Category: blog

Private Tuition VS Formal Education – Why Devon Photography Training?

Many photographers come to us whilst studying in formal education (College and University) because they feel they aren’t getting the information that they thought they would, this comes down to even the basic principles of Photography and camera settings in some cases. This is mostly because Universities promote a self led approach to learning, you are pushed to find things out by yourself, which, in some respects, is a positive thing in regards to making learners more independent, but also leaves people thinking:

“What am I actually paying for?’

College and University courses generally take up a lot of time and money, much of which is spent learning about a broad overview of Photography and includes film processing, taking photographs and producing sketchbooks. It is unlikely for all the units that are taught to be relevant to the students taking the course, especially with film still being taught on most courses in a predominantly digital age. Taking photographs is key to improving photographic skill but can be done in our own time without paying the hefty fees that college and university can incur.

It is our belief at Devon Photography Training that it would be better for learners to take shorter, more concise and personalised 1-2-1 sessions to learn about the specific areas of Photography that are relevant to their individual photographic journeys. Our worksheets and post session projects allow students to practice and refine what they’ve learned with us in their own time without having to pay extra to do so.

Students only pay for the direct contact they have with us or for the products available in the membership

We offer an alternative to College and University, it’s true that learners won’t get a piece of paper or qualification from learning with us but they will get inspiration, concise and relevant information that can be used to build their portfolio, skills and even a business.

In one 3 hour 1-2-1 session students could learn:

How to use your camera in manual mode
How to use the studio and a variety of lighting setups
How to kickstart setting up your business
How to make money from your Photography
How to set up your own website and more.

There’s a lot more we can cover, see examples on our 1-2-1 Tuition page. 

We are dedicated to teaching efficiently and effectively, we won’t waste our learners’ time or money.

We catch up with students after their session to see how they are getting on and to answer any questions they may have. Students are also invited to join our community of creatives in our Facebook group where work can be shared and questions asked, this is for all students of Devon Photography Training.

Our sessions are packed full of information that is requested on learners initial consultation phone call.

Sessions are just £139 for a 1-2-1 session with Gemma at her Honiton studio.

You can book yourself in for a session over on our How to use your camera and the basic principles of photography page.

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How to use Your Camera Part 2

This follow up session allows us to review the camera’s 3 main settings, Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed which we covered in the first ‘How to use your camera’ session.

We also look at analysing your work with a portfolio review. This will help you learn how to use guidelines to objectively look at your work with improvement as your main aim.

We will then explore some of your camera’s additional settings and relate how you can use them in a range of scenarios, these include:

• White Balance
• Metering Modes
• Autofocus Modes
• Bracketing
• Built in Flash
• Composition and Framing Guides
• Camera Picture Styles
• Exposure Compensation
• Face Recognition
• Back Button Focussing
• Setting Function Buttons and more.

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This session will have plenty of practical experiments as generally we learn best this way. You also get worksheets to support what you learn in the session and an action plan with projects for you to complete in your own time. You will receive 6 months of email support for everything learned in this session and access to our training group on Facebook.

This session is £139, when held at my studio, for a 3 hour 1-2-1 session.
​Sessions can be held at your home and are charged at £169.
​Fuel costs may be incurred if outside of Honiton.

If you have any questions or would like to book in for this session please get in touch using the form below

We will get back to you as soon as possible to discuss your requirements. Thank you.

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Abstract Art Nude Photography Workshop Photographs NSFW 18+

Here are some of the images created on our last abstract art nude photography workshop here at Devon Photography Training. These images were taken on a fuji X-T1 by Russell Vare, the model is Nikita Crombie. 

This session is designed to make photographers think of the body as a landscape. Nikita creates shapes and Photographers choose which angles to shoot. We used lighting effectively to give us shadow and to highlight Nikita’s form. 

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

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Practice what you preach..

Practice is EVERYTHING in Photography, as a tutor I personally like to try and learn as much as I can and better my skills in Business, Teaching and in Photography. As well as running Devon Photography Training’s monthly competition I also enter my own work into a monthly competition as well. 

This shot won me a bronze award with The Guild of Photographer’s Image of the Month Competition in May. I am striving to gain that all elusive silver still and I love having such high standards to attain to, it keeps me focussed on improving in my Photography. 

I would love to know what inspires you and your passion. Do you have a link to your work you can post in the comments?

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Portfolio Shoot With Laura Emily-Rose

Laura and I shot together in the studio a couple of weeks ago, it was good fun to work with Laura and she brought loads of fun outfits and ideas with her.

Some shots were taken using continuous lighting and some with flash, we experimented with colours and shadows and change the mood of each image.

