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Workshops

WHAT WORKSHOP COURSES ARE AVAILABLE?
Workshop courses are offered on a personal tuition basis on a range of dates to suit your own requirements - we all lead busy lives these days - or you can book one of our pre arranged residential workshops listed below and join other like minded photographers where you can also share ideas and experiences to further improve your photography. On single day "flexible date" workshops there may be 1 or 2 others on the same day, but personal tuition is still offered if required as groups are a maximum of 3.
  
We offer 1 day and multi day workshops in both landscape and steam railway subjects, whichever you prefer. Most are full day courses, although see below for our "taster"option.

Landscape courses are usually held on either the Dorset coast, Exmoor or Somerset levels and coast, and final locations chosen will often depend on the weather conditions and time of year. You may also have a particular favourite area that you would like to use and this will be considered if required. Landscape workshops take in the best light at the beginning and end of the day for at least a part of the course.

Steam railway courses concentrate on steam in the landscape opportunities rather than shots of trains at stations etc., although some of these can also be included if you wish. The railway courses take in as many locations and picture opportunties as can be fitted in to a full day out on the lineside.

Basic Photoshop & printing will cover the techniques required to enable you to manage, process and print your images including RAW conversion if that format is employed for your picture taking. The 1 day workshop is ideal if booked in addition to an outdoor landscape or steam railway workshop to process the images you have obtained on the workshop. It can be taken the following day or on another day to suit your diary.

Evening taster courses. In addition to the above we offer some short evening "taster workshops" in the Somerset area starting a couple of hours before sunset and taking in a local landscape feature that can produce a successful result in the late afternoon/evening lighting often referred to as the "golden hours".

COURSE CONTENT
Each workshop will aim to cover the fundamentals of good photography, regardless of whether landscape or steam railway. We will however try not to go over in detail areas in which you are already familiar. Most workshops will therefore include the following, obviously digital features only apply when that medium is used;

• The camera - includes an overview of the functions and facilities available on your camera
• Exposure control - including manual, aperture priority, shutter priority and ISO settings and exposure compensation and bracketing
• Working with the light and camera metering modes
• Focus control
• Depth of field
• Composition - understanding how the above all effect the final result
• The eye of as photographer - how to see good picture opportunities
• RAW and JPEG images
• White balance
• The Histogram
• Post production options - software available
• Home printing

PRICES
The standard charge for a 1 day workshop is £145.00.
For a 2 day workshop the cost is £275.00
For a 3 day workshop the cost is £360.00
The evening taster courses are £60.00 for a three hour session.
Photoshop days are £130.00 per head/per day.

These charges will apply to all courses. The workshops can be booked either individually or for a small group. If small groups book together a discount can be applied, please call us for details.
If alternative locations further away from the west country are preferred for your workshop then the additional costs incurred by your tutor will be applied to the total.
All courses/workshops can be booked on line via our secure payment facility or call us by phone on 01278 784825.

ACCOMMODATION
Multi day courses will obviously require some overnight accommodation to be arranged and we can help you to find or book on your behalf a suitable bed & breakfast guest house. The costs of this is not included in the course fee and payment for this is the responsibility of the client. On residential workshops full board accommodation is included.

POOR WEATHER OPTION
If you have booked a flexible days workshop session and when the date for your course arrives the weather forecast is particularly poor you can contact us to discuss the option of postponing, no charge will be made for doing this in these circumstances.
Where our pre-arranged residential workshops are concerned this option does not apply.

SOME FEEDBACK FROM PAST CLIENTS
Hi Don
Hope you're keeping well, thought you might be interested to know that the shot I took at our day at the WSR Spring Gala of the Super D in the one brief moment of sunshine got a "gold medal" at the Worthing Camera Club competition last night!

Hi Don,
I had a great day out and learned lots of useful stuff - it was certainly well worth the money! I hope you enjoyed the day too.
There does seem to be such a lot to learn about photography, but I suppose that is part of it's appeal, isn't it? Now that I've started to take photography seriously I'm keen to learn all I can, to progress beyond taking snapshots and strive to produce something that could be called art. I think it's going to be fun, and the day spent with you has got me off to a good start.

Hi Don,
Thank you once again for an excellent workshop & day playing with Photoshop plus prints.
Also thanks to Jane for coffee and an excellent lunch.
Everybody has liked my pictures.

Hi Don,
Once again thanks for an excellent weekend on the WSR. I'd been looking forward to it since Christmas, and it turned out to be much better than I had been hoping for. Keep me posted on your charter events - I hope that I'll be able to join one later this year.

Hi Don,
Just wanted to thank you once again for a great day.

I feel the way the day panned out was excellent despite a shaky start with the weather, I did not realise until I got home quite how much I had learnt on the day and I think the way you talked us through the area, gave some advice on filters to use and let us get on with it making yourself available for questions and giving us tips worked really well. I have been through some of the shots taken on the day and am really pleased with the results, I am really struggling to decide which ones to keep which has to be a good sign.

Hi Don,
Thank you for the great day out I had on your workshop last month I really enjoyed it.
I have gained a lot more confidence and better understanding of my camera, and composition, and was very pleased with some of my shots of Kimmeridge and Durdle Dor.

Hi Don,
Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the course on Sunday.

I learned a lot and with practice, hope now to put it to good use and take something worth putting on the lounge wall! Thanks once again for a lovely day.

Hi Don,
Just a quick note to say thanks very much for the course yesterday - I found it extremely useful & the pictures that I downloaded were excellent.
Although the weather was poor, it was great to be able to start to understand the camera properly.

Thanks again & hope to see you in 2012.

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