Photography Courses – Sydney

WELCOME TO MY PHOTOGRAPHY LESSONS PAGE

Do you want to learn about photography with me? Take it up as a new hobby or learn a skill that may bring you some extra income down the road.

I’ve been running private photography workshops for a few years now and I really enjoy it. I think I like teaching as much as I like taking pictures.

Workshop types:

  • Photography and camera fundamentals
  • Portrait photography
  • Landscape and night photography
  • Boudoir photography
  • Learn about light and composition
  • Flash photography with on and off-camera flash, or studio strobes

Learn the best camera settings for landscape photography, portraits or night photography. Learn from practicing professional photographer how to shoot beautiful portraits by focusing on your model and isolating it from a blurry background.

I will teach you how to take great images of your children. In my private photography courses, I will teach you how to control the Shutter Speed to take amazing images of waterfalls or fireworks or how to control your camera in Manual mode and take beautiful landscape photographs of Sydney at night.

This photography workshop is ideal for beginners who are new to digital photography and for the enthusiast who’d like to take their photography to the next level. Book a photography workshop with me and I’ll help you become a better photographer.

Private photography lessons

  • Workshop duration: From 2 Hours
  • Investment: $250 for the first 2 hours (minimum)
  • $100 an hour for any additional lessons you may ever need
  • Bring another person FREE – to share the cost
  • You can book me for a couple of hours, or the whole day.

If you want me to find a model for the shoot, I’m happy to do that too. I have worked with many aspiring and professional models and I can organise someone for the workshop for a very reasonable price.

Their prices will vary, depending on the type of the shoot and experience, but as a guide, expect the following as a minimum

  • Model for portrait shoot – $30 an hour
  • Model for boudoir shoot – $80 an hour

My workshops are suitable for anyone from beginners to semi-professional photographers.

If you have an area of photography you’d like to learn or improve on, I’d be happy to show you what I know. The most popular workshops apart from the camera basics are portraits with a model. I will organise a model for the shoot and show you how I interact with them. How I direct them to achieve the portraits that I like.

My favorite photography style

I like working with people, so portraiture is my favorite type of photography, however, I’m happy to cover any type of photography and any type of camera equipment. If you’re interested in portraits, family photography, weddings or boudoir, and want me to concentrate on them, I’d be happy to do that too. That way you’ll get first-hand tips from a photographer who actually shoots those for a living.

My professional camera gear

Personally, I shoot with Canon 5Dmk3 and with Fujifilm X-T2. I shoot with their professional lenses and their flashes. I also shoot with off-camera flash equipment using strobes and radio triggers from third-party manufacturers.

I’m also familiar with practically any new camera equipment. Once you know the fundamentals of photography, it makes very little difference what tools you use to create great images. In fact, I’m not focused on the gear at all, beyond actually knowing how to operate it.

Photography is about light, composition, posing, and expressions. What you use to capture these is not really relevant. Any camera from the last 10 years is technically more advanced than those used by Cartier Bresson or Ansel Adams and their work hangs in galleries around the world. Think about it, before you fork out a few grand on this new piece of glass or flash.

If you’re interested in a workshop session with me, send me an email. Let me know what type of workshop you want to do, how many hours and whether you will need a model. And we’ll take it from there.

Do you want to become a professional photographer yourself?

If you want to take pictures as a full time or part time photographer, I’d be happy to share my knowledge and experience with you. There is a difference between watching a photography course on YouTube presented by some celebrity photographer, and talking to a regular photographer who treats photography as a job.

You can ask any tips, tricks, nuggets of wisdom. I am happy to share.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to book a photography lesson

Send me a quick email on the contact page and let me know what you’d like to learn. What are your goals in terms of photography? The type of equipment you are currently using.

Also, let me know your availability and the number of hours you’d like to book. I’ll get back to you within a day to let you know if I’m available on that day we can go ahead. 

You can use the payment page to book and pay for the number of hours you need and we’re set.

Can you teach me any type of photography?

I know just about anything there is to know about photography, but I am not an expert in every aspect and type of it. 

If you want to learn the fundamentals of photography, then any good photographer can teach you that. However, if you want to learn something specific, like product photography, then your time and money will be better spent with an expert in that field.

Our private photography workshop will be most beneficial to you if you want to learn the fundamentals, portraiture, landscape photography, lighting, and composition.

I make my living from wedding and family photography, portraits, boudoir, and events.

Can we reschedule the lesson if the weather fails us?

Absolutely. The photo workshop will be conducted outdoors so if the weather is really bad, we’ll reschedule for another day.

What to bring to the photography lesson?

  • Bring your camera, any lens you’d like to practice with.
  • Any accessory you’d like to talk about.
  • Arm yourself with as many questions as you can. I like interactive workshops and you will benefit the most from it if you get all of your specific photography questions answered.

I don’t know what to buy. Can you go shopping with me for photography gear?

I love buying photography gear. Even more so, if I do it with someone else’s money.

You can book a 2 hour session with me we’ll decide on the gear that you need and where to buy it. I don’t get a cut, like the salespeople, so you get an honest opinion on the gear that you want or should get.

I can also help you find bargains online, to save you a few dollars.

Where will the workshop take place?

I run these workshops usually in Bicentennial Park. It’s easy to get to and there is usually plenty of parking available.

If you’re planning to take public transport, we can meet anywhere around the Strathfield area.

