There’s no question that I’m better with words than pictures. Years of journalism, PR and probably a smattering of natural ability mean it’s my default comfort zone. But as the saying goes, every picture tells a story, so for the benefit of my travel blog I’ve invested in a new camera and a one-day photography course to help learn how to use it.
Of course, I could have just read the manual…but although words are my bread and butter, written instructions for anything technical including my Canon camera might as well be in the original Japanese. I find it much easier to be shown how to do something and put it straight into practice. So thanks to tweets from another much more established travel blogger, Monica Stott, aka The Travel Hack, I found a great photography course at City Academy in London.
There’s usually a group of students with the tutor, but due to illness dropouts, I ended up on a 1-2-1 with the fab Zarina Holmes, who by a strange quirk of fate originates from Malaysia, my next long-haul travel destination. After about an hour of talking theory in the cafe at the Actors Centre in Soho, we headed out for a wonderful sunny day of walking around London taking photos and learning all about ISO, shutter speed, aperture and white balance along the way.
A few of the results that I’m pleased with are below. I don’t see myself completely abandoning words for pictures any time soon, or ever in truth, but hopefully I can bring my posts to life a bit better from now on.
Click on any image to scroll through the gallery and see the photos full size.
Good work Pat! Looking forward to seeing lots of fab photos from Malaysia.