'People and Places' course at West Dean - the last entry

Back in the Summer I attended an excellent photography course at West Dean College in Sussex - People and Places with Jacqui Hurst. It now seems like a long time ago, so I ought to wrap it up with one last and very overdue entry. The two previous posts realting to this course can be found by clicking on these links - Glorious Goodwood and Littlehampton Seafront.

I have mentioned it before but at the beginning of the course all the participants were asked what they wanted to get out of the week. My reply was quite simply to see in 'black and white' and to produce a selection of images all in monochrome. I was certainly true to my word as the images below and on the two previous posts will testify.

Since the course I have almost exclusively shot black and white. My starting point is to shoot in RAW and then convert to Black and White. I did go through a short period when I set the camera to shoot RAW and a B&W jpeg, but this just filled up space on my hard drive. There were more photos to sort and delete, which I am not that good at doing in the first place.

If the shot is poorly composed, not a good subject or the lighting is poor.....I could go on; then whether or not it's in colour or black and white is not going to make that much difference. In my view I should still be htting the delete key and only processing something which is really worth the time and effort of looking at a computer screen.

I did not take my DSLR on the course, so all the photographs were taken using the Olympus OMD EM5 and a variety of prime lenses. Although I had only purchased the camera a week or two before the course, by the end of the week I was reasonably familiar with its functions and menu systems. Some reviews have said the menu system is quite complicated and not that intuitive. I cant agree, with a little time the camera settings can readily be changed to whatever suits your style.

The trombone clown
Olympus OMD EM5 12-50mm @ 26mm f5.2 1/160 ISO 1600

The gardener and the wheelbarrow
Olympus OMD EM5 45mm f10 1/400 ISO 200

 

In conversation? Jacqui Hurst, our tutor and a glass etching
Olympus OMD 45mm f4 1/200 ISO 200

Eyelashes
Olympus OMD EM5 145mm f2 1/1250 ISO 320

In profile
Olympus OMD EM5 45mm f4 1/160 ISO 200

Looking out
Olympus OMD EM5 20mm f2.2 1/50 ISO 200

Delicate hands
Olympus OMD EM5 45mm f2.2 1/320 ISO 800

Glasshouse winding mechanism
Olympus OMD EM5 20mm f4.5 1/3200 ISO 200

Inside the potting shed
Olympus OMD EM5 12mm f3.2 1/15 ISO 400