Photography classes in Drogheda

Hi guys,

I just thought I'd throw this up here, incase it is of interest to anyone (I have permission from the mods).

I'm going to be running a photography course in the new year, in Drogheda. It will be a series of five 90-minute classes, and it'll cost €50 (so works out at €10 per class). It's aimed at beginners.

It'll be on every Wednesday from January the 23rd. Money from the course will be going to St. John Ambulance (Drogheda Division).

I just thought I'd put it up here incase anyone was interested (strikes me as the kind of thing that could make for a decent side-gift if anyone's giving/getting a camera for Christmas).

The details are on this image;








So it's for a good cause, and it's hopefully something that will turn out to be practical/interesting.


For more info on the parties involved, here are Facebook pages for...

Myself: http://www.facebook.com/ShaneMaguire.ie
St. John Ambulance: http://www.facebook.com/stjohnambulancedrogheda
and a notable mention to Projekt Scribble Design: http://www.facebook.com/Projekt.Scribble


If anyone on here is interested in doing it, just get in touch with myself or St. John and we can take it from there.



Thanks for your time, ladies and gents.


EDIT I'll be sure to update this thread with a photo of an attractive lady holding a camera at some point. Memorable marketing and all that. :P I'll also be more practical and get a 'contents' type post up too with an idea of what I hope to cover in the five classes


Shane

Hi again, all.

To give a bit more detail on this (as I hadn't really gotten the time when I was writing the first post).

The course will be five classes in length. The idea is that it's aimed at people who haven't really got much of an idea what they're doing with a camera, and leave it in auto mode the whole time. My hope is that after the five classes, everyone will be able to shoot in manual mode with their camera, be able to read the meter, and be able to make adjustments on the fly for when they're out shooting.

By the end of the course, you should know the difference between shutter speeds, apertures, ISO - how they work together and the different effect each has on an image as a whole.



I also plan to go over the very basics of flash photography, but this won't be a major part of the course (but I feel that it helps people get an idea of how light works and what looks good/bad). I'll give an overview of compositional 'do's and dont's' throughout the course, and of course, answer and any all questions throughout the course that I can.

I'll cover different things about lenses (compression, distortion, etc.) and other such bits and pieces (though being honest, these things will be more talked about in passing, rather than anything else.

I'll hope to give people an understanding of how to do light streaks, create portraits with a blurry background, avoid camera shake, etc. and whatever else may pop up along the way. So it should be a somewhat comprehensive course, especially as it is aimed at those just learning the basics.

You'd need a DSLR to get the most out of the course, or at the very least, any camera with a full time manual mode (this is usually denoted by an M on the mode dial). There will be handouts provided during the classes that you can bring home, that will explain things we've covered in layman's terms.



So that said, again, it'll cost €50, which I think is a very fair price, and the money will be going to St. John Ambulance, so it's going to benefit a pretty good voluntary organisation.


If anyone's interested in doing it, the Facebook links to myself and St. John are above (or you can PM me/reply here, either, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can). For anyone who signs up to it, you'll get a numbered/printed copy of the image in the first post (so if you wish to gift it to someone, you can do that, and will have something to give them).



Can't really think of what else to say, but if anyone has any questions, just let me know.



Obligatory Photograph:

Hi all,

Just to throw an extra update on this:

On Monday, the 21st of January, I'll be having a 'registration night', where people can pay onto the course, ask questions, meet myself (and Colin, of St. John) and show me cameras to ensure they're suitable, etc.

You can also pay at the start of the first class, if that's more suitable.


Will hopefully get a few people doing it (and give St. John some well-deserved funding).

I'll add another update soon with some examples of photos that I'd hope people will be able to competently take after the course.


Shane.

Mylow

Will Agne be there?

Maybe a little bit about you. How you got into photography, any related qualifications etc.

Haha, Agnes won't be there.

I won't bang on about myself (because, let's face it; who cares?) but here's an idea of the kinda stuff people will hopefully be knowledgeable enough to do with ease after the course. I'm not setting in stone what exactly I'll be covering, as I hope to try and tailor it to people's questions/scenarios, etc. but as said above, trying to get everyone shooting comfortably in Manual mode is my aim).


Slow Shutter Speeds for light streaks





Shallow Depth of Fields





Low-light shooting (moving and static subjects)




(these are just randomly selected photos to try to give an idea of what I plan to cover and do with people. Course will obviously be more tailored to what people actually want to shoot, so as I discuss or talk about something, if people want to chime in with their own situations or experiences, the classes will obviously follow that. So for example, if someone wants to know about group shots, etc. then they'll be covered, whereas there are obviously no group shot photos above).

redzerdrog

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi all,

Just to throw an extra update on this:

On Monday, the 21st of January, I'll be having a 'registration night', where people can pay onto the course, ask questions, meet myself (and Colin, of St. John) and show me cameras to ensure they're suitable, etc.

You can also pay at the start of the first class, if that's more suitable.


Will hopefully get a few people doing it (and give St. John some well-deserved funding).

I'll add another update soon with some examples of photos that I'd hope people will be able to competently take after the course.


Shane.

have you a time confirmed yet for the registration night?

redzerdrog

redzerdrog wrote: »

have you a time confirmed yet for the registration night?

Hi redzerdog. Hoping to do it between 7-8. I'll probably be hanging around from about 6.30 onwards, though.

Alternatively, you can of course just pay on the first class (23rd) but if you've any questions you want to put to me or want me to take a look at your camera or advise on anything, then the enrollment night would be handy for you in that regard.

redzerdrog

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi redzerdog. Hoping to do it between 7-8. I'll probably be hanging around from about 6.30 onwards, though.

Alternatively, you can of course just pay on the first class (23rd) but if you've any questions you want to put to me or want me to take a look at your camera or advise on anything, then the enrollment night would be handy for you in that regard.

yeah its actually for the girlfriend so she is gona be there on the enrollment night for you to look at the camera and that because she is totally new to it and only got the camera at christmas

redzerdrog

redzerdrog wrote: »

yeah its actually for the girlfriend so she is gona be there on the enrollment night for you to look at the camera and that because she is totally new to it and only got the camera at christmas

Ah yeah, in that case the enrollment night would be a fairly sensible decision, so. At least that way if the camera's not suitable or such she won't be participating in a course that she won't get anything out of.

(of course, if you wish, you can always post the model of the camera on here and I'll do a little bit of Googling and see the specs of the camera to see if I can let you know now whether or not it'd be a suitable one).

Just as a quick reminder: the 'registration' night for this course is tonight, between 7-8pm, in Mell Parish Hall.

First class went relatively well last night, in my opinion.

Just wanted to put up a message to say thanks to those of you who showed an interest in the course, and of course, those of you who are attending.

Thanks, too, to the moderators on here for allowing me to shamelessly promote the course on the forum. St. John are a very good and very active voluntary unit in the town, in my opinion, so it's nice to see them getting something extra to put towards different bits and pieces.


If there's any interest I'll consider re-running the course again later in the year (or running a more advanced one, that's not aimed at beginners).


Thank you everyone.

Shane

JonnyStout

Hi,

If you are thinking of posting further beginners courses I'd be very interested.