A Year In Redwood

and what a photography course it was!

I cannot believe it is a month ago (28th April) that I attended the photography course given by Suzanna Crampton of Zwartbles fame.  It has taken me that long to sort through photographs and decide which ones to share with you.

Let me tell you I took 399 photographs on my camera – reached full capacity on the card.  AND I also took about 20 photos on the phone.  That is an awful lot of photographs in one day.

I think I had been one of the first to book the course when Dee from Greenside Up first posted about.  Dee had volunteered to assist Suzanna in the organisation of the course.  Then it turned out we were going to have a visitor that weekend, so I booked Daili in too.  The pair of us headed off on a bright Spring morning to Kilkenny and were the first to arrive.

We mucked in helping Suzanna lay out some of her own photographs to share with the group. Her photographs are amazing – there were some beautiful shots of animals and plants in Africa.  If you ever get a chance to see them, they really are beautiful.

The other 10 or 12 people arrived amid cups of tea and cake and biscuits.  Then it was time to get started.

Suzanna really made sense when talking about composition and the rule of thirds.  All of which I had heard before, but suddenly it was making complete sense.  I loved her explanation of why none of us like photographs of ourselves!  Because when we look in a mirror we obviously see a ‘mirror’ image of ourselves and photographs therefore are all wrong!!!!  Think about it.

Then it was off to the great outdoors to practice what we had learned with Suzanna talking to each of us on an individual basis and guiding and coaxing us through our shots.

Everything in the centre – wrong composition

Getting better – more balance

I love this one…. hope teacher does too 🙂

I liked this old table – just for the handles alone. Not sure if it is a good or bad photo?

Just as the rain started we dashed back indoors for a delicious lunch – completely forgot to take photographs of lunch! Whoops!

Then back outside where our teacher challenged us with a number of different tasks.  Keeping the subject out of the centre of the photo.  Action shots – of Pepper and the doves.

Pepper giving chase to his ball.

love the reflection in the window in this one

Finally we headed off to meet the wonderful sheep….. what posers some of them are…. they do love having their photographs taken.

All the sheep coming to see if we have any food…

Is this a poser? There is a certain aloofness in that look!

I particularly love this one! Why can’t pigs stand and pose like this?

When we’d exhausted all our cameras, it was back inside for more tea and cake, and once again, Suzanna took the time to go through each person’s photographs commenting, praising, encouraging and suggesting.  The lady has amazing patience!

Both Daili and I left Kilkenny that Sunday evening so fired up and completely abuzz about how much photography we were going to do.

I know I learned so much.  Now I have to get out there and practice.  And as Suzanna said with a digital camera keep taking photos.  I think, teacher, I may have been too good a pupil on the day with 399 photos!!!!

If you ever ever see that Suzanna is doing a course – don’t hesitate book yourself in immediately.  I know I want to do another.