For those of you who are interested in knowing a bit about my personal life, I’ve spent daytimes this week on a digital photography course (evenings and early mornings have been blogging and work as usual, which makes for a rather tiring week).
I’ve been taking photos for almost two decades and have acted as picture editor and image source for dozens of articles over the years, but I hoped to gain a few new insights into the process of photo composition from international press photographer Malcolm Clarke, who was running the course at my local community education centre.
It was the first time the centre had run the week long course as part of its internationally famous summer school. We had a great group of enthusiastic photographers and rattled through several hundred snaps each over the course of the week. The range of skills among the students was initially very diverse and the biggest improvements were seen among those fresher to photography than any of those who might have already had some claim to being old hands. Even those students with the simplest of compact digital cameras were producing quite excellent shots and certainly demonstrated that having an eye for a shot is far more important than having the right kit.
That said, some of the most detailed macro close-ups of insects and flowers on the final day, taken at Cambridge’s stunning Botanical Gardens, were mindblowing, especially one students shot of a common darter (a type of dragonfly, that is not a ruddy darter) and another’s image of a honeybee coming into land. Brilliant stuff.
As it’s Saturday, I’m pointing you to the imaging and photography links page. Anyone on the course who wants to see some of my pre-course snaps from the recent Fen Edge Family Festival held in Cottenham in June they can check out my Imaging Storm website).