Workshops & Tuition
Are you at a cross-roads with your photography? Are you thinking about becoming a professional photographer, or just want to take the quality of your imaging up a couple of notches? I run post production, 1:1 online sessions and face to face 1:1 or group photography tuition in some of the most scenic and bio-diverse locations around the UK. Numbers are strictly limited and places tend to go quickly. All of my workshops are designed for those of you who love their photography and want to improve their technique, learn new things and develop their style, or maybe just want to move away from the P button on your camera. It matters not. What really matters to me is to support you to become the photographer you aspire to be. Take a look at the rest of the page and if you'd like to participate in a workshop where you have an excellent chance of capturing similar moments in time then please get in touch - my contact details are at the foot of the page.
Please note: My terms and conditions form the basis of our joint contract. I've not just thrown them together to pay lip service to having some, instead I've put a lot of thought into meaningful, balanced and fair t&c's that benefit you the client and me the facilitator. 2018 saw a record number of people attending my workshops. Sadly it also saw an increase in people dropping out of workshops with only a week or so to go. My terms and conditions are very clear about refunds and cancellations. It's crucial you read and understand them to prevent any misunderstandings later should you feel you are unable to attend for whatever reason. I'm not an unreasonable man, and will always consider each request to cancel on a case by case basis. What I won't accept is someone saying they were unaware of my t&c's when links to them are plastered all around my site. If you don't understand any aspect of them please raise it with me prior to booking.
Thank you.
Just a few of the locations and photo opportunities at previous workshops:
Brownsea Island Workshops - Dorset
Isle of Portland Workshops - Dorset
Jurassic Coast Workshops - Dorset
Lake District Workshops - Cumbria
Grasmere, Lake District
The Pikes, Lake District
Grasmere, Lake District
Inner Farne & Lindisfarne Island Workshop - Northumbria
Workshops
As you can see from the locations above people on my workshops get to see and do some fairly amazing things. The number of participants on the courses are strictly limited to give each person as much time with me as they feel they need. That might not sound like solid business sense but believe it or not workshops for me are not an overwhelming opportunity to cram the punters in and make an easy buck. My primary interest is to provide a high quality, value for money experience that results in participants going home - which can often be as late as the sunset - with some great memories, awesome images and the confidence to know they have all the resources to improve their photography within them. Workshops are usually held in the Dorset or Cumbria area but I've been known to go to other locations when there's enough interest from people in that area so it's always worth asking me to visit where you live if the numbers are right. We generally start fairly early and finish once everyone has got all they wanted to do that day done. If sunset is only just around the corner we nearly always stay for that as the hour before and after it setting is always worth staying for. As for kit I really wouldn't worry about it. I'm more interested in your vision, how you see things. Compacts, bridge cameras, DSLR's, even mobiles these days all have the potential within them to get a decent image out of them so bring what you use and don't buy into this my kit isn't as good as your kit thing. It's meaningless for most photographic situations. That's more or less it for this page. If you want to know when the next workshop is on I'll post it on this site and my Facebook page Paul Williams Photography, or feel free to contact me via the button at the bottom of this page. Subscribers to this site will automatically be informed of courses, workshops and special offers so sign up when the thingy pops up to take advantage.
Seeing as we now live in this crazy risk-averse environment anyone applying for a place on a workshop needs to see my terms and conditions where I skilfully wriggle out of any responsibility for damage to you, your kit or anything else for that matter. Joking apart, I really do ask you to read and understand them as they contain lots of information around safety, refunds and cancellations.
Photoshop Tuition
Love it or loathe it software like Photoshop has transformed photography - some will say 'and not for the better either', but that's a debate for another day. I learnt my arcane skills in a darkroom; developing my own film and producing what I thought were amazing black and white prints from the alchemist's broth of chemicals I still can't smell without being whisked back to my hobbit-like understairs cupboard. What once took me literally all day now takes a few clicks of a mouse but that's okay; photography has always been a bit of an avant garde, out-there medium keen to embrace the chance to advance, or create the momentum to move itself forward. The well-worn discourse around digital manipulation continues to rumble on and probably always will. My own view is Photoshop exists as a tool to be used or ignored by the artist. It's not there to make a poor shot better and neither is it there for the photographer to look you in the face and swear they've not manipulated anything when in truth the image you see before you bears no resemblance to that which was shot - that's both disingenuous and devious. If you've enhanced it then be proud. Show the world how you took an image of yours and enhanced it in such a way as to make it better than the sum of its parts.
If you've got a copy of Photoshop or Elements just sat there looking balefully at you from the screen of your lappie or pc and you don't understand much of it then you're not alone. It's taken me years to get on top of probably less than 60% of the entire programme but for me it's the most important 60%; the most used, most useful part. Call me if you would like to know how I can help you take control of Photoshop or similar. It shouldn't take too long - most people only need a day with me to improve their work-flow and master the parts they want to be on top of to feel confident about using one of the most awesome software packages out there for photographers.