Diary of Courses

Jan 11th / 12th Wedding Photography Course.

Our most popular course starts the new year, the first of many courses running this year. We have more courses planned for this year than ever before, with some weekends being included.
This course is packed with information and covers almost everything you will need to know about photographing weddings. There is plenty of hands on experience with models supplied. All the work taken during the course is copyright cleared by the models, so you can use the images as you wish.

Jan 14th / 15th / 16th SWPP International Conference Coventry.

A great weekend with the SWPP with hundreds of trade stands, seminars, lectures, awards evening. Well worth attending, if you could not make this one, then mark the next years conference in your diaries now. Its the 13th / 14th / 15th Jan 2006. Dont miss it.
We had a stand there selling the photographic courses and we were very busy, fully booking the Wedding course in February the first day. We had to include an extra date for that month.
Len was also lecturing there and gave a talk on his Victorian Portrait Competition that he has run successfully many times. The course notes are available online if you would like to know how to run this competition. To order click on the link shown here. order book

Len use to make over £50,000.00 when he ran the competition, and have over £50,000.00 of free advertising.

January 24th / 25th Portraiture Course.

Showing the basics of lighting, both indoor and outdoor. Models supplied during the two days. Marketing, and how to get started in the field of Portraiture was also covered.

January 26th / 27th Business Course.

Continuing for another two days with a business course. These courses are kept to small numbers, because of the diversity that they have to offer. On this course we covered Portraiture, Weddings, Schools and viewing styles. The course can be anything you want it to be.

February 8th / 9th Wedding Course

A busy course, with the course being full for a long time. Other courses have been added to cope with the demand. People have traveled from all over the country, York, Cardiff, London, Bridgend, and Bristol.
A cold few days for our models, and they braved the cold for us, bless their little hearts.
Everyone was on digital, as most of the courses are at the moment, with how to use fill in flash being the most popular question asked. We also photographed inside one of the churches to show the use of natural light balanced with flash.

February 10th / 11th Landscape Digital Course.

This course is showing the use of digital cameras, working with Photoshop. Time spent on location taking images and learning all about composition, aperture's and speeds. The weather was a bit poor, but that just added to the challenge. We headed for Carew Castle and photographed the castle in the rain and some of the results were stunning. It goes to show that no matter the weather you can get soem stunning landscapes. I think more was learnt on the course because the images had to be looked for.

February 19th / 20th Venice Trip

A weekend all expenses paid to photograph Venice. To see it and capture it as I see it. To view some of these images go to Venice images . These images are available to purchase, call 01437 781117 for more details..

February 22nd / 23rd Wedding Course.

This course was well attended this time we had people from New York, and South Africa.
We braved the cold weather to take some outside shots at local churches showing the lighting for both outdoor and indoors. The use of candle light was discussed and then demonstrated inside a local church. Lunch on the first day was at Beggers Reach, which is an actual reception venue. We took photograph both inside and out.

February 26th / March 2nd Focus Birmingham.

We were at Focus in Birmingham this weekend. This the the UK's biggest photography exhibition and covers two halls. It has everything you will need to want and know if you are thinking of starting up in the professional field.
We were very busy there having taken 15 bookings for our courses on the first few days.
We have added many new dates to the program for this year already. The special weekend breaks are also proving to be very popular for this year, where your partner comes free of charge.
To check out new dates go to dates for 2005

March 8th / 9th Wedding Photography Course.

A two day Wedding course, this time we have people from Ireland. Models again supplied for both outdoor and studio images.

March 15th / 16th Wedding Photography Course.

The most popular course by far, as we limit each of the courses to only 5 delegates, we add another date to cope with the demand as the courses fill up. Use of high key and low key lighting was covered indoors on the first day and outdoor lighting on the second. With the weather being bad, with wind and rain for the second, examples of how to photograph in bad weather was covered.

Len wins Landscape Photographer of the Month

Len entered the monthly competition with the SWPP and won Landscape Photographer of the month with an image he had taken in Venice. Len also won six awards during the same month. Last December Len also won the title of Landscape Photographer of the month with the SWPP. His images will appear in their monthly magazine. To see some of Lens remarkable images of Venice go to Venice images

March 17th / 18th Advanced Wedding Course.

