Wintry walks with a compact camera (by Cheshire Photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

I've been desperate for some proper wintry weather, a hard hoar frost to transform everywhere into a glittery winter wonderland, or a decent covering of snow just for a few days, preferably over a weekend. Instead it's been mild, wild and wet for the most part, depriving us photographers of any typical winter landscapes to get excited about. If it weren't for Ferb, our Italian water dog (a lagotto  if you want his posh name) I would have stayed indoors waiting for more exciting and photogenic weather to arrive. Our energetic dog lives up to his name and needs his daily splash in filthy water, so we've been out anyway and along with lead, treats and poo bags, I always pick up a camera on the way out of the door.

Occasionally I have a photographic mission in mind and will take a SLR and specific lens along with me, my "nifty fifty" for arty, soft focus shots of forest and fauna, or "big boy" (my super fast Canon 70-200mm f/2.8) for action shots of Ferb haring along woodland paths chasing squirrels. Lately, due to an increasingly painful tennis elbow (or in my case photographer's elbow) I've had to opt for a much lighter load, so it's the Fujifilm X10 that's accompanied me. Not that I'm complaining as it's a wonderful little camera, with a maximum aperture of f/2.0-2.8, beautiful colours and great performance in low light. A whole load of other typically Fuji features make it a joy to use, much more than a point and shoot compact. The zoom is a bit limited at 28-112mm but for general shots of landscapes, close ups and portraits (usually my husband or the dog!) it's perfectly adequate. If you'd like to see more images taken with this lovely camera see my Pinterest Board.

All taken with the Fujifilm X10. I had some fun editing them too with actions in Photoshop Elements.

You might wonder what I've found to photograph on our muddy walks, but if you've got the clicking bug like me, then almost anything can be transformed into a picture if it catches the light in an interesting way, or if you can see a striking composition. I have a thing for trees at the moment, but haven't quite mastered how to shoot them when there's a lot of other trees around them creating clutter. Watch this space for a tree project one day. On our last few walks we've had a few sunny spells and the low winter sun has created slanting shadows through the trees.

Top tip for this time of year

• Wintry light can be quite dull and if you are photographing anything that moves you need to watch that your shutter speed doesn't get too slow. It needs to be at least 1/250th of a second or your moving subject will be blurred.

• Check your shutter speed as you take the picture. As you half press the shutter button it will be displayed on the LCD display or in the viewfinder.

• Or after you take the image and are looking at it, if you press "Display" or "Info" (depending on your camera) then you can usually see what shutter speed you used.

• If it's less than 1/250th then you need to increase it. If you're using the green fully automatic mode then you need to change to P (Program Mode) by turning the dial on the top of your camera. The camera still does the important stuff automatically for you but you can take charge a little.

• Now look up how to change the ISO setting. This might be a button on the back of the camera or in the menus. Increase it to a higher number until your shutter speed is fast enough. You can check your shutter speed by half pressing the shutter down as you focus on your subject and checking what number it displays.

• You can do all of this on any type of camera apart from the majority of camera phones.

Knowing my way around the camera, being aware of what the camera can and can't do on the Auto settings and knowing what to do if the light is tricky is second nature to me now and I can concentrate for the most part on "seeing the image". If something happens unexpectedly I am ready to catch those spontaneous moments (or some of them at least!). Photography is a constant learning process for me, and probably for everyone and that's one of the things that makes it so addictive and enjoyable.

If you'd like to get to grips with your camera then why not book a course or one to one lesson with me. This all becomes second nature very quickly when someone shows you how to do it and it will make a dramatic difference to your photography.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

How I got this shot (by Cheshire Photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

Click on image to enlarge

I got some lovely comments about this pic that I took and posted on Facebook yesterday. Just thought I'd share with you that I took it with a  compact camera on an automatic setting. Often it's about keeping an eye out for a nice shot where there's something interesting going on with the light and having your camera handy.

I was careful to ensure that the light was just peeking between the leaves and I could see on the LCD that it was creating a nice sunburst effect as opposed to lens flare (lines or circles of light across your shot when too much light shines directly into the light).

