Recently I, along with my friend Julian and our son’s Adam, Conner and Jordan headed over to Great Notley Country Park to enjoy the sunny, yet very bracing, weather. Not wanting to be burdand by the weight of carrying my professional equipment I instead opted to take with me my Canon compact camera.

The bigest advantage compact cameras have over DSLRs, is that due to their size they have vastly superior portability. The fact that many of the digital compact cameras now fit in a shirt pocket or a small handbags makes them ideal for spontaneous picture-taking wherever and whenever the opportunity arises.

HOWEVER… The fact that these compact cameras are so easy to use now can actually be their downfall because it reduces the need to think about the photograph-taking process before the shutter button is pressed. This means the camera is often left to make all the necessarily decisions and as clever as modern compact cameras are, they are most definitely not infallible. So, at those times when you do have time to identify the best camera settings then it will be worth spending that extra moment or two to get a  considerably better photograph.

Starting in March will be running a Compact Camera Training Workshop at our studio near Braintree  in Essex. The half day workshop will cover camera set-up, all the Scene Modes (Portrait, Landscape, Close-ups etc) that your camera has along with many other useful functions to help you start taking amazing photographs. On top of that you will learn about composition, how to take photographs of your friends and the ways to take stunning holiday photographs.

For further details please visit Compact Camera Training Workshops, e-mail me here or call 07961 100 580

So back to our afternoon out. All in all we had a great afternoon together and managed to capture some photographs to help us remember our day.

Compact Camera Course, Compact Camera Course Essex, Compact Camera Course Suffolk, 

So was Father Christmas good to you by bringing you a new camera?  Has it got all the bells and whistles that you were hoping for? Are you now thinking “Ok, now I’ve got it how do I actually use this beauty to get the awesome photographs that I want?”

The good news is that help is at hand because by stumbling across my blog you have found the home of the region’s premier Photography Training company and we have a range of workshops and courses that are just right for you.

The Introduction to Digital Photography workshop for example teaches you everything you need to get you camera away from auto and take greater control of your camera and with what you will lean from the composition session you’ll be taking photographs that will simply blow your friends a family away.

For further details about this number 1 photography workshop check out all the details by clicking here or call jeff directly on 07961 100 580

Check out Jeff’s Photography Website www.JeffTurnbull.co.uk

Essex Photography Training  Suffolk Photography Training 

 

Recently Digital Photographer Magazine invited Matthew Webb, one of their readers, to attend a 1-2-1 training day with myself.

The day’s training was going to about portrait photography. The morning session was to be an urban shoot so along with our two models, James & Holly Blunderfield who are both newlywed street dancers, we headed off to an industrial estate to make the most of the gritty and colourful surroundings. The training session covered controlling light, capturing motion, creating atmosphere, posing and showing that no matter what the background is you can take amazing photographs.

For the afternoon session we headed back to the studio where, after lunch and a quick change for James and Holly, the lighting was set up for the second part of the training day. By using various lighting set ups Matthew learnt how to quickly create his own unique lighting effects. The beauty of studio lighting is that you have much greater control making images more consistant. Being much closer to the models also allowed Matthew to build a great rapport.

I would like to thank Claire Gillo, from DP magazine, Matthew, James and Holly for all making it such a great day. To read the full feature why not pick up a copy of this month’s (Issue 117) Digital Photographer magazine.

You can check out their website here www.dphotographer.co.uk.

For details of all our Photography Training Courses  please visit www.excelphotographytraining.co.uk or call me directly on 07961 100 580.

In the meantime please find the feature below

Photography Training Essex, Digital Photography Training, Portrait Photography Training

‘The Studio’ is available to hire to amateurs, semi professional of professional photographers and is conveniently located 1 mile off the A120.

 This small studio is equipped with Elincrom professional lighting, modifiers and various backdrops. The studio also has natural lighting and with its minimalist décor it provides a very light and clean working environment.   

 ‘The Studio’ has gained popularity with many local photographers, both processional and amateur due to the relaxed environment, great service and the very reasonable prices.  

 Prices:

£25 Per hour (min 2 hours)

£60 Half day  (3 hours)

£100 Full Day (7 hours)

 For further details please contact Jeff on 07961 100 580 or E-mail Here

Please find below images from some of our clients who hired the studio which included:  Fashion shoot for a clothes designer, Calendar shoot for a triathlon team and Personal project.

Images supplied by Pete Wilson, Matthew Lines and Kerrie Mitchell