Our Beyond Beginners Photography Course at Manchester’s world famous Portico Library is an exciting new addition for 2020.

The stunning interior of the Portico Library

The day will be one of contrasts with the first half of the course spent in the stunning setting of the Portico Library, where we will focus on using the architecture and book-case lined interior to test your skills on lighting, depth of field and close up work.

The Portico Library is one of the masterpieces of Manchester’s heyday as a centre not only of commerce  but intellectual thought.

The Portico is a 213-year-old independent subscription library and exhibitions space in Manchester City Centre. Still housed in its original purpose-built venue on Mosley Street, it hosts an eclectic calendar of exhibitions and events, complementing the unique collection of books, archives and illustrations spanning over 450 years. Previously a members’ only institution with associates including John Dalton, Peter Mark Roget, Elizabeth Gaskell, Emmeline Pankhurst, Robert Peel, Val McDermid and even Eric Cantona.

After a short lunch (which is included in the price, we will competely change the feel and content of the day by seeing the other side of Manchester by spending the afternoon on a guided street photography session in the Northern Quarter where the emphasis is very much on being in the moment and finding beauty and interest in streets where most people hurry on past.

Capture the other side of Manchester as hit the streets of the Northern Quarter

Beyond Beginners Photography Course – Is it Right For You?

If you’ve been on one of our beginners photography courses you will have mastered shooting in fully manual. This course picks up from there and will build your confidence in compensating for available light indoors and your confidence to be a photographer out on the street enjoying being creative and testing your abilities in composing an image quickly.

The day starts by meeting at the Portico at 11.15 and after a quick coffee our tutor will explain what we are going to be shooting inside and show you the techniques that you will be learning. Will get shooting as quickly as possible and with no more than six people on the course you will find that you are learning very fast and putting it straight into use.

We will have a quick sandwich from the cafe at the Library and then hed out into the Northern Quarter, where we will stay until we wrap up at about 5pm. probably in a cafe to discuss what we ‘ve learned and squeezed the last few questions from our tutor.

Booking on is simple as clicking this link https://northwestphotographycourses.com/course/beyond-beginners-photography-course-manchester-29-feb-2020/

For the  28 March date please book here https://northwestphotographycourses.com/course/beyond-beginners-photography-course-manchester-portico-library-northern-quarter-28-march-2020/

Didsbury Parsonage and Gardens are the perfect location for our photography course

Photography Courses in Didsbury are a new venture for us, to add to our courses in Bury and in Lymm.

We are starting with three dates, all beginners photography courses. Booking for each date is via these links.

Saturday 16th September https://northwestphotographycourses.com/course/beginners-photography-course-didsbury-manchester-16-september-2017/

Saturday 7th October https://northwestphotographycourses.com/course/beginners-photography-course-didsbury-manchester-7th-october-2017/

Saturday 21st October https://northwestphotographycourses.com/course/beginners-photography-course-didsbury-manchester-21-october-2017/

We are very excited by the venue for our Didsbury photography courses which is the historic Didsbury Parsonage this beautiful house is set in formal gardens which are immaculately kept by a team of volunteers and is a real gem in Manchester.

The house and gardens sit opposite the beautiful St James Church and on the edge of the famous Fletcher Moss Park and Gardens 

The format of the day for the most part mirrors our successful beginners photography courses in Lymm and Bury.

We start in classroom style over a cup of tea or coffee on arrival and explain how your camera works and what the controls do. 

After about an hour and a half of explaining the basics and the theory we begin to put you through your paces for a short practical session.

Unlike the courses in Lymm and Bury, we won’t be returning to the classroom setting (but you can leave bags in a locked room) and we will be out and about, so bring a packed lunch to keep you going and weatherproof clothing, but we’ll pause to review how the first part of the day has gone and ask questions.

Then the rest of the day will be on our feet, really embedding what we’ve discussed in the morning and gently pushing you in a way that builds your confidence in what you have learned.

We will end the day by finding a quiet table in a nearby pub where we can look back at the day’s work, at what has been a success and it’s a time to ask your final questions before we wind down the day at about 4pm, by which time we find most people are at the limit of what they can take in and are raring to go home and put it into practice themselves.

If you would like to know more about our courses, please call Nigel on 01706 452840.

Our One to One Photography Courses are an unforgettable experience.

“Hi I want to again thank you for the help and advice these last two days. I feel you have helped me tremendously and given me back the desire to pick up the camera again. The one to one setting and the way you delivered the tuition was so relaxing and your patience were a real help, thank you” – Derek

That was the customer feedback we got this week from one satisfied customer for whom we designed a day around his wish to improve his nature and landscape photography and a follow-up session on Photoshop.

