Sensor Cleaning for Training Clients

I’ve had a couple of comments from recent clients who’ve discovered the scourge of the Digital SLR, dust on the sensor. This can manifest itself as dark splodges on your images, and will be particularly noticeable on smaller apertures.

Here’s an example of a blank image (just a piece of paper up against the window):
SensorCleaning-2317
(It’s on flickr so click to biggify!)

Pretty grim eh? Imagine all the spotting and cloning you’d be doing in Photoshop if all your images were overlaid with that?
I realise that for many people the thought of cleaning the sensor in a thousand pounds worth of SLR can be rather daunting but it’s really not as scary as you might think as long as you’re careful.

Sensor Cleaning – £25

If you’re not confident in cleaning the sensor yourself then you’ll find most camera shops will offer it as a service in store, or now as an added service for my training clients I’ll clean your sensor for you on your training day for the discounted price of £25 (normally £40).. If you’re interested, please let me know in advance so I can ensure I have the right size swabs for your camera.

Here’s an ‘after’ shot..

SensorCleaning-2499

If you’re interested, the system I use is made by Photographic Solutions. I use their Sensor Swabs and their ‘Eclipse’ soution. It pretty expensive as the swabs are single-use only but if you’re serious about keeping your sensor clean it’s a first class product.

I also have the option available for a full optics clean of your lenses too, where I’ll clean/degrease all the external elements of your lenses using professional cleaning solutions and special non-abrasive wipes. For a full optics clean, up to 5 lenses it’s just £25 (client price only), or if I do it at the same time as your sensor the full service is just £40.

Paris in the Summertime…

I spent the last week in August in the beautiful city of Paris, where I was very busy with some interesting photographic projects!

The main purpose of the trip was to visit my friend Ian who lives there and to help him run a workshop on portrait photography. One of his specialties is engagement/celebration shoots for couples. They’re mostly visiting tourists who want a tour of Paris to see some of the most picturesque parts of the city and obviously to get some memorable photos of them along the way. Ian had a couple of shoots planned while I was there, so I was happy to tag along and help out..

Here’s one of Anna and Larry:



The workshop itself went really well, with four photographers attending, Beata and Kasia were two Polish girls from Hull, my friend Gareth came down from Dundee and then the very talented Buffy who’d flown in from the United States. We had two excellent models for the day, Kevin and Céline who were very professional and an absolute pleasure to work with.







Hopefully Ian will be running a similar workshop next year, so watch this space for news of that and a potential Parisian photographic trip I’ll be organising in the springtime too.

The Severn Bridge by Mike Lowe

Another happy customer..

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!
[/quote]

Practice Makes Perfect…

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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Training Update..

Just a quick update for those not on the mailing list.. (by the way, if you’re not, and you’d like me to add you, please just drop me a note using the contact page)

One-to-One Training

Wow, July was a busy month of training! I had at least a couple of students every week, including both new clients and some who were returning for some additional training.  It’s always nice when I get to see people for a repeat visit, especially to see how far they’ve progressed.  If you are one of my previous students then do please keep in touch and let me see some of your photos as I love to see how you’re getting on!

I had a suggestion from one student that it might be nice to see some of the others photos, and as we’d been to the same locations with a few different people it was nice to compare results. Click here for a few from the past week or two..

Availability

Getting pretty busy through August so if you’re interested in any training, please get in touch ASAP to compare diaries. Weekends are always the first to book up of course and at the moment the only slots available are 6/7th and 20/21st.  Weekdays are still pretty flexible at the moment through until the 21st, but after that I’ll be in Paris for a workshop until the end of the month.

July Special Offer – Last Few Days!

Don’t forget – if you want to take advantage of the July special offer for mid-week training at a reduced rate you’ll need to book your training by the end of the month, Sunday 31st. I’ll hold the offer open for training dates through August too, providing the booking is made this week, after that it’s back to normal prices from next monday..

August Special Offer

August Special Offer – Bring a friend for half price!

