Another happy customer:

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Work Experience

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A had something of an unusual week last month in that I had a work-experience student with me.  Alana was a friend-of-a-friend that I’d met when I shot a wedding earlier in the year and as she was studying A-level photography she’d asked if there was any possibility of spending some time with me to see how a ‘pro’ did things.

We had some pretty gnarly weather to contend with but still managed to fill our week with tutorials and workshop style shoots.  Alana is a natural with a good eye and clearly very interested in photography so it was an interesting week for me too and a lot of fun.

Here’s what she had to say about her week with me:

“Spent an absolutely amazing work experience with Rich, we spent the week covering as many elements of photography as we could – despite the awful weather of this years so called summer .

This week taught me more of the practical and technical side of photography, than my whole first year at A-level. If you’re passionate about photography and wish to develop them further Rich is an awesome teacher and has really inspired me to try out new ideas.He explains things in great detail as well as giving you visual examples to help your understanding.

The week allowed me to practice my photography skills and in a variety of different settings and types of photography.

I got some amazing results from some street photography around Bristol , natural portrait shoot, Bristol zoo , and some black and white shots of the old severn bridge. I also learnt various editing skills in different software packages so as i could improve my photos after I had taken them.

To anyone who would love to progress their skills with amazing photographic settings and opportunities I really recommend booking up some lessons with Rich. I guarantee you will see a massive difference in your abilities.”

Can’t say fairer than that can I.  Thanks!

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I’ll add a small gallery of some of Alana’s images to this post soon!

The Severn Bridge by Mike Lowe

Another happy customer..

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Had a nice email from one of my recent training clients Mike earlier today which included a very kind testimonial about his training day with me last month. Here’s what he had to say..

[frame_right src=”http://www.richardolpin.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/MikeLowe-0578-200×300.jpg” href=”http://www.richardolpin.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/MikeLowe-0578.jpg” rel=’gallery’]Mike Lowe[/frame_right]
[quote]Thanks for the one-to-one training that we did. Although I’ve been around photography a while I decided to do a one-to-one training session after recently purchasing my first DSLR.

I really enjoyed the training I received. Crucially you listened to me and understood my experience and aspirations immediately and then tailored the training toward that. I can’t express how important that was in making me feel valued and that I’m getting the most out of the training. Your passion about photography energised me throughout the day and still does now.

You clearly showed me technical aspects of photography and my camera in a way that I would understand. You also set me fun and challenging exercises to enhance the things you were teaching me.

I think we went over our agreed end time while you continued to show me some post processing techniques. I came away from our training with greater understanding, creatively inspired and proud of the shots I took. So much so that a couple of weeks later when walking to work I saw a scene on Bristol docs that to me begged to me shot. But I didn’t have my camera on me all I had was my phone. I had you words echoing in my ears ‘sometimes you don’t have time to set up you just got to get the shot with what you got’. Previously I would have walked on by, but this time without any prep I took several shots on my phone. Now, although they didn’t come out fantastic they caught the mood of the moment that I was looking for and a few days later my photograph was published as Picture of The day in the local paper. I’m a published photographer! LOL

– Thanks Richard!
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Practice Makes Perfect…

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For me, one of the most satisfying aspects of being a teacher is when I see a student making real progress. That’s why it’s especially nice when I get repeat bookings for training as then I can see how they are putting their new skills into practice and then help to take them futher forward still.

[frame_right src=”http://www.richardolpin.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/GayGilmourTrainingDay-0262-240×300.jpg” href=”http://www.richardolpin.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/GayGilmourTrainingDay-0262.jpg” rel=’gallery’]Gay Gilmour[/frame_right]I had a great day out today with one of my regular students, the very lovely Gay Gilmour who’s making excellent progress over the past month or so.

As she’s been out with me a couple of times recently I thought I’d step it up a notch or two today and put her in a rather more challenging setting to get her out of her comfort zone a little. Suffice to say she more than rose to the challenge and came back with a super set of photos. Well over 50 really good shots a dozen or more that would look great in a portfolio.

At the rate she’s going we’ll get her up to Royal Society standard soon (shh.. don’t tell her I said that, it’s a SECRET ;-)

Here’s a small selection of Gay’s shots from today..

[button size=”small” href=”http://www.richardolpin.co.uk/training/gaygilmour/” bg_color=”#aaaaaa” text_color=”#ffffff”]Gay Gilmour’s Training Gallery[/button]

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