Like all our one to one photography lessons, we spoke to Derek beforehand and then we took him to Dovestones Reservoir where there is an RSPB hide and spent a fabulous day gently developing his skills and showing that him that like many people, he knew a lot more than he thought he did.

If you have a special someone who is looking to take up photography more seriously or perhaps a client or customer that you know has an interest in photography and you’d like to say thank you with a corporate incentive that will stay forever in the memory a one to one photography day is a fantastic option.

We can take customers to places off the beaten track such as into a farrier’s forge or perhaps behind the scenes at the East Lancashire Railway’s engine sheds to watch the engineering and restoration work by the volunteers then give us a call and we will design something unique and genuinely memorable – as well as really improving your photography skills.

A full day’s one to one tuition is £250 and if we need to arrange additional access the costs, the costs of these will be chargeable. Travel within 20 miles of our base in Bury is included.

Give Nigel a call on 01706 452840 and tell us what you’d like to do!

Learning how to photograph steam trains brings some technical challenges which we explore on our Photography Experience Days with the East Lancashire Railway.

We asked our principal tutor Tony Holt to explain the thinking and preparation behind how this fantastic image was captured.

How to photograph steam trains

Preparation

Preparing a shot like this starts a long time before you take your camera out the bag. Working with heritage railways is challenging and very rewarding. You need to have quality time with the staff and volunteers who will ensure you are in the right place at the best times and can place yourself in safe behind the scenes locations, where you won’t be jostled by crowds.

Our featured shot was taken at the listed Buckley Wells Sheds, which are normally closed to the public, as The Flying Scotsman returned to The East Lancashire Railway from the main line.

We have exclusive access to parts of the railway which are not open to the public which means that our delegates can not only get unique images of some of the best known vintage locomotives in Britain, they can do it without worrying about someone else getting in the way of the shot.

Camera Gear

DSLR, with 16-35mm F4 Lens. Shutter speed 1/160 and f6.3.

Considerations

Knowing the time of the Flying Scotsman’s return to the yard, I positioned myself safely to the side of the track in front of the shed main doors to capture the Scotsman as it was gently moved past the two steam engines and then into the shed. I kept the lens at 29mm which was wide enough but didn’t cause any distortion of the engines.

Shutter speed was kept at 1/160 to allow a sharp enough image but importantly also show something of the movement of The Scotsman as it approached me.

I used centre weighted metering to let the camera meter mainly off the engines and help balance the light. It was getting a little late in the day so iso was 640.

All in all, a nice opportunity and unique image.

For dates of forthcoming photography courses on the East Lancashire Railway visit the ELR website at http://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/packages-experiences/photography-experiences.aspx

Our steam train photography course dates for 2017 have been published by the East Lancashire Railway and all dates are open for booking.

The courses are full day experiences where we go behind the scenes to parts of the East Lancashire Railway that are not open to the public.

You can get a flavour of what you will experience on the course in our video

Receive a gift card for you to write a personal message and instructions on how to book the course

Photography Course Gift Vouchers are the perfect Christmas present at this time of the year.
You can use our photography course gift vouchers on our Beginners Photography Courses and our Beyond Beginners Photography Courses and also on a One to One Photography Course. You could even use them on a Corporate Photography Training Course – stranger things have happened!
Unfortunately, you can’t use them on our Steam Train Photography Courses which you need to book directly with the East Lancashire Railway.
We will send you a gift card for you to write your own message in together with a voucher explaining what the person you are giving the gift voucher needs to do to book their place on one of our photography courses.
The person receiving the photography course gift voucher just needs to choose a course that suits from our 2017 calendar of photography courses and give us a call to reserve their place.
If they are not sure whether they are at the beyond beginner level, then a simple rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether they ever use the camera’s AUTO setting. If the answer is no and they are routinely using other settings then they are probably more suited to our beyond beginners photography course.
If they are still not sure then the quickest solution is to give us a call and we will be happy to offer advice on which is the best photography course for their level of experience or skill.
Our photography course gift vouchers can be bought in combinations of £10, £25 and £50 which can be matched to the price of our courses which are £75.00 for photography courses in Manchester (Bury) and £85.00 for our photography courses in Cheshire (Lymm).
If you are a last minute shopper in a pre-Christmas panic we can even email you a voucher after the last posting day for Christmas – just give us a call to make sure we have been alerted that you have bought the voucher.
Happy Christmas shopping!