Snap happy? Yes have to admit I sort of am. Hence the gift of a photo course- Take Better Photos – travel & landscape. Well now I’ve said I attended this course, you will all be expecting professional photos. Hmmm, on that count I will probably disappoint, however I will admit to learning some pretty neat tricks on this afternoon/evening short course.

Here’s one example of my newly refined skills. Yes I know, the photo itself is somewhat boring but, this demonstrated the zoom in, zoom out on my little camera.

The beauty of the courses offered by Take Better Photos, you can go back any time you want in the next year to attend the same course with the same camera. That in itself is a bonus, the idea being if you are travelling, take a quick refresher course before you leave. Not a bad idea and good value for money.

Another advantage of these courses, you come away armed with these neat little laminated cheat cards, specifically for your camera.

Now some attending, including my daughter who took me along with her, were armed with cameras and attachments of many different lenses. Some of these cameras could almost make you a cuppa, almost. I did say almost 🙂 .

Me being the “iPhone photo opportunity snapper”, had to take a camera to this course, hence our little underwater camera. No extra lenses, it does not know how to make a cuppa- we are working on that, and the case fits in your handbag. At the end of the day, it did not matter what sort of camera you had, the course and our trainer, catered to all. A big plus.

Prior to this course, I thought you just put this camera underwater and snapped away happily hoping to get at least part of a fish in the picture!

Now I know all sorts of fabulous little tricks including how to focus on something close before taking a clear distant photo.

Clear as day graffiti – I’m on a roll here ! But seriously, after the sun set it was time to test a new skill. For these shots, we took the little torches clipped to our cheat cards and jumped around like demented idiots in front of our cameras, to take a shot of the light picture we created, without having yourself in the shot.

Pretty cool !

End result? Yes I’m happy, however my family now groan every time I whip out the camera for that one opportunist shot. I took the offer of buying the iPhone cheat cards, which I’m still working my way through, but I’m not a pro, just a snap happy amateur who is now armed with some new tips- could be dangerous!

I really would highly recommend these short courses, you will come away with some valuable tips, meet a few new faces and feel somewhat more confident when you aim the camera. As well as travel & landscape, there’s portraits and iPhone camera courses amongst others. Remember to go back in the year, always good to take a refresher.

Watch this space, you never know what photos I may be able to take now. Must admit though to still bring proud of this one….yes here we go again! This one required a trip to Vanuatu + cocktails + sunset + relaxation – work – stress (feeling pretty tipsy), + a quick snap = this photo . Best part of this photo- I actually completely missed the cruise ship I was trying to take a photo of. Now I’m armed with the new knowledge, the next one of these will include said cruise ship.

Check out these courses, thoroughly worthwhile!