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!

2010

A bit late I know but the New Year has been on hold somewhat so far because of all that snowy stuff. It was very nice and the Malverns particularly looked amazing but closed schools and messy roads meant not much got done!
I have managed to get a few portraits in though and a job at Malvern Library for their Festival of Learning so it's not been completely dead. Tonight the John Masefield evening classes start again too - a week late.
This term is a short one and I'll be getting the students to think about the upcoming exhibition at the Weaver's Gallery in Ledbury - advertised on my Facebook page. We ran this last year, organised brilliantly by Jeanette McCulloch, and it was such a success that it's on again from March 22nd - 28th this year. It will feature work from my photography students (different work to last year!) as well as pieces from the Botanical Illustration and Silver Jewellery classes.
We're also taking the Unsung Heroes exhibition to Malvern Library in May - I'll post details later - so it's already turning into a busy 2010. My Spring workshops will run on a number of Sundays from Feb 7th until May too - get in touch directly or via Facebook if you want to attend one. Details on the main website.
So just a little update for now. Looking forward to getting the classes started again tonight.
See you soon!

Malvern Photography Workshop

This Saturday I led a small group photography workshop in Malvern around the St Ann's Well area. We had a great time and just about managed to beat the weather.
We started off gently down the bottom of the hills and then worked our way up, catching some lovely views like this on the way.

I like to shoot landscapes vertically. You still get to convey everything you want from the scene and I think using a long lens shows off the miles and miles of scenery as well as the Abbey in the foreground.


Just enough sun on the way up to play with some starbursts through the trees.


Then after lunch Chloe joined us and was a great model (as always) for the portraiture component of the day. Here's a few of my favourites.



Lots of opportunities for good portrait settings and backgrounds in just a tiny area of the hills.



Couldn't decide if I liked the colour or the strong contrast black & white best here :-)


We got to have a go at some off-camera flash too. Brick walls make brilliant backgrounds as you can really have some fun in Photoshop afterwards.

So, another excellent day with a good group. They got some nice shots and gave me some lovely feedback so thanks for that. Thanks to Chloe too of course!

Sunday I was back at Ettington Chase for a wedding fayre. Another successful day and it was topped off by getting some shots of this shiny R44 out on the lawn.

Matlock

Just a quick post to mention my first workshop up in Matlock. I took a group to the old Lumsdale mill site (on my birthday!) and we had a great day getting shots like the one below.


I hope to run some more up there but I'm not sure if I'll get a chance before the spring. My next workshop takes place in Malvern on October 3rd so I'll post some from that too. Got a
few more posts to put up before that though. Time to get back to the editing!

Photography Workshop

Phew, life seems to be settling back again after holiday and the Big Chill.
Since then I've done a couple of portraits, another workshop and of course the Malvern photography class is still on for another couple of weeks. Just booked in another Eastnor Castle wedding for next June too so I'll be looking forward to meeting up with the couple later in the year for their pre-wedding shoot.
Here's a shot from the workshop last weekend in Dymock.


This is all about creating a starburst and using a bit of designer flare. I've also given it a slightly over the top brown/yellow hue for that retro look.
We had good fun on the workshop despite the freezing winds in the morning. Perseverance pays in photography and we had superb light in the afternoon.

Looking forward to going out for another half-day workshop in Ross this weekend and I'll be exhibiting at the wedding fayre at Worcester Cricket Ground on Sunday if you want to come and say hello.