I also used that very handy and simple to remember composition tip The Rule Of Thirds (where you divide your shot into thirds horizontally and vertically). I made sure that the burst of light was roughly on the intersection of two of the imaginary lines.

Heres the techie stuff from the camera too in case you're interested.

• Fujifil X10 - brilliant little compact camera (doesn't zoom very far but otherwise very good).
• Shot in Program Mode (Auto but gives you a bit more control over certain settings and stops your flash firing automatically).
• The camera automatically set the shutter speed at 1/320 (my subject was nice and bright) and an aperture of f/3.6, which is why the background is soft focus.
• Flash off - flash would have killed this shot.
• ISO 250 - we'd been walking through woods and I'd increased the ISO a little bit to make sure my shutter speed stayed at 1/60 at least, to ensure a steady shot.
• The only editing I did was to crop it square as it looked much stronger that way, so I chopped of a bit of the bottom and the top. Normally I mess about a bit in Photoshop but this really didn't need it.

I hope this was useful. If you have any questions please let me know. If you live in or near Cheshire why not book onto one of my courses and learn lots more!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

50/50 Project: #2/50 Windswept man (by Cheshire photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

Day 2. Windswept man

50 days with a 50mm lens

Technical data: 1/400, f/3.5 ISO 100. Aperture Priority.

We went shopping in a very hot Manchester city centre today and came across this strangle windswept man - especially as there wasn't a breath of wind! He's a street artist - what a strange way to earn a living. Perhaps his wife thinks he's actually going out to work in an office each day!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

How to to take great summer photos - TIP 3 (Cheshire photography course with Picture It Big)

With all this gorgeous sunny weather this one will be very useful for you:

HOW TO TAKE GREAT PICTURES OF PEOPLE IN BRIGHT SUNSHINE

Lovely weather makes us all feel happy and we go to lots of events where people are enjoying themselves in the sunshine - the perfect time to take photos of friends and family. But actually the bright sunlight makes it difficult to get good shots. People's faces can be hidden in dark shadows or they are squinting into the sun.

Shade creates the perfect light conditions for photographs, so if you can, ask your subject to move fully into the shade and make sure there's no bright sunlit area in the background. The contrast between the shade and the brightness tricks the camera and can still make your subject too dark. So a fully shady area. Make sure your flash is switched off as you want to make the most of the lovely even light.

In this shot Abii is shaded by a covered seating area and the light is coming from the left

Sometimes you can't move people into the shade so if you want a shot without dark shadows on faces then switch your flash on. Use the "Forced flash on" setting which is the lightening symbol without the A for automatic next to it. This will light up the dark areas on your subject's face. The effect is not as nice as shade but much better than without flash.

When you use flash stand at least 1 metre away and no further than 3 metres away.

Watch out if people are wearing hats that shade their face. Flash can help but ideally push the hat back a bit or take it off. Also if they seem to be squinting because the sun is behind you, move so that they don't have to face the sun so directly.

Eve with hat shading her eyes

This is much better!

Simples! You can apply all of this to animal portraits too of course! These guys were very obliging when I asked them to take their hats off and move into the shade. Such posers!

Simples!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

How to to take great summer photos - TIP 2 (Cheshire photography course with Picture It Big)

OK, today's tip is a great one:

HOW TO MAKE YOUR SUBJECT FEEL COMFORTABLE

I hate standing and having my picture taken! I don't know how to stand, what to do with my hands and I'm convinced I'm going to look embarrassed and awkward - and I did!

Until, that is, I learned to pose people myself and now I feel much more comfortable. I hardly ever stand if anyone wants to take my picture - I lean or sit because I know I feel so much more relaxed and I look at ease.

Izzi looks very relaxed in front of the camera

And again here she is looking chilled out sitting down

This really works and results in lovely natural shots. Keep talking to the person you are taking a photo of and don't take ages! Sort your camera settings out first and then get them to pose for you.

