Travel Photography Workshop

A few months ago I was lucky enough to get a place on a travel photography workshop, run by Fox and Squirrel at STA Travel, Cheltenham. I've been toying with the idea of buying a DSLR for a year or so, but I've never bit the bullet and spent the money. As such I took along my dad's Nikon D3100 as I thought I'd get more out of the workshop with a 'fancier' camera.

As I took my place with the other amateur photographers and looked around at the kit people had brought with them. Most people had brought an entry-level DSLR but there were also a few compact cameras and bridge cameras kicking about. I asked my neighbour about the Canon camera she had, and she gave me some excellent camera-buying advice: go with a brand that you can get help with i.e. if all your friends and family have a Panasonic, then they can help you learn to use yours!

The workshop started off with the story of the speaker. He went travelling in Tibet and entered some of his photos into Travel Photographer of the Year, which launched him into his career in photography. He showed  us some of his favourite snaps and explained how each related to his top photography tips. Here is what I took away from his tips:

Try heading out to photograph a particular subject, or theme

Be brave and try photographing people, but be sensitive towards them

Vary composition and angles

Be patient

Tell a story with your photos

Take as many photos as you can, of as many subjects as you can!

We then walked around Cheltenham undertaking mini-assignments. Firstly we practised filling the frame with our subject; we were each given a colour to fill our frame with. Here is my theme, yellow:

The next technique was to try out different angles by taking photographs in windows. The idea was to get a picture with elements of what was inside the window and what was outside. I learnt that this could only be achieved when neither the inside nor the outside was brighter than the other:

Finally I photographed the theme of 'timelessness'. All photos in this sequence excluded anything that could reference them to the modern day, such as cars, aerials or posters:

The workshop by no means transformed my abilities or taught me how to use my camera better, but it did give me ideas on how to get new perspectives in my photography. The only thing I might contest is having a fixed subject in mind before heading out. Some of the best photographs are the result of chance - seeing something fascinating and taking a photo at just the right moment...