and foreground. Waiting for the sun to come out from the intermittent cloud threw the lovely shadows of the branches into the bottom of the shot.

A classic simple off-centre composition. I do like brick walls for their texture.

Back at the Diglis Basin the houseboats here formed a nice curve which worked well with the perspective of the long lens.

There are some more on my Flickr stream, along with some from skiing.
If you want to come along to one of my workshops give me a call and keep an eye on the webpage and Facebook for updates. The next one is likely to be in search of bluebells on Sunday May 9th.

This Sunday 18th April I'll be at Hereford Racecourse wedding fair then May and June are pretty busy with weddings and pre-wedding shoots. So plenty more blog posts to come!