This is a great pose and has resulted in a lovely shot of Sam

In the shot above of Izzi and Abii, they look very relaxed but also this shot works because there is a lovely vibrant background behind them and also they have put their heads close together. This would work well cropped in tighter around their heads and shoulders too.

And here's a pic that Abii took of Izzi on a compact camera - I did an edit on it for her but what a lovely shot - by a 12 year old!

So there you have another very simple but really effective tip! Look out for tomorrow's on the blog!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

How to to take great summer photos - TIP 1 (Cheshire Photography Course with Picture It Big)

Summer is here (for the moment) and if you're anything like me you're making the most of it whilst it lasts. As I've browsed Facebook I've been seeing lots of pictures taken at the beach, at picnics, barbecues, out on bike rides and walks. They've inspired me to put together 7 top tips for sizzling summer shot.

These tips are for anyone who uses a point and shoot compact camera or camera phone whilst out and about enjoying the lovely weather. I've kept things very straight forward, there are no tricky settings*

So - here's Tip 1

AVOID BLURRY PICTURES BY STANDING & HOLDING YOUR CAMERA / PHONE CORRECTLY

• Stand with your feet hip width apart, flat on the ground. If you are kneeling, sitting or lying to take the picture always make sure you are stable on the ground i.e. sat on both buttocks, leaning on both knees or both elbows instead of just one.
• Hold your camera / phone with both hands, taking care not to have any fingers over the lens or flash.

Izzy looking through viewfinder of compact camera

• Tuck your elbows in at your sides - whether you're using the little viewfinder or the larger LCD screen. It's tempting to hold the camera with arms held out away from the body but this makes you much less stable as you take the picture.

Abii keeping her elbows tucked in whilst using the large screen on her phone to take a picture.

• When you actually take the picture, stand nice and still and squeeze the shutter or touch the onscreen icon gently - don't stab at it as this can jerk the camera.
• If it's dull where you are taking the picture, lean against a wall or column. But make sure its solid - my dad leant on a grandfather clock in a store and knocked it over - but that's another story!

This may seem like basic stuff but it all makes a difference. Tomorrow we'll look at how to take great pictures of people on bright sunny days - it can be trickier than it first seems!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

The Exposure Triangle - what is it and why do you need to know? (Cheshire photography course with Picture It Big)

Click on the image to see a larger version

If you've started to wander off the AUTO setting on your camera and are having a play with the Aperture (Av / A) or Shutter (Tv or S) setting, you'll have noticed that when you alter one, the other changes at the same time. This is because they work together to make sure that your picture will be correctly exposed.

Just in case I've already used a bit of jargon that's confusing, let's cover that off first.

The obvious question you might be asking at this point is why would you change the aperture or the shutter speed, rather than let the camera do it all for you on AUTO? Well it puts you in control of the type of image that you take, rather than pointing and shooting, you are determining the outcome and can get creative. Probably the whole reason you splashed out and bought a bridge or SLR camera rather than sticking with a compact. (Some compact cameras do allow you to set the aperture and shutter speed and all this applies to those too!)

So, first of all, why would you want to change the aperture? Have you ever wondered how you get that amazing soft focus, blurred areas in a photograph, whilst the point of focus is still completely sharp, like in the picture of the baby? Aperture, that's how! Set a low aperture like f/2.8 (which crazily is a big opening in the lens) and you'll get a lovely soft background. This makes your subject stand out nice and crisp and opens up a whole world of creativity. This is also called a narrow or shallow Depth of Field.

If you set a high aperture number like f/16+ then your image will be in focus from front to back. Typically you might do this with landscapes. And whilst you're in control of the aperture, your camera is setting the right shutter speed to get the exposure right.

So, what about shutter speed? This is how long the opening in the lens is open for and it can be anything from the tiniest fraction of a second through to several seconds. If you select a fast shutter speed any movement is frozen - anything higher than 1/500th of a second is considered quite fast. Slow shutter speeds blur movement and can be used to great creative effect. If you use a slow shutter speed - anything less than 1/60th of a second, you need to rest the camera on a flat surface or use a tripod to avoid camera shake.

