Futureversity - Photography Course

About 3 weeks ago I received an email from Futureversity, an organisation which offers free courses to people aged 11-25 years old. It wouldn't hurt to look I thought and as I browsed through the vast diversity of the courses I ended up with at least 5-6 courses that I was interested in, however they were all in the same week so I had to choose one; that one being 'Introduction to Photography'. I have always had an interest in photography but only as a hobby. It was only last year that I had seriously thought about purchasing an SLR camera but even if I had bought one, would I even be able to use all the functions. To someone who is oblivious to professional photography I would probably use about 20% of the camera functions and that is by winging it so instead I got a Canon G15 when I was in Korea. It is still a digital camera but with more features. I love that camera seriously, but now.. I actually regret it. After doing this course I need an SLR in my life. 

The course was a week long 1-3:30pm, my tutor was Amrita Chandradas who is a very down to earth and young photographer who had just finished her MA at LCC University. She was so friendly and helpful, always making sure that we were okay with the content and if we had any questions. The first day we went through the basics of photography, the second day we had to pair up and take portrait photos of each other using the different white balance and experimenting with aperture and shutter speed, the third day we edited our pictures in Photoshop and may I say now how much I hate Photoshop! All the nightmares and frustration from college came screaming back at me. Curse you Photoshop and your damn layers. Fourth day we had a critic session of our edited images and on the last day we were suppose to go to the nearby market to take more photos (but I did not make it in as I had to go work). The cameras we used were the Canon 1100d, there were 6 of these to share between the 12 of us. 

Bearing in mind that we had only known each other for a day before we had to get up close and personal taking each others' portraits. I hate posing as it is but coupled with a stranger. Although that is not to say that my partner wasn't a sweet person, she was adorable and a good photographer! All the photos above of me are credits to Rachel (whom you can see in the picture below, I won't post the others as she may feel uncomfortable with it). The first day as you can imagine was very awkward and I immediately noticed how young everyone was, even the volunteers there. Okay I know it is a youth program but I thought there would at least be a fair number of over 20's. There were quite a few eccentric personalities in the class but I probably have not laughed as much as I did in that short period for awhile now. I had my doubts at first about the course but now I am so happy I went as I learnt a lot more about photography and now have a new passion for it, which I hope I can translate to something more. I met a number of talented people and was inspired by the different takes of what makes photography in other's eyes, opposed to just my own.