Par for the Course

I’m pretty busy at the moment with various things, one of which is my photography course.

The class started off as eight of us, but last week we were down to five. It may have been the torrential rain but at least one person hasn’t been since the first week, so I suspect our numbers are dwindling, which is always the way with these courses.

The other stereotype that the class is conforming to as that there is one person who talks too much. Every course I’ve ever done has had one of these, someone who talks lots, but says little of substance. The current culprit is a retired doctor, who is writing a book on medical history and is mainly interested in photographing slides. He is obsessed with the word ‘cataloguing’ and at least once per session will say it loudly.

I am enjoying the course but strangely I’ve been struck by an inability to taking photographs since it started. I am learning how my camera works properly and am aiming to move off using the automatic setting. At the moment I’m still getting to grips with the controls so it takes time to fiddle about with it to set it up. The other problem is that it gets dark so early so I’m reliant on practising at lunchtime. The difficulty with this is that I’m in central London which may have a wealth of interesting things to photograph but I can’t see them for the swarms of people and its hard to find a quiet space to get my settings right. Yesterday I was experimenting with various shots when I was spotted by some tourists who asked me to take pictures of them with their cameras. I was happy to help out but it seems to be an occupational hazard if you stand still for too long.

So tonight I’m hoping to do some still life photographs in the house and some night time shots in the garden to practice, so hopefully I’ll get a better understanding of the camera and be more confident in my lunchtime session tomorrow.