Saturday 9 September 2017

Workshops; Are they worth it?

On Saturday I did something I thought, I'd never do and that was to go on a street photography workshop. The reason I never thought I'd go on one is because I was never sure that I would learn anything from one.

Now there are probably hundreds if not thousands of these workshops going on, they seem to be quite popular with a lot of people running them as well as attending them.

The one I was on had twelve attendees plus two 'instructors'.  My reason for attending was that I felt my photography had stalled and I felt I needed help to move forward.
 
The workshop was centred around Soho which is an area I am quite familiar with.

We were separated into two groups to go and do some street exercises,  which was basically walking up and down Gerrard and Lisle Street (Chinatown) acting more like a tourist than a street photographer.  The exercise to me felt pretty pointless and didn't really add anything to the way I would shoot or like to shoot. 

Endless Love
Could I have captured this image without a workshop?
Answer: Yes


This went on for about an hour, and with very little feedback from the instructors after this we broke for lunch which was in Costa, with such a big group, it wasn't easy to chat to the instructors unless you were sitting close to them and they didn't seen to be talking that much anyway.

I spent more time talking to a couple of the other attendees, mainly about cameras and the different workshops they had been on, for some this was they third or four different workshop!

After lunch we moved into Trafalgar Square and was shown a few examples of abstract street photography and told to a find similar things, this time we were told to just wander around and more or less left to our own devices.

There was some kind of demonstration going on, in the top part of the square so this was easy to pick up shots around here, but again nothing that I wouldn't normally shoot on a Saturday in London. 

We were give around an hour to 'work' in the square, I shot some stuff but have to admit the square isn't one of my favourite places to shoot, its to open and as silly as it sounds, there are to many tourists.

I spent a fair bit of time talking to another attendee, who didn't think it was a good workshop, his comment was 'it was more like a sponsored photowalk'.

Red Hat
Ok; not a great image but no better or worse for being on a workshop

While walking around I did bump into one of the instructors but he didn't ask how things were going or pass on any advise on where or what to look for.

Next we move on to Soho and again there was some vague instructions about light coming into the streets and how to use it. 

Again Soho is a regular shooting area and  I know the streets well and where to look for shots and good light and again we were left to ourselves to wander around and to met up again in a hour.

So I just walked the usual route of Berwick St, Broadwick St, Carnaby St, Brewer St and Wardour St.  By now the light was starting to fade, so it was a quick trip back to Chinatown and a quick walkthrough what we had 'learnt during the day'.  

Silhouette
Not difficult when you know where to look


A few of us swapped instagram handles and there was talk of a hashtag to attach to any images uploaded but as yet, neither of the instructors have acknowledged anything I have posted.  I never had a real chance to ask any of the others what they thought of it but not sure that this is the done thing.
I tend to be quite obsessive with any thing I do, be it music, books, collecting memorabilia and will consume vast amount of information on a given subject, I can honestly say that I have learnt more watching youtube than I did on this workshop. 

Over the last few years I have put on photowalks, and have always tried to make them interesting, mainly because its something I want to do.  Usually it is just a core group of people I called friends but sometimes an acquaintance will come along and I try to help them with as much information as I can to help them enjoy a trip to London.

These are my thoughts a week after the workshop and I'm still not it 100% sure how I feel. I don't think the workshop was worth the money, there wasn't enough interaction with us (the attendees) the structure of the workshop was quite flimsy and personally I think there were to many people attending.

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