Also don’t forget the photo walk on July 18th, the more people come along the better.

There are, however, a couple of places left on the 28th June if anyone is interested.

I will be running another course in July, and one in early August, but I’ve still got to confirm the definite dates.

You can find all the info, and register for it here: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/oldham-en-uk/

Please don’t try and register through this site, you have to go to the official page at the address above.

It’s totally free and will be a good afternoon of photography for beginners and experienced photographers with a range of photo opportunities, from industrial remains to wildlife.

I hope you can join us for it.

I’ll be publishing mroe details once I have them, but I hope you will be able to join me as it should be an enjoyable afternoon of photography and socialising with other photographers from the surrounding areas.

These are:

Sunday 10th May 2009 – Park Bridge, Oldham, Lancs – 12 places in total

Sunday 21st June 2009 – Park Bridge, Oldham, Lancs – 12 places in total

Sunday 28th June 2009 – Park Bridge, Oldham, Lancs – 12 places in total

You can book these course through this web site, by clicking on the Book A Course link at the top of the site and choosing the date you want to book.

If you have any questions about the course, just let me know, but you’ll find lots of information about it here.

I spotted this shot while doing a one to one photography session near Deansgate station in Manchester. The sun was getting fairly low and there was a nice light across some cobbled stones that formed part of a road. The yellow of the double yellow lines stood out against the grey stones and I thought it would make a good shot.

I tried several compositions for this. The composition is the most important thing here, as the image is of something flat, so depth of field and aperture isn’t too important, the colours were what I wanted to concentrate on. As the light was getting low and I was hand holding the camera, I knew I needed a wide aperture to make sure the shutter speed was fast enough to get a sharp image. So I just set the aperture, using aperture priority, while taking note of the shutter speed the camera was going to choose and as soon as I was confident that I would get a sharp picture I composed the shot and took 3 or 4 pictures. I then adjusted my position and tried one or two more options before the light dipped behind the buildings and the moment was lost.

So again, not a lot of technical knowledge needed (which seems to be a running theme for my shots) just a little understanding of what would suit the conditions and what I needed to change to ensure a good result.

The key to this shot was spotting it in the first place. What most people would just walk past can sometimes make a good shot so always keep your eye open for that shot, it might be worth it.

You can find out all about the courses here and you can book them online here.

Spaces are limited to 10 on each course.

I’m looking forward to running lots of these courses this year as well as intermediate level courses too later in the year too.

So we are now into 2009. Hopefully you were on Santa’s ‘has been good list’ and you might have got a new camera or a new lens or maybe an accessory or two.

Have you tried them yet?

Well now is the time to set yourself some (belated) photography resolutions for 2009. Here are a few that I’ve made:

1. Perhaps the most important one is to regularly update this site. I am aiming for a new post each week.
2. I want to sell some of my images, whether it is as a framed print, or in electronic format as stock photography.
3. Learn how to use my flash gun properly.
4. Write a handbook to use with the photography courses I will be running.
5. Carry my Canon G9 around with me a lot more.

Some of these may be a bit more of a challenge than others, but those are the targets I am setting myself.

But for those of you just starting out in photography, these might be some good suggestions:

1. Dedicate a few hours a week to learning how to use your camera and it’s various features.
2. Pick a particular area of photography, like portraits or landscapes and concentrate on that area until you are more confident in it. Then move onto another area.
3. Join a camera club. They aren’t for everyone but it won’t hurt to give it a try. Most clubs will allow you to visit a couple of times before joining up so you can see what you think.
4. Join a web site like Flickr.com and share your images. It’s a great way to get constructive comments on your images and a great way to get inspiration.
5. Print some of your pictures, frame them and hang them on the wall.  Images take on a whole new look when you put them on the wall instead of look at them on the computer screen.

So there’s a few to get you going, but also remember to keep taking pictures. Try and take your camera with you a lot more and learn to see photo opportunities. With your camera with you, you can make the most of them.

I had the chance recently to take pictures of a football match between two teams from work. I wanted to use the opportunity to not only gain experience in this area, but also see if I could capture some images that my colleagues a work would be pleased with.

The first thing about sports photography is that you need to have reliable equipment. Spare batteries (fully charged) and plenty of space on several memory cards. Due to the fast pace of sports you are likely to take lots of pictures.

Equipment wise, well the press photographers you see at sporting events have big lenses for a reason. You need a fast lens. By fast I mean a wide aperture allowing you to use fast shutter speeds to freeze the action.  The other good thing about using a wide aperture is that you can use a narrow depth of field which makes sure any distracting backgrounds, like advertising boards, are blurred out as much as possible while keeping the subject of the shot sharp.

Other important equipment features would be a camera body that has a fast continuous shooting speed. Several frames a second will allow you to fire off rapid bursts of 4 or 5 frames giving you more chance of capturing that magic moment like a goal (as above) or another event that people may want to see again.

Another important bit of kit is warm clothes. In the winter at open grounds like football pitches the wind and the cold can soon make your hands go numb which makes taking pictures and adjusting settings all the more difficult. So wrap up warm!

So, you have the equipment, but it’s not just a case of pointing and firing off lots of shots. The key to producing great sports photos is to be able to read the action so you can better predict what is about to happen and be ready for it. Just like wildlife photography, where knowing your subjects behaviour gives you a much better chance of a great photo opportunity, knowing at least the basics of the rules of the sport you are watching, knowing which are the players who are more likely to provide you with the action shots and knowing what position on the pitch, track, court etc will give you the best opportunity to get a good shot.

For instance on a bright day, part of the football pitch might be over shadowed by the stands, making it darker. This means you might not be able to use as fast a shutter speed to freeze the action when the action is going on on that side of the pitch.

If there are crowds watching, there is a good chance they might be wearing the teams colours which will mean the players might blend in more with the background, so maybe a slightly higher view point for you pictures will help minimise that.

If your lens has a limited zoom range, you may not be able to get clear shots in certain places. Whether the action is too close or too far away, it might mean you have to accept you might miss some shots. So position yourself to reduce this as much as possible and give yourself the most coverage you can.

The good thing about sports photography, depending on what the sport is of course, is that you are likely to gets lots of opportunities during the game to take pictures. This gives you lots of practise to help perfect your technique. I really would advise you to go along to a local match and see what sort of shots you come back with. You never know, the players may even want to buy a print or two off you if you’ve captured their goal!

I have created a set on Flickr for any shots of budding photographers I take during the courses, so hopefully the set will continue to grow as I run more courses.

You can see from the pictures that the area we go to is great for photography, and that unfortunately rain puts a bit of damper on it (literally), but so far I’ve had no complaints.

I have one more course this year, this weekend (23/11/2008, places are still available) and will get them going again in the new year. I am also going to be arranging a few photography walks where anyone can come along, it’s not a course, just a day out taking pictures. I’ll answer any questions of course, but just getting a day out to practise taking pictures will be a huge benefit to any photographer.

If you are interested in the courses or the possible photography walks then sign up to the newsletter, I will only send you emails with relevent things in them, they won’t be every day or every week, jsut as and when there is information that I think will be useful.

Anyway, take a look at the rest of the pictures here: