Listen to teacher....

The last-minute gift for the snapper in your life?
A session (or two) on my laid-back Shoot 'n Tutor Photography sessions...of course! 35 quid a pop and ideal for the digital camera owner who erm, wants to be able to use it !

My own initial 'lessons' consisted of reading every damned photography book in Eccles Library, then enrolling on a night-school course in 1977. The teacher, good old Phil Lingard..where are you, Phil?..had just graduated in photography (Fine-Arts, methinks), and the poor bugger didn't have the foggiest idea how to impart his knowledge to us raw recruits! I remember he stuck a light in front of a model one night, and left us to our own devices. (Actually, she was lovely..we had a blast!) Another night we hit Manchester for an evening of low-light photography and we all nearly froze to death looking for defining shots of the city in the winter (Rings a bell !)

If you want to go that step further in photography, though, it takes a lot more than knowing your f-stops from your focal lengths. I actually didn't get on the NUJ Press Photography course when I was 17 because one of my O levels was not of a high-enough grade. I promptly went out, starting shooting news pictures and got a job with the first newspaper I applied to! I perversely loved it one time when I failed to clinch a Wedding booking because the Bride's mother asked me what qualifications I had. "None" I replied..."Just 32 years experience as a Photographer!"