We had 12 pupils in our group and the knowledge and experience varied across the group for the student with a simple camera to a student with a Nikon D300 camera with 3 different lens. This range was a benefit because I believe all the students gained something from the experience, the student with the fantastic camera who was envied by the others, was suddenly appreciated for his love of photography.
Although initially, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy teaching school students about photography, I found it interesting and challenging and most importantly rewarding. It also affirmed just how much about photography I did know.
The only downside is that due to not having permission from the parents to photograph the students, I only have my memories of the day and not photographic evidence of the students enjoying the session.
The second workshop was at Cymru in Llandudno, with a group of 6 students from Year 12. Sue McGrane and I were undertaking this Photography Session (photographs are courtesy of Sue McGrane). We had the same group of students for two hours in the morning and again for two hours in the afternoon. So we had to prepare for four hours of Photography instructions with the same group of students. We used the worksheets that Sue had prepared for the last one which explained some of the basic photography jargon like ISO and exposure rates, and had prepared some photographic challenges for the students to do too.Although I was slightly apprehensive about facing the students without Colin (as I still felt like Sue and I were just students too) I was aware that the session I had done with Colin had equipped me well and had proved just how much about photography I really did know.
Our group of six seemed enthusiastic to learn more about photography and were soon listening intently but asking questions as we went through the basics. Most of the students had brought their own cameras and as in the previous workshop this covered SLR’s to compact flashes.
One of the practical demonstrations we did with the students was the practical use of shutter speed, sadly Sue made me jump up and down, so she could capture me in mid-flight much to the students enjoyment. Next time I am going to get her to jump!!!
With our students working in groups we covered various aspects of photography from panning shots to locked off to zoom bursting. One of the challenges we set them was to take a group photograph with one person appearing twice, after slight confusion and some gentle coaching they soon caught on, but just in fairness the photographer student was not allowed to tell the others, till everyone had a turn at being the photographer. The feedback we got verbally from the students as we progressed through the day was that they really appreciated the practical knowledge we were imparting and were enthusiastic to learn more (they had even come back from lunch early to squeeze extra time out of us). We were fortunate with the weather in March that we were able to take the students outside in the afternoon to show how natural light affected the photography process, then returned to the much warmer indoors for a Q&A session were we went through various aspects of Photography from the use of lights to composing a shot, to filming live action.
It was really surprising how quickly the time with our students flew, once again I had thoroughly enjoyed sharing my love of photography and seeing the enjoyment on the student faces as they learnt a camera can easily be used even when the automatic settings is switched off. It was an opportunity I hadn’t expected to represent Glyndwr University, and to teach on photography but it is one that I will treasure and has given me food for thought for the future.
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