Photography Made Simple

Not a photography course, just photographs

Phil and Rachel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:57:00 +0000

Last year Rachel and Phil spend a week at Megan Baker House photographing the inspiring work that goes on there with brain injured people. A touring exhibition of the photos has been around the UK and just arrived at Worcester Cathedral, where it was officially opened by the Bishop of Worcester yesterday evening.

Here’s an article about the exhibition from the Worcester Evening News.

The shots were taken in natural light, mostly with 50mm and 85mm 1.8 lenses in order to de-clutter the scene and emphasise individuals as much as possible.

We feel very strongly that artists should give over a bit of their time and energy pro bono to worthy causes when they can, and you don’t get much more worthy than Megan Baker House. They provide, for free, the kind of conductive education that families used to have to re-mortgage their houses for. All we had to give up was a week of our time, spread over a couple of months, and all they had to do was put up with us eating their biscuits!

Photography Course on the Malvern Hills

Phil and Rachel — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:25:54 +0000

The Malvern Hills are a great place to do photography courses – because Phil and Rachel live there, they take it for granted but it is a great landscape location.

Saturday’s group met at Malvern Theatres, took some duck and pigeon portraits then moved to the hills before, during and after the snow. Then we retired to the wonderful Malvern Hills Hotel for cocoa. We are planning to do more courses here – think we should??

Pollok House and Culzean Castle

Phil and Rachel — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:32:09 +0000

We had a fantastic weekend in Scotland teaching our Digital Photography Made Simple course. It was cold but fine. Pollok House is an amazing building right in the middle of Glasgow, and everyone on the course managed to take some really unusual and inventive shots. We always love it when people say they are afraid of their camera’s, and end up delighted when they take control and take shots they never thought possible! Culzean is wonderful…it has got everything, and being right by the sea adds drama and even more possibilities for your creativity to blossom!

Andy spotted this dog chasing across the lawn, and cleverly popped his camera into 'sports' mode, thereby capturing the action.

We love this one of the maze...especially as you can see movement in the people!

We love this one ....what a clever idea to shoot from this angle looking up at the tree. See the blue sky, too!

This is brilliant example of shallow depth of field...where the background is blurred. And to think that these students had no idea how to do this just 30 minutes before this photo was taken! Well done!

Here's Nan concentrating very hard on her composition!

Here's Phil helping Andy to figure out the right aperture for shallow depth of field.

Rachel likes to keep an eye on what settings people use!!

This gorgeous shot was taken by Nicola for the 'worlds within worlds' exercise.

We all loved this shot...Nan was so pleased to have spotted it!

We absolutely love Scotland, and can’t wait to got back in March! Pollok House and Culzean Castle are two of our favourite venues. We will also be teaching Creative Photography courses,(Seeing The World Differently Made Simple), our Wedding Photography Course, and our ever-popular Digital Photography Made Simple Course.

National Trust Photography Events Announced by Photography Made Simple

Phil and Rachel — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:28:35 +0000

This year we were asked to put on a couple of photography workshops by the National Trust, at lovely Stourhead in Wiltshire. We have two dates this year – New Shoots – a shoot for adults on May 20th, and Young Shoots – a shoot for children on August 3rd. Young Shoots has been especially popular.

Prices are on the National Trust website – click the links above. We are able to do these inexpensively because the National Trust is not charging us for the use of their lovely education room. Stourhead really is an idyllic place for the National Trust Photography Courses.

Motorsport Photography Lessons at the Britcar 500

Phil and Rachel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:59:44 +0000

Last year student Rachel and teacher Peter went to the Britcar 500 at Silverstone. Using Peter’s skill and contacts Rachel was able to get some great pictures in the pits – she’s only just got around to sending them to us – but we thought we’d post them anyway!
We’re working on this season’s dates – if there’s a particular event you’d like to attend at Brands Hatch, Silverstone or Goodwood please let us know.

Birmingham Central Library Creative Photography Course

Phil and Rachel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:20:17 +0000

Despite being a grey, freezing cold day, we’re always amazed at how many amazing things there are to photograph in Central Birmingham! An absolute delight for flexing your creative muscles! Reflections, shapes, colours, textures, patterns….it’s all there within a stone’s throw of the library!
Richard really loved the dramatic, geometric shapes, and took some amazing photo’s of the ‘Birmingham Eye’.(On the brilliant Canon G9). His real love was ‘worlds within worlds’, which features rather heavily on our Creative Photography Course.”>This fab photo of the wheel really captures the shapes, patterns and form of the structure…no shallow depth of field here!

Here’s Richard practicing shallow depth of field for portraits…fortunately his subject sat very still for him!

Crystal Palace Photography Course – Monsters and Lost Civilizations

Phil and Rachel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:35:11 +0000

Bromley doesn’t immediately come to mind as a great photographic location but the statues are great for trying things out. All these pictures are by beginners using Canon 500Ds and a Nikon D90.

Caroline’s picture is conventional – the gorilla perhaps slightly greyer than the real thing because of the metering. Half a stop of underexposure would have sorted this out – but it was her first pic of the day.

Amazing how a different angle changes the image. Martin’s picture of the same thing has a totally different feel – quizzical, even.

Mark’s picture of the dinosaur is so off centre it suggests it was taken hurriedly, or that the creature was about to move into the frame. Unconventional framing adding drama.

Lovely tones by Rosie – the D90 has done a great job of handling the tones here.

The same subject by Martin with shallow depth of field:

Unconventional depth of field here picks up the concrete in the foreground:

Totally conventional, but none the worse for that:

What it lacks in grandeur it makes up for in convenience – free parking, access from the tube and plenty of interesting subjects (even in February) make Crystal Palace Park great for photography courses.

Portmeirion photography course in the snow

Phil and Rachel — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:57:49 +0000

Portmeirion is perhaps our favourite place to teach photography – the only problem is that it is hard to take bad pictures there!

Here’s Rach working with Verity:

Here’s Phil messing about with depth of field and graffiti:

Verity’s lovely shot of the sand and sky, slightly inverted:

Des’s shot of a door and mountains, slightly cropped:

Portmeirion has got to be one of the best places in the world to look at the scenery, drink hot chocolate and learn photography.

Charlecote Park testimonial

Phil and Rachel — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:35:22 +0000

“Thank you for the excellent creative photography course on Saturday. Time always seems to go past so quickly, but I am grateful that you were so willing to impart your knowledge to help me become a more creative photographer.

I will always now ensure I check to see exaclty what I am photographing, looking for the stray branch or cropped spire !!!

I will try different setting with more confidence and will look to buy a 50 mm prime lens soon so I can start playing with the short DOF lens offer.]

I will of course recommend your courses to all my friends who are looking to take their photography to the next level.

Thank you again

– Richard Fletcher

Thanks for those kind words Richard – hope to see you again soon!

Photography Course in Birmingham in the cold

Phil and Rachel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:53:14 +0000

Our photography course in Birmingham took place despite the snow, while Rachel took up her new post in Bewdley. It was extremely cold, and Phil took a couple of pictures to prove it!!

Statues have a hard time too!

Just goes to show that rain wind or snow won’t stop us from delivering a photography course!