I was invited to attend a Going Digital photography workshop run by Pandora Maund at Copthorne Hotel in Sheffield the first Sunday of September. I immediately was like ohmygoshyes because the one thing I really worry about on my blog is my photography and it’s something I have been trying to improve. Corinne from Skinned Cartree was going so I hitched a ride with her, as Sheffield is not exactly a walk away from Leeds.
My first impressions of Copthorne Hotel were along the lines of, wow this is nice, I bet it’s for businesses and rich people. Turns out it’s a mainly corporate hotel, but also houses the football players from next door. Did I forget to mention it’s next door to the Sheffield football stadium? Things like this slip my mind because honestly, football and me don’t mix. Sorry not sorry.
The workshop was held in one of the first floor suites, which apparently holds a lot of conferences, workshops, and on occasion an open plan bar for the football lads. We had really nice, glass bottled water on the table, and hot drinks and gorgeous chocolate chip oat cookies outside.
For the first 45 minutes of the workshop, we went through a presentation which looked at how to use the aperture to manipulate focus in a picture. I’ve got another post coming up which really goes into detail on everything I learnt so I won’t go in to it now, but I genuinely learnt a lot from the workshop, both on what buttons mean, how they work, and how I can use this to get good shots.
While I’ve always had access to my manual and the internet to be able to find this things out, Pandora’s presentation really enlightened me in how I can use my camera to the best of it’s ability in whatever circumstance I’m using it in. We had mini practise shots to try out each setting during the presentation, and then broke for lunch before trying them out.
We had lunch at the Copthorne Hotel and it was amazing. It was mini little canape nibbles, which I will definitely be taking some inspiration on if I am ever to go on Come Dine With Me (serious wish of mine). We had some fluffy, crispy chips which I am willing to bet were triple cooked, this gorgeous little toast thing with smoked salmon, crispy caramelised bacon and an egg, a mini yorkshire pudding with beef, a crudité with caramelised onion chutney, and a seeded mini pancake with pulled chicken and avocado. I am not ashamed to say I went back for seconds. For dessert, there was a choice of rhubarb creme brulee or a little cake thing. I had the creme brulee, the top was gorgeous but I can’t say rhubarb is my flavour of choice for the bottom bit!
After lunch, we went and practised what we had learnt in the Sheffield football stadium. I was seriously surprised to see how small the pitch was, it looks so long on the TV! Me and Corinne did struggle to get our blurry backgrounds in a few shots (rows of chairs can be kinda uninspiring!) but we did get the hang of it after a few trials, and it was fun to actually test what works and what doesn’t and see how playing with the settings could impact the photos.
I really enjoyed the workshop, I learnt a lot and I feel a lot more confident that I’ll be able to take decent photos, even in the terrible lighting my flat has. The hotel was lovely, the staff were really friendly and helpful and the food was delicious. This is the second event I’ve attended that’s been run by Joe Bloggers (see my first one here) and I have to say, they’re so friendly and the events are so different and I hope I get to attend many more!
You can find out more about what we learnt here and I’ll also be posting what I learnt up soon!
