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Monday 3 September 2018

Photography training day

For Shelley's birthday I bought her a camera that she could eventually use for wildlife photography.

To start learning how to use the camera I arranged a training course with a local wildlife photographer Steve Hedges.

It was an excellent day in three locations. For me it was a considerable update on the use of modern cameras. For Shelley it was learning to move away from the automatic settings to use shutter speeds, apertures and ISO speeds manually.


The initial view

A more interesting composition

We started with the basics at Paper Mill Lock, Little Baddow. Steve explained, composition, rule of thirds and where to focus.



At Heybridge Basin we were shown the importance of the histogram feature on our cameras and how to make adjustments to the exposure.



The above series shows exposures adjusted from +2 down to -2. Very helpful when facing the sun.

Finally we went to Weald Country Park, just North of South Weald where we put some of it in to practice with some slow moving wildlife.



We photographed a lot of ducks plus a few deer and looked at the options to filter the image to look like a cloudy day or a sunny day. I doubt I'll use the filters but I did find that the aperture priority mode (Av on a Canon dial) suited me.



Steve Hedges introduced the techniques slowly and provided a comprehensive set of notes as a reminder. I don't think either of us will become experts overnight but it was a very good grounding and we can refer to the guides in the future.

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Canon EOS 750D with Sigma 70-300mm lens

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External links:
Steve Hedges Photography

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