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DITCH THE COUCH…
Rhubarb & Custard’s Halid Izzet talks to us about why photography is the perfect hobby.
What equipment does someone need to attend their first session?
From Compact Cameras to Professional DSLR’s we have a large enough range of photography workshops and courses to cater for all types of camera and equipment.
What would you say are the wellbeing benefits of taking up photography?
It’s really the perfect hobby… Photography gets you outside when its fine, releasing those endorphins and gets the blood and circulation going, and lets you stay inside when its wet, developing (usually on the computer) the photos you took when it was dry forcing you to take time to be creative and artistic! It develops your right brain – the side that processes artistic thoughts, visualisation, and imagination , as well as the left side of the brain, the part that is analytical, linear and logical with the principles of how light works, exposure, focus and so on. It can be totally “Techy” for those who like technology, but can also be totally ‘Artsy’ for those who prefer are Technology averse. Its social – meeting new people with our workshops, as well as meditational – when you’re in the photographer’s ‘zone’ you can often feel enormous calm and wholeness. It gives you huge feelings of satisfaction when you achieve a vision, while being something that you never stop learning. We also regularly hold Photography Exhibitions showing our Students work which does wonders for our students self-confidence and gives a real feeling of accomplishment!
What would you say to encourage someone to take up photography?
I’d say that Photography helps you get more our of life by helping you capture the moments that you’ll want to look back on in the future. You don’t have to spend hundreds or thousands on equipment is you don’t want to, but I’ve rarely found anyone who doesn’t enjoy photography on one way or another. Its a magical process that gives and gives, while being healthily frustrating at times ;-)). There is certainly nothing to loose and even if you’re a little unsure, our Free Saturday Sessions, where you get to meet us in our Gallery and get to know the things we do, are a great way to ‘test the water’. We also sell gift vouchers for anyone interested in helping encourage a family friend or colleague get into Photography – making great Christmas presents.
Do you need to be confident of your creative ability to attend your courses?
Absolutely not – quite the opposite! The whole point of photography is to help ebveryoen develop their creativity on an ongoing basis and from whatever stage they are at.. From complete novice to accomplished professional – we are always learning and developing our skills (sorry for the pun! ;-))
We also run Women only workshops from time to times men tend to be more Left Brain thinkers and women Right Brain thinkers.
What is the structure of your courses/sessions?
You have a choice of the following
- One Day Workshops that usually run on Sundays or Mondays.
- Multi Lesson courses (eg 5 or 120 lesson courses) that run in the evenings (eg Tuesday evenings)
- Or 1 to1 lessons which can be run most evenings, on various Sundays and Mondays as well.
We only allow 4 people on a workshop or a course at a time, meaning we get the change to make sure everyone achieves maximum progress.
Depending on the subject of the course, we try to fit in as much practice in as possible, using your cameras to help what you have just learned really sink in.
I always describe the Workshops as a fairly intense injection of knowledge, getting you up to speed quickly and efficiently (perfect if you’re about to go on holiday for example), and the Multi-lesson courses as a ’Slow Drip-Feed’ of knowledge that allows it to sinks in over a longer period of time, dealing in manageable bite size chunks each week, which with a few fun tasks that we give for the (non-compulsory) homework, will result in excellent understanding and long term learning the various skills required.
