A Spontaneous Adventure to Learn Photography..! (and the Power of Networking)

A portrait style photo of me. Sparkly navy jacket.

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The power of networking has changed my life over the last few years. It was spontaneous in the sense of “What are you doing this Saturday?” on Wednesday, and I happened to be available so I seized the opportunity. I’ve never done a photography workshop before, and when networking pal Vicky put a post up the previous Saturday about the opportunity I thought why not. I fancied learning something new again!

Off I went in the middle of a storm to Trinity Square in Llandudno, where Welshot Photographic Academy are situated. There was a room set up with various backdrops for us to try.

I only had my phone so it was nice that I was offered a “proper” camera for the day! (With the opportunity to keep the memory card at the end of the day)

I spent the morning with a plain white backdrop, taking shots of all my Tropic festive sets that I had. Gaining ideas for what I could do at home. (I remembered about the flatlays that I’d bought in lockdown too!)

The softening Foot Spa set against a plain white background. Focus was on bringing light and minimal shadows.

Spiced Citrus and Clove set, set against a plain white background

We tried different lighting angles, using natural light and a thing that looked like an iPad on a stand but was actually an LED panel which you could adjust the levels of.

Just before lunch I also took some shots of my book too, using the coffee table, some flatlays and some potted grass!

My book on a flatlay which is whitewash at the top, fading into a dark grey.

My book imposed on a white marble effect flatlay

and some of a selection of my notebooks too…

A selection of my self published notebooks imposed on the white to dark grey flatlay

My music practice book imposed on the white to dark grey flatlay

Time for lunch, I’d been organised and packed my own lunch, but everyone else got chippy! (It smelled amazing, but I didn’t give in to temptation less a sneaky chocolate bar from across the road…!)

After lunch it was back to the camera. We swapped locations so I moved to the “cloudy” backdrop to experiment.
I tried various filters just for fun:

Messing about with filters and my book 1 (The pink one)

Messing around with filters and my book 2

Eifion suggested that maybe I could put my book next to a prop to give it more context. I’d brought my Switch 2 console along, so that fitted perfectly!

A shot of my book, bookmark and switch 2 console against the cloud backdrop, showing Mario Kart World.

A shot of my book, bookmark and switch 2 console against the cloud backdrop, showing a scene "Quest Complete" on Fantasy Life i

Then towards the end, Lee came in and set me a challenge to make some pictures that I could use for social media stories on my phone… She said ” a dozen” then changed it to 14… but I lost track at 12, so finished there!

Here’s some of my favourites, and if you like the look of any of them, you can head over to my shop here!

Close up of the Softening Foot Spa collection.

The session finished with a mini headshot shoot for me, I’d brought my sparkly jacket for that, and happened to be wearing the same outfit that I wore for my mini photoshoot last November!

3/4 length photo of me smiling at the camera

Overall it was a fun day and I learnt lots of things. There’s room for improvement but it takes practice, and I’m inspired enough to want to get myself a proper camera again, but maybe that’s my project for next year 😉

Thanks to Lee and Eifion for an awesome day!

I’d have never known they existed without the power of networking, so thanks to Vicky for showing me the opportunity too!

Check out their website here