I started off this blog by saying that aperture and shutter speed work together to get the right exposure. In order for a picture to be correctly exposed the opening in the lens needs to let in enough light onto the camera sensor. If you have selected a small opening, then it needs to stay open longer than if you selected a large opening - simple isn't it?!

But sometimes there simply isn't enough available light to do what you want to do. A situation I've faced a number of times is photographing a child running along a forest path, where the overhead canopy of leaves has reduced the amount of light. The camera is on its lowest aperture setting (biggest opening in the lens), but the shutter speed is still too slow to freeze the child's movement. I don't want to use the flash as it's so flattening and it wouldn't reach the child anyway. But there's another option available to me, thank goodness - the third part of the Exposure Triangle, the ISO setting.

ISO determines how sensitive to light the camera's sensor is. In the olden days of film (!) you could buy reels of film that were more or less sensitive to light and your digital camera's ISO setting is the equivalent of this. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive to light. So in nice bright conditions you use a low ISO number - 80-200 and in duller conditions you could use a higher one like 800+.

When you use a high ISO number you will find that your shutter speed increases - yay! The only downside to high ISO numbers is that you can get a grainy effect in your images. It depends on your camera how pronounced this is. Top end cameras handle high ISOs well, whereas compact cameras can be notoriously bad. If you leave the ISO set on AUTO the camera will decide what to do for you. Call me a control freak but I prefer to know what it's doing!

So there you have the three settings that make sure your pictures are correctly exposed:

Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO

And I've even created a handy Exposure Triangle diagram to help you remember it all!

Click on the image to see a larger version

I can bring all this to life for you in a bespoke one to one photography class, tailored to your requirements. To find out more or to book click here.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Venice revisited and revamped

I found a gorgeous book on Venice and its food in a discount book store today ("Venezia - food & dreams" by Tessa Kiros). In all honesty it's doubtful that I'll cook any of the recipes in it but it brought a whole raft of memories tumbling back and I just had to have it. In 2007 Nic and I went to Venice to celebrate a landmark birthday (his not mine!) and our wedding anniversary. In some ways it wasn't the perfect time of year to go - mid January - but it did mean that it wasn't swamped with tourists and the damp cold weather was preferable to unrelenting heat and its accompanying eau de sewage. It was a truly magical weekend - if you've been you'll know exactly what I mean and if you haven't make sure you add it to your bucket list. There really is no where else like it on earth.

I was a keen amateur photographer back in those days and took oodles of very average pictures whilst we were in Venice. I was pleased with a handful of them (I've even sold one or two!) but had relegated the rest to a sub folder somewhere in the bowels of my computer hard drive. Today's book purchase inspired me to unearth and reappraise my Venice "snapshots", with the knowledge that these days I am more of a dab hand at editing images.

And I was very pleasantly surprised! With a little cropping, tweaking of exposure, levels and brightness I found I had around 20 very nice images. They're not of a professional standard and I'd hope that nowadays I'd produce much better, but I've been able to create a very attractive collage of memories that will eventually adorn the walls of our downstairs loo!

This is the final collage - I'm going to get it printed at around 30cm x 30cm. I've stolen the quotes from Tessa Kiros' book - I hope she doesn't mind as it's only for our loo - but they epitomise our weekend in Venice, especially the part about getting lost but it not being a problem. We set off from our lovely hotel each morning and just walked and walked. We stopped to eat when we were hungry, whiling away a few hours in cosy little bars serving prosecco and cicchetti (delicious bites!). We usually didn't have a clue where we were and only consulted a map when it was time to find our way back.

Just as a comparison I've created a collage of the images before any editing, to show just what a few simple tweaks can achieve. It makes an OK collage, but the final version (above) is much more vibrant and punchy, I like the occasional use of black and white and I love the addition of the quotes.

