Sharp shots photo club
Myself and Bradley was very kindly invited along to take part in a photography class, called ‘Sharp Shots Photo Club’. It is a class that provides children and teens with a creative and fun retreat to explore photography and gain fantastic new skills. The courses run throughout the year, In Surrey and the South East.
Love of photography
Myself and Bradley both have a love of photography. It is an interest that we both enjoy and both enjoy learning together. Bradley is much quicker at learning than me, he tends to have to show me over and over again…….Good job he has the patience!
We have been blogging a few years now and photos goes without saying are a big part of our blog. Taking good quality photos are a must, so improving our knowledge is at the top of our to-do list. Bradley likes to take charge of our camera on family days out and becomes our family photographer. He does keep asking for a camera of his own but he isn’t sure yet on what one he would like.
Our camera
A while back Ian bought me a Canon EOS 700D for a Christmas gift, but to be honest I hadn’t a clue what setting was what. Until now I just played about with the settings until I got the photo I wanted/liked. When we was invited along to better our skills at Sharp Shots Photo Club, you see why we jumped at the chance.
Learning how to use our camera
Bradley has a love of gadgets and technology – what better gadget to play about with and learn than a camera, capturing moments to turn into a lovely memory to look back on one day. All whilst learning a new skill. Bradley enjoys playing with the settings and creating different effects.
On the day of the class we travelled to Archbishops park, not far from Waterloo station in London. The course was led by the lovely Lillian Spibey – founder of Sharp Shots Photo Club.
Sharp Shots Photo Club has amazing courses on offer for children aged 7-15 years old. Myself and Bradley had a lovely chat with Lillian about our current camera and about the help we are needing. Lillian took the time to listen to us and show us in more detailed step-by-step easy to follow instructions.
Lillian is passionate about her work, very calm and patient. We both found her approachable, she was always open to questions and was happy to answer – no question at all felt silly or judged. As a learner that didn’t really know much about cameras this was a worry I had, but the class was so welcoming and friendly I soon felt relaxed and we both felt very welcomed.
Lillian chatted with everyone within the class, asking and remembering ALL names (wow) and points that people had said they was hoping to gain from the class – Lillian regularly was making points relevant to that person which was awesome. The person-centered approach was lovely!
What we learnt in class
The class was focused on understanding cameras and how they work to learning how to creatively take a photo using different settings. The class started off with some theory, talking about camera mechanics. We was all chatting and learning our way through;
- Shutter speeds
- Aperture,
- Menu settings
- Focus.
- Filters
- Themes
Bradley took it all in no problems and I wasn’t to far behind with making sure I was on the right setting for the task given. We did take my camera with us as I was keen to learn using my own camera – there was cameras there to use for those that didn’t have a camera. We done classroom theory and some classroom tasks before heading off outside with our cameras.
This was Brad jumping and myself trying to capture a clear shot without any blurriness. I put the theory to the test and captured this amazing shot.
We then went off with our cameras in and just outside of the lovely setting of Archbishops Park with the task set by Lillian and putting our theory lesson into practice. Myself and Bradley found this great fun and we both got excited and felt really pleased with the photos we was now producing. It was lovely to just stand back and watch Bradley getting creative with a camera. He was at one stage laying on the ground in order to get a shot he desperately wanted. Bradley does have a creative side to him and he does love his gadgets so this is a perfect way to mix both together.
One of Bradley’s photos – Bradley’s photo of a busy London.
Chatting with Bradley after the course he said he found it to be a great course and he had learnt a lot from it. His favorite setting at the moment being the TV setting. Before the class photos that he was taking was coming out blurry – since chatting with Lillian and this being chatted about in class in more detail he now has a better understanding and is now capturing the shots he is more than pleased with.
I have been working more closely with the IOS setting since class as I was finding my photos previously to be very dark when not in the correct lighting. Learning this has helped me massively with this problem.
Sharp Shots Photo Club has helped us massively to have a much better understanding of our camera. All thanks goes to the lovely Lillian Spibey for taking the time to teach us.
For more details about locations and prices, pop over to Sharp Shots Photo Club website for more details.
