On March 6th of this year I repeated an activity that gave me great artistic pleasure.
For only the second time in my life I hosted a one day workshop on photography.
It was the most creatively excited I'd been in a long time and I have both,
my class to thank as well as my friend Nell, without whom I would not have gotten this opportunity.
The first time I hosted this class my class list contained only four students, two of whom did not show up on the appointed Saturday for reasons I, now, cannot remember.
I ended up with two students who, in my opinion, I rushed through the basics of photography at a very nervous speed. I tried to make up for this by taking them outside to do some practical photography work but that soon became a moot point when it suddenly started to rain, thereby cutting our class very short.
Too bad, too, by the time we made it outside it had become quite dark and gloomy, making the clouds look a tad dramatic. It was such a lovely day. We could have done great things with that day. But, It wasn't all a total loss. I still got to shoot off a couple of really interesting shots.
My next foray into the realm of instructor was a bit more successful.
For this time around I opted to be a bit more specific in my course description.
This time I specified that I would be focusing on landscapes and nature photography.
I also mentioned that I would take them to Mount Royal Park- never mind that it was the beginning of March and that there would be snow all over the ground...
In preparing for my workshop I had an unexpected run of bad luck concerning my computer. From pretty much the beginning of February both it and my external hard drive broke down and needed to be repaired.
If that wasn't enough, I got seriously ill in the middle of the month, and was laid up for the next two weeks. The result: I had four nights to do research for the handout, get it typed out, then get it printed and stapled by that upcoming Saturday.
Did I mention that I don't have access to a printer at my house..?
My class list this time around rose from four students to ten, seven of whom showed up.
We had a really good day that Saturday. It was sunny for most of the day. Not exactly the best shooting conditions but, we made the most of it.
I made a mental note, though, that if I were to get the opportunity to do this again(and, I may in May)I would change the start time of the class from 10am- 2pm, to 1pm- 5pm, in the hopes that the lighting conditions will be of better use.
We met in front of the main Chalet in front of Beaver Lake then moved on inside to the the many rows of benches which contained storage space for the skaters ice skates. this is where we sat while I pass out my four page hand outs and commenced the class.
By ten o'clock, the mountain was beginning to get crowded. It seemed that everybody and their dogs were out that day. We walked along the main path that passed the ice rink and the lake, and continued on towards the top of the lookout. By twelve o'clock, most of the ice that had been solid in the morning were now nothing but puddles, and despite the threat of pneumonia from ice, cold, soaking wet feet we soldiered on till two and had an amazing day!
There are many reasons why I thoroughly enjoy instructing these photo workshops. One of which being the thrill of sharing my knowledge of photography, limited though it may be, with others and helping them to possibly love it as much as I do.
I hope to never stop learning how to do this better.