If you'd like to learn how to create very simple but really impactful and personal pictoral memories of special events in your life just get in touch. I run one to one tuition sessions at very reasonable prices. http://www.picture-it-big.co.uk/Onetoone.html. Even better get someone to treat you to it - I have gift vouchers too. All those photos should not be languishing hidden on your computer when they could be bringing back nice memories every day!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Should I buy an SLR camera?

I get asked this all the time when I’m teaching people with compact cameras, so I decided to try to write a blog that will help you make that decision before you part with your hard earned cash.

Firstly let’s take a quick look at the types of camera out there as it may be surprising to some that compact cameras and SLRs are not the only options available.

Compact camera: Often referred to as a “point and shoot” camera and is designed for ease of use and convenience. It does not offer interchangeable lenses, has a built in flash and has many automatic modes to make picture taking as simple as possible. Some do feature options for controlling aperture and shutter speed and there are some with extremely good lens or optic quality.

(I’ll do SLR next although really it should come last as you’ll see shortly).

SLR camera: stands for Single Lens Reflex but you don’t really need to know that! It uses a system of moving mirrors to allow the photographer to see exactly what they are going to capture (What You See Is What You Get – WYSIWYG). Non SLR cameras (the other three types discussed here) do not use this mirror system.  SLRs also allow you to use interchangeable lenses, have full control over aperture and shutter speed, use manual as well as auto focus and use additional filters and flashguns. Basically you get more control and can be much more creative than with a compact camera.

As I said earlier these are not the only two options and the alternatives are well worth taking into consideration.

Bridge Camera: bridges the gap between compact cameras and SLRs, hence the name. Bridge cameras are often a similar size to small or entry level SLRs and have common features. They do not have interchangeable lenses and usually have a lower ISO range (meaning that they won’t perform as well in low light). They have a fixed but very versatile lens which allows you to photograph close up and wide angle through to telephoto, with the zoom limit often being very high.

Compact System Camera: More recently manufacturers have brought out a fourth option designed to have interchangeable lenses and all of the flexibility of an SLR but in a much more compact body.

So now that you know about four options instead of just two, how on earth do you decide which is the right one for you?! I’ve used all except the newer compact system camera (if any of the manufacturers would like me to do a review of one, feel free to pop one in the post!) and they’ve all got their place in the market. It really comes down to what sort of photography you want to do,  how much money you want to spend and whether you like carrying and changing lenses or just prefer one that does it all.

Perhaps describing how I use my cameras will shed some light. I stick my compact camera in the bag whenever I’m going out with the kids and might want some quick snapshots. I know there’s quite a delay when I take pictures, I can’t get the nice soft focus background shots I love and I can’t capture close ups of faraway things. However, in good daylight conditions it delivers great quality snapshots. I have also done some really nice close ups with it. Shots taken with the flash aren’t great, but then I am used to using an SLR with external flash gun.

I use my bridge camera when I want to get better quality pictures than with my compact but don’t want to carry additional lenses. A good example of this was on a recent holiday to Cape Verde where I didn’t want to risk taking an SLR and all the lenses.  Sandy beaches and SLRs don’t mix well! My bridge camera has a 20X zoom so I knew I could get some good candid pictures of the kids playing in the pool and on the beach. It also does some great close ups with soft focus backgrounds and the image quality is better, sharper and crisper than the compact. It also has an optical viewfinder which I prefer to the LCD screen.

I bought this bridge camera as a natural step up from a compact, when I was still an amateur photographer stuck on AUTO.  I first started to see the limitations of it when I began an A Level evening course. I had my first play with an SLR and loved the quality both through the lens and in the final images. And of course there’s no delay when pressing the shutter (no more missed action shots!). Once I had tried a macro lens and an external flash gun I was hooked – there was no going back. However hard I tried I could not achieve the same quality of images or creative effects with my compact or bridge camera.

SLR cameras also allow you to shoot in RAW as well as JPEG. This gives you much more control when editing your pictures afterwards, a must for a professional photographer (some bridge cameras do offer this format as well).