Book a training session between now and the end of August and you can bring a friend for half price. Book before the end of July and I’ll even let you combine that with the mid-week offer. I must be mad!

Recent Pics

Here’s a quick snap from a nice walkabout I had in Bath a couple of weeks ago.  Had a great afternoon there with Hannah and Tom.

Bath in Black and White

You can see a few of my snaps from the day in this flickr set.

A busy week of training..

Over the past week I’ve had three new clients for my one-to-one training days, and what a cracking week we had with all three of them taking their photography forwards in leaps and bounds.

I’ll put up a gallery of some of the students work soon, but in the meantime here are a couple of the comments they said afterwards:

[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]
[quote]Hi Richard, I had a really inspiring educational day out and about with you yesterday. It has boosted my photographic confidence, taught me a lot and I can’t wait to continue further. Thanks for all your expertise, encouragement and patience[/quote]


[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… I really had a great time, learnt alot and hopefully with practice the things I learned will become second nature.[/quote]


I’ve got several more clients lined up for the next few weeks but still have a few slots available. If you’re interested please take a look on the training pages and get in touch asap!

Look what the postie brought..

Book - Understanding Exposure

My first book - "Understanding Exposure"

Yes, I know it’s only the draft version and still very much a work-in-progress but it’s still great to see it in print.

Needs a bit more work yet as there are still a few errors in the text and I need to sort some more photos and make some illustrations for some sections but I though I’d get a few copies printed for my current training clients and to have one to scribble my notes and corrections into just like a proper author.

Really quite inspired by actually holding this in my hands. This is definitely the first of many books to come!

Watch this space..

Training Courses – Update..

I’m getting very busy with training requests at the moment so first item on the agenda is availability.

Weekends

For weekends through July I now only have four days available:
Sunday 3rd,
Sat 23rd
30/31st
If you’re interested in booking a training day please get in touch ASAP!

Midweek Training

With the weekends being super busy I’m trying to shift some of those bookings to week days.

So, through July 2011 I’ve got a special offer on my one-to-one training days. If you book a mid-week session (mon-fri) before the end of July you can get £25 discount on the full day rate, which means you can get a whole day for just £150. These are filling up quickly so please get in touch ASAP if you’re interested.

Bookings

As I’ve been messed around a little recently with last minute cancellations etc. I’m going to have to introduce a couple of conditions on workshops and one-to-one training with immediate effect:

  • Payment will be due in advance, with a completed booking form to secure your place.
  • Cancellations made more than 28 days in advance will incur a cancellation fee of £25
  • Cancellations made with less than 28 days notice will forfeit any fees paid.
  • We will only reschedule due to inclement weather if this has been agreed in advance.
  • If you need to reschedule due to illness or circumstances beyond your control you will not be penalised providing the course is re-scheduled within 28 days of the original date.

Payments

Advance payments can be made by cheque, bank transfer or paypal.

We will be adding a payment page to the site very soon to handle paypal payments for courses, books etc.

Getting busy…

I’ve had quite a few requests for individual training days coming in recently so my calendar is filling up quite fast for the next couple of months! Midweek slots are still looking pretty good but the weekends in July and August are filling up quite quickly so if you are interested in booking a day do please get in touch ASAP.

To encourage the mid-week slots through the summer I’m going to extend an offer through July and August. if you book a full day’s training midweek I’ll discount it by £25, so you can book a whole day for just £150. Strictly for bookings in July/August only.

Coming soon to a bookstore near you..

As I’m getting quite a few bookings now for my one-to-one training days I thought I’d upgrade the notes I’m giving to my students and get them bound up into a proper book.

That idea soon expanded and I realised I’m going to make a series of them!

Here then, is the first of many I’m planning to release over the next few months.

In truth it’s not quite finished yet, but i did order a few copies today of my current work-in-progress as I’ve got a couple of clients on Saturday for one-to-one training so I thought that rather than giving them tatty single sheets I’d give them the current version of the book instead.

Give it a few weeks and I’ll have a much better version ready for a proper release so watch this space!