I love photos. Some of my fondest memories of growing up was getting out the big plastic box full of old photos that my mum and dad had taken over the years when we used to get our photos printed and you’d wait excitedly for your holiday photos to come out of Boots unsure of what film roll had what photos were on them. They were the days! But, nowadays everything is stored on line, Facebook or on our PC’s and I’m sad that my boys won’t really have the enjoyment of looking through the old photos of loved one and of times growing up as I am guilty of being one of those people who takes LOADS of photos, has great intentions of doing photo books but who never actually gets around to printing any because they are good enough for Facebook but not really good enough to be put in a frame at home.
I had seen a few posts crop up on Facebook about Vicki Knights and her photography course and saw that she was holding one at The Medicine Garden so messaged her to book my space!
What I had heard about Vicki’s workshops was that she didn’t overwhelm with the technical jargon - this was the workshop for me!
I immediately phoned my friend Lauren who has the same camera as I do and she booked on the course too. We headed down to The Medicine Garden on a very wet Saturday morning and got ourself a steaming hot cuppa before heading into the workshop to be greeted with our individual place settings and a personalised pack with our names on it and a very smiley Vicki.
The workshop was a small intimate affair with only 10 of us. We had to let Vicki know they type of camera we owned and the type of photos we wanted to achieve before the workshop so she was able to tailor the course to what we all wanted to achieve.
Vicki is first and foremost a mother and she wanted to capture her children growing up. That is what I wanted. I am very conscious (SUPER DEPRESSING IN KNOW!!) but if I was to die tomorrow my children would have very few photos of me because I am always behind the camera and never in front and this is something that Vicki has also given me the confidence to do.. I want to have memories and I wanted to be able to take great photos that captured my children in the now.
We set about talking about lighting and how to “capture the light”. Where to position your children, how to get them to smile without smiling and make their eyes light up. If I took none of the technical away from the workshop I am sure my photos have been improved by Vicki’s tips on lighting.
The workshop was fun, laid back and hands on and two weeks on I am now scrutinising my photos and equally not being so quick to delete them as you never know there may be one photo that you meant to delete that you end up loving.
After the workshop Vicki set us homework to do, to submit three photos to her for her to critic and to advise on how we can improve on them. We were also sent a 100 page workshop manual for us to refer to when we went away as well.
Looking back on my photos I genuinely thought they were good but looking at the photos now I can see where I was going wrong!
Now I love these photos but now with the skills I have learnt they could have been so much better!!
Here are a couple of shots I have taken since my course. Below are a few of my before and after editing!
I've seen a huge difference in my photos since I attended the course and I hope you can see it too and I am genuinely looking forward to capturing my loved ones with treasured memories that'll last a lifetime and not just be seen on Instagram or Facebook!
I LOVED every minute of my workshop with Vicki. I feel so much more confident being behind my camera now having learnt the basics and how to take great photos.
Vicki runs workshops all through the year and you can find details here and use the code SURREYMUMMY to get £10 off your first in person workshop. But if you are unable to attend there is also an online course too so you can learn to take amazing photos from the comfort of your own home - find out more here .
Happy snapping!
Nathalie x
댓글