If speed and image quality are important to you, if you’d like to enlarge your shots for display on the wall or enter them into competitions then you should probably go for an SLR. But only if you are prepared to spend money on additional lenses. The “kit” lens that usually comes with an SLR does not allow you to take real close up shots nor does it zoom very far, so you’ll soon find that you need at least one additional lens. You can buy lenses that have a similar wide range to bridge cameras (e.g. 18mm-200mm) but the quality is not as good as dedicated close up, wide angle or zoom lenses. I soon found that I needed a macro (close up) lens and a zoom lens. But then I’m selling my images. If I was an amateur photographer on a budget the one “Jack of all trades” lens is perfectly adequate, certainly when you first start out using an SLR. You can also save money by buying generic lenses such as Tamron or Sigma and by buying second hand.

For me, using an SLR feels like a “proper” camera – I can look through a view finder, it instantly takes the picture when I press the shutter button and has a real and satisfying feel, it’s fast and overall a more quality experience. If automatic modes fail to give the result I am looking for I can take control and make fine-tuned adjustments. A bridge camera can do this too but the quality is generally not as good, with more noise (speckled dark areas) on the final image and just not as crisp and punchy. I know that if I use a particular lens with my SLR I can achieve a particular result – it gives me much more control.

I can’t truly answer the question of SLR cameras versus the new compact system cameras as I’ve yet to use one and can only rely on the reviews I’ve read. They seem to have a place in the market, based predominantly on compact size and being light weight, but opinion seems to be that although very good, they don’t always perform as well as SLRs in the more challenging lighting conditions.

All my cameras have their place and role to play and I'm sure I could come up with an argument to add a new compact system camera to my kit bag! If I was forced to give them all up except one I would hang onto an SLR - and it would be my mighty Canon 5D - I'll blog on why it knocks the socks off my 350d and 40d another day!

Whatever you decide to do, make use of the internet and read lots of reviews. Stay away from manufacturers’ reviews initially as they will be biased and stick to web sites that offer independent reviews e.g. http://www.cameras.co.uk/ but there are many others

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

A digital photography class for beginners at Davenports Farm Shop, Cheshire

I ran another course for beginners in digital photography today and had such a great day. It really doesn't feel like work - sharing something I love with other people who go away so enthusiastic and excited about what you've told them. Today I trained a former colleague, Catherine, who last knew me as the foot expert rather than the photographer - although she remembers me jumping up and down in excitement about buying a new camera lens too. And flogging flower photography calendars up and down the office! Talk about moonlighting - the writing was probably on the wall way before I was made redundant.

So, anyway, there I was today teaching her and her two friends how to take better photographs with their new SLR cameras. They were typical of the people I teach - they know how they want their pictures to look but get frustrated as they don't know how to achieve it. They consider their good pictures to be lucky snapshots. As ever, they are hard on themselves and have usually got a good eye for a nice image. Husbands and dads have tried to explain about apertures and shutter speeds but somehow the penny has never dropped and the camera has stayed on the fully AUTO mode (little green square).

By the end of my training sessions people usually tell me that I have cut through all the jargon and made it all make sense. Catherine commented today that she hadn't known what anything on the screen on the back of the camera had meant and that she was going away able to interpret it all and say what ISO setting she was on and why and what shutter speed and aperture she / the camera had used. Things like Auto White Balance and Exposure Compensation now made sense.

On week days I train at an amazing venue - Davenports Farm Shop at Bartington on the A49. The staff are very friendly and accommodating, giving over an entire room free of charge  in the Alice in Wonderland themed tea rooms to me. The choice of tea and coffee is dizzying but Belinda will guide you through and select the best one with you and all the food is locally sourced and freshly prepared by Belinda and her husband. The cakes are to die for - I drooled so much over the miniature cakes served to two ladies nearby that they donated the ones they couldn't quite manage to us!

I combine the classroom sessions with practical exercises outside and Davenports has oodles of interesting subjects. Today we concentrated on the outdoor chess set, practising using the Av mode to set different apertures to increasingly blur the background and also seeing how zooming in compresses perspective. On previous courses we've photographed the ostriches and alpachas, flowers, fruit and veg, old fencing - the opportunities are endless.

