Tag Archives: workshop

Woodland Workshop

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Canon M6, 70 mm, ISO 100, 1/160 s @ f/2.8

Recently I was lucky enough to have a 1:1 session with an extremely talented photographer friend of mine, Paul Mitchell FRPS. Paul has been running his excellent Woodland Photography workshops for a few years now and needless to say they are well worth attending if you fancy picking up some tips and tricks from a real Pro.

I chose Savernake Forest as the location and met Paul nice an early on a damp grey November morning. “Perfect conditions!”, said Paul cheerily as we trudged off into the gloomy, muddy undergrowth…

Sure enough the soft light really helped to the extent it was really annoying during those short moments when the sun came out and played havoc with the exposure. One of the things I came away from the day with was the need to get into the moment. To just wait and look. Get into the zone before trying to take any photos. It was a lesson I had to keep reminding myself throughout the day.

I was surprised that for the majority of my shots I used my 70-200 mm zoom and no polariser at all. What witchcraft are these landscapes without wide-angle and a polariser? I did struggle somewhat due to the croppsed sensor but it was nice using my zoom lens as I don’t use it that often due to its weight and size. I even got to christen my new Manfrotto X-PRO tripod head, which coped admirably until Paul suggested I simply loosen the collar on the lens to rotate the camera. D’oh!

One of my objectives for the day was to learn some fieldcraft and I feel like I did. Like passing a driving test I now feel I have enough of a skillset to go out and try to truly learn.I just need to find some nearby woods to visit… Cheers Paul for a great day.

Welsh Wales

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Canon EOS M6, 100 mm, ISO 200, 20 sec @ f/11

Last Sunday I did something I haven’t done in a while and attended a photography workshop. This was organised by Cambrian Photography Limited in Colwyn Bay and run by Paul Sanders. It was actually called a Fujifilm X-Series and GFX workshop but the initial blurb I saw on Facebook suggested that (a) you don’t need to own a Fuji camera and (b) you need to arrive with an open mind and a liking of cake. Two ticks for me!

The night before I was umming and ahhing over what to take and decided to persevere with my lightweight travel kit. I haven’t used the 5D Mk1 at all since getting the M6  back in August but I still have use of all my lenses thanks to the adaptor.

I ended up packing the M6 along with Canon’s EF-M 22mm f/2 STM,  EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake  and EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM. As it happened I only used the 100 mm lens throughout the day.

After a decent bacon and sausage buttie at Blod’s Cafe I wandered over to Cambrian and met some of the other attendees outside the shop. We were soon ushered inside to where others were waiting and after a brief introduction by Paul we set out.

The plan was for long exposures on the beach in the morning and macro at Aber Falls in the afternoon. We ended up at Penrhyn Bay for the long exposures which was fine until I realised I’d forgotten my tripod adaptor! Duh! Fortunately I was able to borrow a tripod so eventually took a few shots. Finally after trying for months I managed to make good use of my mist filter. Normally the effect ends up looking forced and unnatural but I think this time it helped things. Speaking of filters I decided that I really did need to equip myself with a hard ND grad filter rather than my soft grad for use in such scenarios where the horizon is pronounced.

After a couple of hours we headed to a local cafe, The Loaf for lunch. Another attendee, Jonathan (a fellow Lenswork subscriber), and I sat with Denis and Fre Hocking over an enjoyable long lunch.

Suitably fed and watered we headed out to Aber Falls. I don’t particularly enjoy macro but there were more opportunities for long exposures in a little stream or of course at the waterfall itself. I chose not to trek to the falls but to potter around by the stream near the car park.

The day was well organised, and very relaxed. We overrun by a hour or so, likely due to the extended lunch break but no-one was complaining. It was a great day with lots of assistance being offered by Paul and the whole Cambrian Photography team. Being Wales it obviously rained during part of the day but it was at the very tail end and didn’t spoil anything.