The first sheet of my workshop on essential photography basics.
Thanks to all of you that attended my basic photography workshop today. From this lesson you should now have the ability to have creative control of the camera. I look forward to pushing your skill levels forward and hope you can join me on another workshop soon.
Beauty Photography outside of the studio, using natural light and reflector.
The image above was taken with a 24mm-70mm lens. Natural light with an assistant adding a little fill with a reflector on my right. Usually when taking this type of promotional image I would stand back and put a longer lens on. But circumstances didn’t allow for that.
Here is what we have planned at the school for January 2013
The next available workshop is an INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON
The 12th of January 2013- 12.00pm until 16.00pm
Places will be limited to five persons only, this is a basic level class
An in-depth, step by step class that teaches you how to use all the essential functions on your camera fully and to best effect. We will teach you to finally master Manual mode for full creative control. Explain Depth Of Field, Shutter Control, JPEG versus RAW. A full Workflow from the camera, through on to a computer and post production. A must do class for beginners who finally want to move forward with their photography.
ONLY 1000 Thai Baht Per Student
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PHOTOJOURNALISM & DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
19th of January- 12.00pm until 16.00pm- & the 23rd of January- 19.30pm until 2100pm
This is for intermediate to advance students, who wish to learn how to put picture stories together. Students will be encouraged to produce personal photographic projects that will be critique during the evening class.
ONLY 1500 Thai Baht Per Student
For more details please visit GROUP WORKSHOPS
When I covered the Tiger Temple at Kanchanaburi, Thailand, it was little known. Me and the journalist could only find one related small article on the place in The Bangkok Post. We pitched the story as a picture led feature to The South China Morning Post and got the green light. On arriving at the temple we were impressed at the amount of space it offered the tigers, who apparently were given a free run of the place every evening. We were met by a couple of young novice monks who took us to see the abbot. No fees were involved then, no lines of tourist waiting in the wings.
The abbot told us a long story on how his temple acquired their first three tigers cubs. It went something like this- ” A group of hunters had killed the parents of the cubs ( the tigers bits and pieces were to be sold to the Chinese black market, and made into medicine products ). The hunters took the cubs to a taxidermist, who then went about his job, injecting them with formaldehyde. The hunters then had a sudden fit of regret and halted the process rescuing the cubs from being stuffed. Now this story didn’t ring true with either me or the journalist, it raised far to many questions than answers but the abbot wouldn’t elaborate further.
We was now left with some great pictures, really monks walking tigers, me being allowed to lay with the tigers, ten surrounding me. So close I could smell their breath, great stuff. Remember this was before the place was known. But what to do the copy (text). What we eventually did was scale down the abbots account and concentrate on the tigers, we quoted him but in a way that could be read as neutral. Good writing on the part of the journalist and it meant we still had a story to the newspaper. It was a lifestyle piece so any investigative journalism could be done later.
My lasting image of the place was when the tigers noticed some grazing buffalo, they took off after the animals, scattering them in panic. It was like something out of a wildlife documentary programme, only that running after the tigers were some frantic monks.
The temple is now, of course, a huge tourist attraction. I feel there are still some unanswered questions about the place but what the answers to the questions are, I still don’t know.
Tiger Temple, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
This website sylights.com has a function where you can easily create lighting floor plans. Good if you want to remember how you achieved a certain look so you can replicate next time. For me it is perfect because I can now print the plans out and add it to my student’s hand out sheets. Expect to see more of these graphics in this blog, with the resulting pictures displayed.
By Jonathan Taylor
Street Portrait- Bangkok’s China Town Photo-Walk.
Learning how to approach your subject, feeling confident and making them feel relaxed is the secret to good Portrait Street Photography. The viewer should be able to smell the street through the photograph. Most people don’t actually mind be approached by photographers as longs as they are done so correctly. Many amateurs feel the need not to intrude, so they buy telephoto lenses and shot from a distance- ‘steal the photograph’. I teach the opposite approach, take an extra three or four steps forward. Be within the subjects zone of awareness, be confident and have your settings correct for the exposure. Then calmly indicate your wish to take a picture. Once accepted and in most cases you will be accepted, quietly proceed in taking photographs. Sounds easy because it is easy. If your subject isn’t happy with being photographed, just walk on.