If you like the sound of it get in touch and we'll sort out a convenient date. I can tailor the courses to suit particular interests e.g. portraits / close up flowers etc. All in all I am always told that it's a great day out and very informative and practical.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

New Digital Photography Taster Courses for 2011

If you want to take great pictures you need a lot of expensive kit and you need to understand all the technical stuff - don't you?

No, not necessarily. Of course great quality cameras and lenses and an understanding of how to use all the settings can help you to produce fabulous images. But if you don't know some basic rules or tips then it doesn't matter how good your kit or technical knowledge is. Occasionally I leave all my SLRs, lenses etc at home and just take my Panasonic DMC-FS12 compact with me to remind myself of the basics. I also like to demonstrate that you can get some really good shots with a compact camera.



All these shots were taken with a compact camera



This led me to thinking about how easy it is really and how everyone can take good shots if they just have some simple tips and techniques.

That's what's inspired me to run some taster courses in 2011. I love running courses - so much so that I'd do it for free if I could, but I have bills to pay, cosmetics, shoes and clothes to buy!

The idea of these taster courses is to give people some completely non-techie knowledge that they can go out and put into practise straightaway and see an immediate improvement in their photographs.

If this sounds like it's for you please get in touch. I'm running two courses - one in June and one in July. Details are on my web site. The taster courses are just £20 per person for two hours.

If you're ready for for the next step - getting off the AUTO button and finding out what all the different settings do then take a look at the workshops and small group courses I offer.

To book or find out more contact me on 07868 750505 or via http://www.picture-it-big.co.uk/

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Make hay whilst the sun shines, but don't take close ups of flowers!

Here's a likely scenario. Sunday morning, you wake up, open the curtains and it's a lovely sunny day. There's a high chance that you'll then say, "let's go out somewhere and make the most of the nice weather". You might choose to go and visit a local garden, treat yourself to a cream tea and buy a new plant for your own slice of Eden. If you're more likely to go mountain biking or to the pub there's probably not much point reading on.

If you've opted for the garden then bear with me. Chances are you'll take your camera with you, hoping to get a half decent shot or two to remind you of your visit and perhaps show to some like minded gardeners / appreciators. What I'm about to tell you will significantly increase the odds of your photographs being more than half decent.

Let's discuss the weather first. The sun is beating down, there's not a cloud in the azure blue sky. Perfect conditions for strolling around admiring luscious lawns and beds bursting with flowers of every hue. Out comes the camera and you're clicking away. A close up of a cream rose with petals edged with a delicate pink, a bee burrowing into the centre of a foxglove. Perfect! You can't wait to look at the pictures and you might even use the one of the rose to make a birthday card for someone.

Unfortunately there's a good chance that you'll be somewhat disappointed when you load them onto your computer. The camera doesn't always see what we see. Our eyes are used to evening out the contrasts between light and shade but the camera records faithfully with the result that your picture is likely to have very dark shadows and be lacking lots of the lovely details you remembered seeing.

This happens if the flower is in direct sunlight. Ideally you should find one that is in the shade or use the shade of your own body. I tried a couple of options with the hellebore to demonstrate the difference.

Both the above shots are better than the original one, with less deep shadows and the intensity of the pink petals and green leaves works very well.

Let's look now at flowers photographed in shade - ones you might have overlooked at the time because they didn't seem as attractive as the ones lit by the sun. The light is much more even and the colours are more saturated and intense. Petal and stamen details are not hidden in shadow. Of course it's sods law that the most photogenic flowers in the whole garden were the ones in bright sunlight!

But I hope I've made my point. Direct sunlight is not great for photographing flowers in close up. But you'll be pleased it hear that it is good for photographing garden scenes - just make sure the sun is off to one side or behind you - not directly in front!

All these pictures were taken at Bluebell Cottage Gardens, which opens 30th March 2011.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!