Digital camera courses, Sheffield and Saudi Arabia – the connection.

Last weekend, that connection was a little cottage at 1000 feet above sea level in the Derbyshire Peak District. This was the first digital camera course that Peak Digital Training was holding at our new location (see Peak District Photography Workshops – idyllic new location for details), and a very international affair it was too. One of our participants lives in Sheffield and South Africa, while the other currently lives in London, but is originally from Saudi Arabia (and has also spent several years studying in the US). We had plenty to chat about during the day apart from digital photography!

A photographer standing on a drystone wall on a digital camera course in the Derbyshire Peak District
For Mohammed, a thousand feet above sea level still wasn’t quite high enough. Photo © Chris James.

As neither of them had been to this location before (Mohammed was on his first trip to the Peak District), the day started off with brewing some fresh coffee, followed by a leisurely exploration of the site with mugs in hand to assess the photography opportunities – including some of the rare mountain pansies which are, unusually, still out. None of our photography workshops is complete without some mountain pansies! Then it was back into the cottage to go through some camera settings on their digital SLRs, and while we were doing that, we suddenly found some faces peering in through the window at us. Attracted perhaps by the smell of the coffee, some walkers had mistaken it for a teashop! Outside to start taking photos again, Judy was enjoying experimenting with her macro lens, while Mohammed practised his exposure and tripod techniques.

Beer glasses taken at full aperture on a digital camera course in the Derbyshire Peak Dsitrict
Our empty beer glasses after lunch. Photograph taken at full aperture by Judy Kinderlerer.

It seemed no time at all until it was lunchtime, so we walked across the fields to the nearby pub, with the scurrying clouds providing plenty of photo opportunities along the way.  As we sat outside waiting for our food, we reviewed some of the morning’s photos on my laptop. After a lovely meal, we made our way back towards the cottage, taking photographs of empty beer glasses, red cottage doors, chickens, drystone walls and a herd of dairy cows along the way.

A drystone wall covered in lichen taken on a digital camera course in the Derbyshire Peak District
A lichen-covered wall we passed on the walk back to the cottage. Photo © Judy Kinderlerer.

During the afternoon, we concentrated on focussing and depth of field for landscapes, and also did some panoramic landscape photos and HDR shots. As the weather closed in a bit, we retreated into the cottage, made some tea and edited some of the day’s photos on the computers we had brought along. In what is fast becoming another feature of Peak Digital Training’s digital camera courses, we lost all sense of time and overran by nearly an hour – but nobody seemed in a hurry to leave. In fact, Mohammed was such a glutton for punishment that he booked a day’s one to one photography training with us for the following day!

The whole day was thoroughly enjoyable for all of us, with the location of the cottage being described by Mohammed as “amazing”. We will definitely be holding more of our digital camera courses there in the future. Keep an eye on our news page for details of our next digital camera course dates, or contact us to be put on our email list.