Which is your favourite image? I personally love this top one below and the first shot in the orange shirt. <3

If you would like to book yourself or a loved one in for a fun portrait session please see my dedicated portrait photography website here for information on the session and pricing. 

Thanks for reading.

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Kevin French Challenging Views on Nudity & Disability NSFW 18+

Kevin lives with Cerebral Palsy and is interested in challenging views about movement, nudity and disability. Those who know me know I’m not your average 27 year old, I too enjoy challenging views that are so often portrayed as ‘normal’ within our culture. (What does normal even mean?!) So when I found out about Kevin’s plan in working towards a Performance Training Master’s involving improvised dance, nudity, body image and non verbal communication I just knew I had to get in touch! 

Kevin liked my work and asked if we could shoot together, he beat me to it! We arranged a shoot at Plymouth College of Art where Kevin is studying and we worked in a Photographic Studio there (which I must also mention was excellently equipped, clean and very professional! – Lucky students!)

We shot with a variety of backgrounds and I took my two strip softboxes as I had an idea of the images I wanted to create. I wanted the photos from this session  to fit well within my project on art nude photography which aims to show how all body shapes and sizes can be beautiful through photography.
I also had Kevin’s work in mind so we got a good variety of full shots, close ups and emotive photos to suit both of our projects.

Kevin was absolutely brilliant when it came to moving and posing for the camera, he created fantastic shapes and really knew how to move his body for dramatic poses whilst working with the light. We took some photographs with and without his wheelchair for added variety and context.

When I asked about Kevin’s Project he gave me this write up to help illustrate his work:

“I will be undertaking a performance training masters involving improvised dance, nudity, body image and maybe non verbal communication.

I began to think about this 2 years ago because once a year I do an improvisational life drawing session at Plymouth College of Art. This began because some new first years were shocked by a nude disabled man, they would not suggest poses. I decided to use the “stop go” dance score from my BA dance training, where I moved until someone says stop, freeze and they draw that pose until someone says go. Within 30 minutes most of them were asking me questions and 2 of them went on to work with motion.

I wrote a proposal for an art festival which morphed in to a piece of potential research, which crystallised my area of exploration. The person that the proposal was written for, did not understand, how many fine art artists find disability and nudity challenging, two other people were enthused and one person felt really uncomfortable even reading my idea. I am really fascinated how people have multiple reactions to disability, movement and nudity, as well as finding these reactions are, often counterintuitive and this is what I plan to examine in my thesis.”

It was an honour to work with Kevin and I personally adore the photographs we created. I think many of these photographs would be beautiful printed as large gallery images and I will look at exhibiting the images from this project around Devon and Cornwall in the future. 

We hope you enjoy looking through the images as much as we enjoyed taking them, please do leave a comment on the blog post below and tell us what you think.

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Photography Training for Marketeers, Employees and Business Owners.

Learn how to take high quality photographs to represent your business on Instagram, Facebook, your website and other social media platforms. We can consider any of the following topics to assure the best and most appropriate photographic content is produced for your company:

• Understanding light, sources and how to modify light
• How to use your camera in and out of the studio
• How to embed keywords in to your images for higher SEO rankings
• How to photograph members of staff and lifestyle images
• The basic principles of photography
• How to use appropriate lighting equipment
• How to gain consistent photographs for multiple images i.e. catalogue images/product photography
• How to tell your company’s story through photography
• How to work with colour schemes for visually attractive profiles that fit your brand
• How to set up a scene for effective photographs
• How to work with and source models (if needed)
• What equipment is appropriate to you and what not to use
• How to set up a studio within your workspace
• Equipment list – what you need to fulfil your requirements
• Image analysis for improvement and recreation
• and more.

Each session is 3 hours, you will receive worksheets to reinforce your learning and we will learn at your pace. This session is taught as a one to one session but can be modified for a group if you have multiple employees who would like to attend also.

We usually do this over three sessions:

1 How to use your camera
2 How to light your product and shoot in the studio or on location for best quality images
3 How to edit your images and best workflow for file storage with SEO and sizing considerations

Each session fee is £139 for one attendee at my studio in Honiton or £169 plus fuel for one attendee at your workspace, each additional attendee is charged half the session fee to attend.

Sessions include all pre-planning, worksheets, the session itself and a free membership account on my site www.photogemic.co.uk where resources and any video files are uploaded. Fuel costs may be incurred depending on your location.

Please get in touch through the enquiry form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Some example Instagram accounts from previous training clients and a couple of screen shots from our own account:

Enquire about the Photography Training for Marketeers, Employees and Business Owners Tuition Session

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Street Photography 1-2-1 Tuition Session

Enquire about the Street Photography Tuition Session

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Portfolio Review Session

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Branding For Photographers

Enquire about the Branding for Photographers 1-2-1 Session

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