Aug 4, 2007
Camera Courses
For those of you who are interested in knowing a bit about my personal life, I’ve spent day times this week on a digital photography course (evenings and early mornings have been blogging and work as usual, which makes for a rather tiring week).
I’ve been taking photos for almost two decades and have acted as picture editor and image source for dozens of articles over the years, but I hoped to gain a few new insights into the process of photo composition from international press photographer Malcolm Clarke,who was running the course at my local community education centre.
It was the first time the centre had run the week long course as part of its internationally famous summer school. We had a great group of enthusiastic photographers and rattled through several hundred snaps each over the course of the week. The range of skills among the students was initially very diverse and the biggest improvements were seen among those fresher to photography than any of those who might have already had some claim to being old hands. Even those students with the simplest of compact digital cameras were producing quite excellent shots and certainly demonstrated that having an eye for a shot is far more important than having the right kit.
That said, some of the most detailed macro close-ups of insects and flowers on the final day, taken at Cambridge’s stunning Botanical Gardens, were mindblowing, especially one students shot of a common darter (a type of dragonfly, that is not a ruddy darter) and another’s image of a honeybee coming into land. Brilliant stuff.
As it’s Saturday, I’m pointing you to the imaging and photography links page. Anyone on the course who wants to see some of my pre-course snaps from the recent Fen Edge Family Festival held in Cottenham in June they can check out my Imaging Storm website).
Compacts are improving all the time, but you try snapping your kid in a sack race or diving in the pool or a speeding car or someone firing a bow and arrow and I bet you find you get the just after rather than the shot you were hoping for at the time you pressed the shutter. Even the shortest lag can make the difference between getting it and a blurred nothing. dSLRs on the other hand have shutter lag almost on a par with conventional SLRs. That said, the likes of the Ixus 50 are just so small and portable. It’s always horses for courses.
My Canon IXUS 50 is acceptably fast esp. compared to my previous Olympus. It all depends on how much battery juice is left as well as the card I’ve got in it and how full it is. I’m guessing the newer models are even faster but since I’ve never even touched a DSLR before, I have no idea of the difference! I’ll probably succumb next year. I don’t know why I keep thinking next year’s the year I’ll get a DSLR but that’s what’s stuck in my head. :P
Having said that, once you make the leap to dSLR, you’ll wonder how you put up with all that shutter lag with the compact.
“…having an eye for a shot is far more important than having the right kit.”
That’s really nice to know since I’ve been off and on drooling over a Canon EOS DSLR. The one thing holding me back is the lack of video function on the DSLR’s and, of course, the size!