If you have a particular request, like beach photography or learning about night photography, then we can discuss the time and location via email. There are quite a few spots to do a night photography workshop.

Are private photography courses the best way to learn photography?

There are many group lessons available and many people benefitted from them. I believe that your time will be better spent if you get the full attention of the teacher. If I have to teach a class of 10 people, I may only have a few minutes just for you.

The thing is, almost everyone in the class will have a different camera, different lenses, and most importantly different levels of knowledge. 

If you want to learn at your own pace. Learn about your own camera and lenses and learn only the things that you are really interested in, then a private photography course is your only practical option.

Can I bring a friend for free?

I don’t mind another person attending the workshop. Quite the contrary, I even encourage it. I don’t charge extra for that which means you can share the cost if you want.

Who are these photography workshops suitable for?

Most of my students are amateurs who have a big SLR camera and would like to take advantage of that gear to take better photos.

I do, however, get requests about very specific types of photography or lighting. If you already know the basics, and just want to learn more specific photography skills, I’ll be happy to customise the workshop to your needs.

Send me an email and let’s talk.

Do you teach about software to process and retouch images?

Photoshop is my best friend and I am very familiar with Adobe Lightroom as well, although I have switched to Alien Skin Exposure X4 recently.

I can definitely advise you on the best software available for processing of your shoot, organising your image collections and editing your individual pictures.

Do you give hands-on lessons in photography software?

We can organise a lesson if you really want to learn first hand how to process your images. I’m happy to show you how I use Photoshop, Lightroom, Exposure X4, and Raw FastViewer. These are the programs I use to cull, organise and edit/enhance my images for clients.

If we do a lesson in software, we may do that on skype, so that we can be both at a computer. We can discuss the details when the time comes.

More questions?

Images from and at private photography courses – Sydney

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ADDITIONAL INFO ABOUT MY PHOTOGRAPHY COURSES

The goal of my photography courses

My goal in my photography workshops is always to teach something. Private photography lessons are the best way to ensure that my students come out of the workshops knowing more than they did before.

One of the most frequent complaints I heard from my students is that when they attended a large group photography workshop they learned absolutely nothing and just got even more confused than they were before. In my private photography lessons, I can go as slow or fast as necessary to deliver knowledge my students can digest and understand. I don’t need to stick to a particular curriculum, I don’t need to rush through my material. I’d rather my students learned and understood a few great new things about photography than being introduced to 20 new concepts, and understanding none of them.

I would never promise anyone that I can teach them photography is a few hours. Having been a student of this art form for the last 25 years I still learn something new and exciting almost every day.

My goal is to de-mystify the process of taking pictures. To show and explain in simple words what it takes to make an image, and to prove that technically speaking there is really nothing to it. By removing the mystery from the process of taking a picture we open ourselves to infinite possibilities of creative expression.

Photography is NOT about the camera

My workshops are never about what camera brand to use, what gear to buy or upgrade. I do my best to persuade my students not to worry too much about the gear, be happy with the camera they have and just concentrate on the art. There are always some photographers who still insist that if only they had better and more expensive lens their photography would improve. In this case, I always suggest buying the best and most expensive lens there is. Once they are in possession of something that cannot be surpassed, they may stop blaming the gear and actually learn how to take pictures.

My message to those obsessed with getting new, better or shinier gear is this: Just about any camera manufactured in the last couple of years will be better than anything Henri Cartier-Bresson or Ansel Adams had access to 60 years ago. When they start taking their pictures off the walls of museums and art galleries to make room for your pictures, then you may have exhausted the capability of your camera, and maybe it’s time to upgrade.

I don’t want to suggest that gear has no impact on the quality of produced images, but it’s certainly not the most important factor. If during my photography workshop I notice that my student wants to re-create an image they saw on the internet and their camera or lens is not capable of it, I will suggest an upgrade.

In most cases, it will be someone who wants to take a picture of their children with a nice blurry background. Kit lenses that most cameras come with are not capable of a great portrait. I will then suggest investing in a prime lens with longer focal length and aperture of about f1.8. My suggestion, however, will not cost them thousands of dollars, maybe hundreds, and often just dozens of dollars if they are adventurous enough to get and use some of the great old manual lenses on eBay.

My private photography courses and workshops are meant to teach you becoming a better photographer, using the gear you already have. I am always open to questions and happy to explain in detail any concept that you are struggling with. In a photography workshop environment you will be able to not just hear the answer, but also see how to solve the problem and that will make it so much easier to understand.

If you decide to do a private photography workshop, I am pretty sure you will come out a better photographer. I will teach you how to control your camera, explain how to decide on your aperture value, shutter speed, and Iso, but most importantly, how to use your camera as a tool to achieve what is the real goal of every photographer – great images.

Advanced photography courses

If you take one of my advanced classes I will also teach you “how to see”. Don’t laugh. Our brains are conditioned to skip over most of what we see and only just notice things that practically scream at us. A photographer will notice infinitely more details in a frame than an average person. We actually have to force ourselves to notice things. Little things sometimes that often give us so much pleasure to observe.

I will also make you obsessed about light, not about gear. If you learn to see the light, photographically, you will be better than most photographers, even the professionals. With our obsessions about gear, we forgot what photography actually is. It literally means “painting with light”. Come to my photography workshops in Sydney and let’s start painting.

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