How to prepare for a photography workshop

I run photography workshops so yes, this is a self promoting blog post, but I think for anyone planning to attend mine or any other photography workshop the info can be of value.

Dust off your camera a week before the workshop and take pictures in manual mode and Aperture Priority mode. Play with the settings, change them to see what happens and make notes about your discoveries. These notes will form questions that you can ask me during the sessions. 

You can’t learn photography by listening to a tutor. You must do it yourself. What was it again? When you hear it you’ll forget, when you see it you’ll remember, when you do it you’ll understand? Something to that effect.

When you take pictures yourself inevitably questions will arrive. Sometimes very simple ones, but every question needs to be answered for you to get the concepts right. Write down every question even if you think that you should already know it and it may be embarrassed to ask.

I had a session once with a lady who insisted on bringing a friend to the workshop. I don’t charge extra for another person, so had no issue with it. This person had a list of a number of questions to ask me during the session, but I noticed that he wasn’t the one asking all these follow up questions. The lady asked and she was the one most engaged in the discussion.

At the end of the session she confessed that she brought a friend as a buffer of sorts. She attended a private photography session before, but the tutor was so arrogant and condescending. Overwhelmed her with loads of technical jargon and made her feel really stupid. She is not a stupid lady and she really wanted to learn photography. So the friend was there to shield her from the tutor.

I’m glad that she found me more approachable. She spends half her time in Asia and half in Sydney and she books a session with me whenever she is in Sydney and keen on learning something new.

Coming back to the purpose of this post. Practice with your camera before the session and make notes about every single thing that went wrong, that you didn’t understand or that you wanted to understand more.

Interactive sessions are the most productive, I think. When you come loaded with questions you will get a lot more out of the session. I know a lot about photography, and I am more than happy to share the knowledge.

To book a session with me just email me or use the Contact page. If you want to know more about the workshops visit my Photography Workshops page