Chez Spud

Drum roll…introducing Camera Club for Commencers (CCC). Ta da! Just because we’re not physically together doesn’t mean we can’t all gather round, drink tea, eat cake and talk geeky stuff does it? So, with no further delay, I pronounce the CCC open for business. I’ll be the ChairSpud, Secretary and Treasurer and you can all be my bitches, OK?

This is how it’s going to go, subject to suggestions from you bitches; in Part 1 I will share some basic background stuff I’ve picked up in terms of photography resources. In Part 2, and going forward, I will tackle the questions you’ve asked me and will have a guest victim blogger join in ‘for fun’. I just want to say this one last time, I won’t keep going on about it as repetition is soooooooooooooooo tedious; I am not a professional, I don’t want to be a professional, I have no qualifications, I’ve not taken a course, I’ve not been a keen photographer for very long. In short, I’m appallingly badly qualified to start a Camera Club. However, I know a bit, I know my limitations and I know a good number of people who DO know what they’re talking about and who can be forced are willing to share their insight and experience. Plus, I know what it’s like to feel really embarrassed to ask a question that seems really ‘stupid’. It was only a few months ago that I didnt know how to change a lens on my camera, never mind fiddle with all those knobs and dials and stuff. Less than a year ago I was a ‘happy snapper’, and using a beaten up Sony P&S (point & shoot).  I’m still a very, very inexperienced, enthusiastic but amateur photographer and I have no ambitions to be anything other than that! Health warning over…although I just need to add that CCC is for P&S and DSLR owners alike. I have a Nikon DSLR so many of the pointers I give will be Nikon related but I hope not to be too ‘exclusive’ about it and to mix it up a bit with guest bloggers, more of which below.

Final word on cameras; I like to tease Canon owners about their ‘big old photocopiers’ because it’s good sport. But, in the end, there’s so little to choose between the different brand of cameras at any end of the market that it’s hardly worth the debate. I take a lot of photos with my iphone which, frankly, is a rubbish camera but I turn out vaguely decent shots from time to time. So please don’t let the lack of a fancy camera stand in your way…this is my current favourite iphone shot, taken last week:

Photography Books & Magazines

When I was at Blog Camp, a number of people asked for recommendations for good photography books. I’m afraid my number one recommendation won’t be a popular one: your camera’s manual. I know, I know!! Utterly tedious, but there is no way round this. If you want to get good shots you have to be able to get the most of YOUR camera, and that means you need to read the manual. However, sweetener, get thee to Amazon or any good book shop and get a ‘field guide’ for your camera. I had a quick google and found them for Nikons, Canons and Sonys…and no doubt they exist for other makes too. ‘Field guides’ are like a friendly, colour, easy to read manual for your camera. Hoorah. So get a field guide (not expensive) and I will let you off reading the manual.I read the Field Guide for my camera first, and then tackled the manual…I found I could mostly skip through it and, now, I only use it when I can’t remember some boring technical setting or other.

I’ve not read many photography books. The ones I ADORE are the Scott Kelby ones, ‘The Digital Photography Book’ (volumes 1,2 and 3). They aren’t to everyone’s taste, he has a very familiar, chatty style which can grate. But it doesn’t bother me and, in fact, it makes his message more digestible and less intimidating to me. The books are small in size, and each page consists of one of his shots and a couple of paragraphs of explanation as to how to get ‘that shot’. This really worked for me in the very early days in particular when I was trying to run before I could walk; I knew what shot I was trying to get but I had no idea how to do it. Highly recommended – his books are written for both P&S and DSLR owners.

Also, ‘Understanding Exposure’ by Bryan Peterson. It’s on the dry side but does exactly what it says on the tin…it helps you understand exposure which, let’s face it, is the foundation of all good photography. I have a couple of other, unread photography books lurking around but it would just be showing off if I mentioned them as I’ve never actually read them.

Um, that’s it for books. I also read a couple of photography magazines each month….Practical Photography and DSLR Magazine, I think? I can’t be sure, to be honest they are much of a muchness. I would really recommend picking up photography magazines for a few months as they offer a lot of advice in a palatable format.  No need to go overboard and buy millions, or for too long. Very quickly they become repetitive and, once you become a bit savvy, you’ll find the advice they offer is available online for free.

Online Photography Resources

Flickr is your friend. I really believe there is NO better way to improve your photography than getting in to Flickr. Oooooh bold statement. All the expensive courses/1:1 tuition etc in the world can’t compete with consistently spending time on Flickr….being inspired by the amazing photographs there and reading the discussions on the thousands of Flickr groups. Check out Explore, the top 500 photos posted each day, seek out a Flickr Group of interest to you (search for your camera, your hometown, anything you like from horses to black & white, from the colour orange to street photography…seriously there is a group for EVERYTHING!). And when you join a group, and sometimes even without joining, you can read the discussion board. I have learnt so so much from reading and posting on Flickr discussion boards. It’s much more effective if you post photos on Flickr, and then reference them in any questions you ask ie. ‘All my shots are too dark…what am I doing wrong?’ and then show a photo. I have been amazed at the willingness of strangers, often professionals, who will take the time to assess my crappy picture and point me in the right direction. There are lots of groups for beginners on Flickr, have a hunt around. ‘Beginners Digital Photography’ looks quite interesting. If you have a Nikon then I highly recommend the ‘Nikon Digital Learning Centre’ group. I’m sure other brands have the same kind of group. The Canon DSLR User Group looks to be excellent too.

