Photography Students Photo…..

I asked Nicola if she would be able to chat about her wonderful photograph below for our college news blog. Nicola is currently studying the Photography Diploma Course (D10) with Rona Cox and is enjoying every minute. I hope you enjoy Nicola’s post below.

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Hello everyone,

My name is Nicola Cooper and I am taking the photography diploma with tutor Rona Cox.
My husband noted that I had been a little glum of late….I had moved to West Wales, away from family and friends and I have just given birth to two little twins so I was exhausted. He wanted to give me something to get excited about and he noticed that I had quite a knack of taking good shots with my mobile phone – so he kindly bought me a DSLR. As soon as I had the camera in my hands I knew this was for me – however, I had never held a real camera before, and I was dumbfounded by all the buttons. Thankfully, digital cameras these days are so easy to use and with the help of Rona and the course material, I slowly started getting my head around creative settings. It must have been fate or something, because just as he bought me the camera the course at LAC was introduced !! spooky !

The picture featured on this blog was taken this morning on a walk with my family. One of the most wonderful things about living in West Wales, is that I am never short of material! There was an adorable little cottage along the side of a dirt track and although it was rather unkempt, it had some wonderful little flowers in the garden. I used my birthday lens to take the shot, the lighting was good, so all I needed to do was to decided on what creative look I wanted to achieve and to set the camera accordingly. My birthday lens is a NIKON portrait lens so it can achieve amazing shallow field. It didn’t want it totally blurry, there needed to be some depth, so I set my aperture fairly wide. By having a wide aperture I was able to create this lovely soft effect which I believe compliments the gentle fragility of the flowers. I was careful to frame the shot well and I had to keep a steady hand……one things I have noticed, is that when I use wide apertures, the camera will pick up movement. Ideally I should have used a tripod, but I think we had walked 4 miles or so, so there was no way I was going back.

I was really pleased with the result, its so encouraging when you finally “nail it”. I am my own worst critic, (as I am certain many of you will relate to that !!), but FINALLY, I had a shot that I felt didn’t need cropping or retouching. YIPPEE.

The wonderful thing about photography is that it can be so spontaneous – you see something, the light is perfect and SNAP, there it goes. A moment in time, never to be recreated. In my opinion, it just doesn’t get any better then that !!!!

Nicola Cooper – Photography Diploma Course (D10)