This summer I had the privilege of being directly contacted by a keen photography enthusiast with the opportunity to tutor her in the subject. I was flattered that she had approached me after seeing my work displayed in a recent exhibition and looking at my Instagram page. I had never considered the idea of tutoring but thought that this would give me the chance to see if I liked it and challenge me to pass my knowledge of the art form on to a beginner learner.
After a variety of messages, emails and meet-ups with my soon-to-be tutee, Lisa, I was able to establish what skills she already had and what she wanted to improve on. Additionally, she was able to understand what I was capable of teaching and what I could offer in the sessions. I decided to arrange four hours of tutoring time, over the course of three sessions, leaving her time in-between them to practice if she wanted to.
Lisa’s main interest was in nature photography, focusing on colours and textures and getting to grips with using manual mode on a DSLR. A lot of what she was wanting to improve on was technical based, although I also planned to bring some brief photography theory into the tutoring so she was also exposed to this aspect of the art.
I decided to structure the sessions by explaining in the first half an hour or so what we will be doing and how to consider it and then in the second half of the lesson we would go to a location to execute and practice it. Lisa was fond of this idea and in the end it seemed to work out really effectively for both of us. We both had a DSLR to photograph with in the sessions and I also would always bring one of my exemplary sketchbooks from my university course and a photography theory book to help explain and teach.
After taking into account Lisa’s desired skills to improve, in brief, below details what each session entailed:
1. Starting with the basics. The first session was to figure out what she already knew about how to work a DSLR and how much of manual mode/manual focus she understood how to operate. I explained to her the key aspects to consider when taking a photograph: the ISO, the shutter speed, the white balance, the aperture number and considering the depth of field and composition. We then went out to photograph taking into account what had been taught.
2. Focusing on the available light source. The second session focused on using the available light source effectively when shooting outside to photograph the subject(s). This involved thinking creatively about how to consider using the light to make the most of contrasting shadows and colours to make a visually impactful photograph. How the subject(s) is framed to communicate the concept was also thought about as this was the beginning of introducing conceptual and theoretical photography when photographing and not just considering the technical aspects or ‘how to make a nice photograph’. After the discussion we then went out to photograph together again, comparing each other’s as we did and discussing what worked and did not about them.
3. Learning how to create a narrative. The final session had the aim of teaching Lisa how to create a series of images with a concept or purpose to make a narrative or body of work. I took her to the local canal where I had created my series that she had seen exhibited, as this was a simple way of being able to teach her how I developed my concept and how she could do the same – even if it is as simple as documenting a journey. I also used this opportunity to explain to her Henri Cartier-Bresson’s theory of “The Decisive Moment”, as it worked to help her understand the ideology of slowing down the process of snapping a photograph and how sometimes the perfect moment has to be waited upon before being captured. When we were photographing together, I was also explaining the different genres and forms of how photography can be used to communicate a concept to help Lisa begin to consider appropriate contexts for her work if she ever wanted to distribute her photography.
Here are some examples of the photographs Lisa took during the sessions:
Lisa was an absolute pleasure to teach and I thoroughly enjoyed the tutoring and would definitely do it again. I found it very challenging but also satisfying to be able to teach others and see them improve how they wanted to over time. I feel that it was a beneficial experience for the both of us.
Below is a testimonial from Lisa herself about my tuition:
“I undertook photography tuition both practical and theoretical from Holly in 2018. I found her very sociable, friendly and knowledgeable. She explained things in a way that made it easy to understand, even more complicated subjects. We also took photos together and I feel like I improved greatly under her guidance.”
You can follow Lisa’s photography account on Instagram at: @1111xphotos
Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in photography tutoring!