This is my most ‘best’ photo according to Flickr, in terms of its highest position in Explore, number of comments, favourites, views. Quite funny as I took it in ONE shot, under the stairs. It’s a 3D card, backlit by a candle…the London skyline…it’s not my personal favourite by a long shot but I am very fond of it as it boosted my confidence somewhat:

So, sign up for Flickr and get going! It’s free, although if you’re a Keen Bean and post a decent amount of photos you will quickly run out of free space and will need to pay for an upgrade to ‘pro’. It’s not hugely expensive at $24.95 a year and is well worth it.

Top tip for people who are not complete beginners (total beginners, you can do this if you want of course…but it made my eyes bleed for the first few months….you have been warned): check out the EXIF data on Flickr photos to get a feel how ‘how that shot was done’. If you’re looking a photo, look right, click on the link that says ‘more properties’ and you’ll see a vast array of terrifying technical data. But it’s a very cool learning tool as it instantly tells you what kind of camera and lens was used, what setting the camera was on, what focal length, what aperture, whether the flash was used, how it was processed etc etc etc. Seriously it’s a VAST amount of information but just the basic stuff can reveal some very useful nuggets. Some people choose to hide their EXIF data. I guess they think it’s proprietary information somehow. Odd.

This is my current favourite shot of mine, but it changes daily to be honest…

Photography Blogs and other online resources

At the risk of sounding like a Scott Kelby groupie I, erm, totally love his blog. There are others that I read but we’ll be here until Christmas if I list them all. So Scott is your guy for a great mix of technical stuff (not too scary), processing tips (mostly lost on me), inspirational guest bloggers, gear guides etc etc.

On which note, if you have a Nikon then check out DTown TV. 10 minute videos of Scott demoing various Nikon gear and, more importantly, photography hints and tips. Download and enjoy on the go. They are a little rough and ready in terms of presentation but the content is fabulous.

My final tip is The Pioneer Woman blog. I know she’s not everyone’s favourite blogger, apart from the 20 million people who ready her daily, but her photography tips are really helpful. Go to her photography section, look left and click on the ‘Basic Photography’ section. And then read all of the posts in there, yes all of them – I spent one evening reading and re-reading them in the early days to try and master the basics. She writes in a very engaging manner and illustrates with lovely photos, and covers off aperture, shutter speed, f-stops, exposure, composition etc as you might expect. Please do read those posts, I can’t recommend them enough for quickly getting on top of the ‘dry’ technical stuff you need to get your head around (e.g small f-stop is a large aperture, a large f-stop number is a small aperture: CRY why did they make it so tough for us?!)

I’ll bet The Pioneer Woman doesn’t have nags like this on her ranch…

Photo A Day

Do a Photo A Day project – this is the single, best piece advice I can give you to improve your photography. I started photography as a hobby in October 2008 when I joined a PAD (Photo A Day) group on Flickr ie. you take a photo every day and post it to the group. Doesn’t sound very exciting does it? But it is…it documents your life, and it forces you to pick up your camera every..single…day. Regardless of whether you don’t feel like it, you’re too busy, nothing special is happening, you don’t feel very inspired, you’re too ill etc etc. Once you commit to a 365 project you become obsessed with it! And it’s fascinating to look at other people’s years unfold and, more importantly, your own. I love being able to look back at previous months and see what we were up to – I can’t wait until I have a full year of photos to reflect on.  Plus, I’m sure, the discipline of taking photos every day means you make quicker progress. The group I am part of on Flickr is closed, but search for 365 or Photo A Day on the Flickr groups and you’ll find lots – so choose which one suits you best and plug in!

This is my first ‘photo a day’ entry, from October 2008..um, yeah, great…

…and one from last week….I think I’ve improved a bit…

My final tip would be to find yourself a photography mentor if you can, and if not then CCC will do its best to play the role!  I was so lucky in that The Wife, my best friend, is a fabulous photographer and (a) got me in to it and then (b) has mentored me along the way, patiently enduring my thick questions. I’m delighted to announce she will be our first guest blogger for CCC and very soon I will be letting her know that this is the case. I’m sure she will be thrilled to bits. Yay! If you can’t wait, hurry along to the Smithfield Gallery in London this week (don’t let geography be an excuse for missing out, we’ll have a whip round and carbon neutral your flight should that be an issue?). The Wife is exhibiting (but not like that) in the Loveart2009 exhibition because she is super clever and smart and that is why she is The Wife.  If you can’t get to London to hang out with the cool chicks, then check out her website. Dreamy.

So, CCC Part 2 will be later this week, featuring The Wife plus me answering all the questions you’ve sent  me. Part 3 will feature a MALE guest blogger. Yup, you read that right bitches…a MAN…in our midst. Collective deep intake of breath…Part 4 will be female again but Part 5 could take us to a planet far, far away…

Hope CCC Part 1 was vaguely helpful and made sense? Please ask more questions if you need to, I will add them to the list and will happily answer them no problem at all.

I declare this CCC meeting closed. Bring on the tea and cake.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Camera Club: Uncle Bob Blues or How to be the Perfect Wedding Guest
• CCC: Guest post…Amber on ‘Shooting Stars’
• Photo 366 – Week 1
• Competition! Win a family portrait shoot courtesy wish.co.uk
• Bluebell Wood Walk