Digital Photography, Tuition and Articles

Photography Tuition  Where?  Photo Galleries  Tutorials  Articles  Our Digital World  Photo Comp

Welcome to my website.

I am an independent digital photography tutor offering one-to-one training throughout Greater Manchester and Cheshire. I also write tutorials and articles, and sell prints of my images.

Digital Photography

Photography can be different things to different people:

Holiday or party snaps, and family memorabilia; illustration, media and journalism; or a compelling activity and art form. For me personally, it's very much the latter.

I'm inspired mostly by landscape, objective abstract and architecture; and whilst I can appreciate other artistic genres, I'm totally disinterested in studio, events and other such matter-of-fact photography.

For me, photography is observational and creative art - like painting, but with different tools.

Photography Tuition

I give one-to-one tuition in digital photography; from operating your camera, transferring files to your computer and sharing with your friends; through to more advanced photography, manual camera settings, composition, and much more.

Appointments cost from just £60 and take place at your home or office. My tuition is intuitively tailored to your requirements; you can learn at your own pace, and have all your questions answered. I don't offer expensive field trips, tours or workshops - just flexible and cost effective learning.

Visit the Photography Tuition section to read more.

Photo Galleries

I've made a start on the Photo Galleries section which has a navigation and page structure allowing you to browse images, both collectively by the geographical area in which they were taken, and individually, with larger displays at dedicated details pages.

You also have the option to buy prints, framed prints and a plethora of other finished photo products.

Tutorials

I've also made a start on the Tutorials Section and have completed the first in-depth tutorial, Digital Cameras Compared. I intend the tutorials section to become a comprehensive digital photography resource for beginners and advanced photographers alike. Future tutorials will cover manual camera settings, shooting JPEG or RAW, depth of field (DOF), and composition - fundamentally the most important aspect of photography!

Articles

The Articles section, as well as the photography related content, will include commentary covering a variety of topics ranging from current affairs to caravanning!

Where?

I am based in Irlam and cover most areas of Greater Manchester and Cheshire including Glazebury, Hollins Green, Cadishead, Irlam, Eccles, Worsley, Monton, Walkden, Swinton, Pendlebury, Salford, Trafford, Urmston, Flixton, Carrington, Stretford, Sale, Altrincham, Wythenshaw, Cheadle, Hale, Lymm, Culcheth, Warrington and Leigh.

Further afield, I also cover areas of Bolton, Bury, Heywood, Rochdale, Oldham, Aston-Under-Line, Hyde, Stockport, Wilslow, Knutsford, Northwich, Runcorn, Widness, St Helens, Newton-le-Willows, Wigan and Skelmersdale.

Our Digital World

I've been interested in photography from childhood, and before going digital, have owned a succession of cameras comprising of 35mm compacts and SLRs. I first came across the concept of a digital camera in the late 90's and was initially reluctant. Not because I was dedicated to film, but because I didn't "get" the concept of viewing photographs on a computer that, before the prolific significance of the internet, had been used only for business accounting, invoicing, graphics and word processing.

By 1999 however, I was a regular user of the internet and my laptop accompanied me everywhere. It then suddenly made sense to have my photographs on the medium I was spending my time with, rather than a folder of 7x5 prints!

Since then, I haven't ever considered returning to film.

For me, digital made total sense: I got to see my images straight away and give them critical consideration as soon as I transferred them to my laptop. Also, the exposure, focal length and other technical details are recorded in the EXIF data with the image file. And I could take as many photos as I wished - for free! As a consequence of these advantages, my photographic knowledge and ability progressed far quicker with digital than it had previously with film.

Digital photos are very versatile: You can optimise them using editing software, send them via email, display them on the internet, use them with graphics, and much more!

Of course, there have been arguments in favour of the characteristics of film, but now digital cameras have image stablisation and much better sensors, together with the versatility of shooting RAW, such intransigent fondness for film seems nothing more than nostalgia - putting it politely. 

For most of us, professional or otherwise, the practical versatility of digital photography is unequivocal.

As digital camera technology has developed (pun intended!), along with that of computers, the internet and our digital world, so has the popularity of photography!

Photo Comp & Digital Photography Enthusiast Group

Digital Photography Enthusiast is a Yahoo Group that I co-own and run in conjunction with my monthly photo competition, Photo Comp.

DPE Yahoo group was founded by Dylan Howell in 2003. I joined in August 2004, and in January 2005 added the first incarnation of a group website to extend display capability and functionality.

If you wish to take part in the competitions, you'll need to register with this site. It's also best to join DPE Yahoo Group so you can interact with the community.