A two day advanced wedding course, with all delegates having already attended previous wedding courses. Plenty of hands on experience, with the images being viewed by the end of the day through Photoshop, producing some stunning images.
The next day we went through a complete wedding, from the bride getting ready, groom arriving at the church with the best man, bridesmaids with the mother, bride and groom, inside the church shots, groups and going away photographs. This gave everyone a chance to get a selection of images to represent a complete wedding.

March 19th / 20th Special Weekend Break Landscape / Seascape Course.

A two day weekend course where your partner can come free of charge. These weekend courses have proved to be very busy, with this one being full for many months. We have a total of nine people of the course. We started from the basics showing how to see into an image, using digital. Each delegate had the use of a computer during the course, where they were able to monitor their results.
There were some images taken at Newgale, where the winds werereaching force 6 at times, and the wind surfers were fighting with the waves.
Over the two days some stunning images were taken, some can be seen at Ian Nicholston. Ian is one of our course lecturers.
Some of the other images taken can be seen at Landscape Course Images.

March 22nd/ 23rd Business Course.

A course designed to establish yourself within the professional field of photography. A very intensive two days, covering weddings, portraiture, schools, lighting, marketing, Internet, competitions, school photography, key words and much more. Ideal if you are thinking about getting started in the photography market, and which step to make next?
There was also some hands on experience, with school photography being discussed.

April 2nd / 3rd Wedding Course.

Course full, with a maximum of five delegates to each course we arrange further dates as soon as one fills up we arrange another date. The week ahead is busy as we have added two further courses for next week. The weather was settled with some nice sunshine today. We have one delegate traveling all the way from France to attend the course. He arrived at Heathrow at 19.00 on the Friday and hired a car to get here, now that's keen!
The course is over two days with accommodation, breakfast and lunch included. There is plenty of hands on experience given was each delegate, we even supply the cameras.

April 5th / 6th Advanced Wedding Course.

A course designed to follow on from the wedding course. We cover an actual wedding, with a list of images to take within a set time limit. We start with the house start with everyone getting ready as if on an actual wedding before moving onto the church to get the arrivals. This is the real thing, with everyone under pressure to come up with a set of images taken under difficult lighting condition. "The situation was real" explained one of the delegates. This caurse is a must for anyone wanting to get involved in photography.

April 7th / 8th Advanced Portraiture Course.

Showing use of outdoor lighting using subtractive light to obtain some stunning results. A few locations used around the coastline giving some nice backgrounds for the portraiture. Type of portraiture were discussed and how to run successful competitions.
Some hand on demonstrations showing the use of low key lighting using some young children to demonstrate how to and how not to handle young children.

April 9th / 10th Wedding Course.

Another Wedding Course to accommodate to demand, as each course is limited to a maximum of five delegates. Studio lighting was covered but showing how we can get the most from using only one light. During the pressure on an actual Wedding it is difficult to take and use more that a one light set up.
We also shown and demonstrated the use of available light indoor, covering a wedding without the use of flash photography, with some stunning results.
The shot you see on the right was taken with available light and using infra red, just some of the ideas we are covering during the wedding course, and this is the just the basic course!

April 12th / 13th. Wedding Course.

An extra date arranged to accommodate the demand for the courses. A history of Bateman Studios was first on the agenda, describing how we started and how we ran three very successful Studios in Wales covering 180 weddings a year, employing 12 staff. We had our own dark rooms where we processed our films, and printed Black & White, E6 & colour.

April 18th / 19th Video Course.

Teaching the principles of producing interesting productions as well as how to video a wedding. Camera techniques, sequences, lighting, sound, camera movements, editing, music and lots more were covered over the two days. A Love Story of a couple was also produced and shot on location at Newgale Beach. A Story Board was produced before and then directed by Kelly. The sequenses were edited afterwards and blended with music.
Some of Lens productions were shown that has won him awards, and which have also gained Fellowship with the Master Photographers Association and a Fellow with the Institute of Videographers.

April 23rd / 24th Weekend Special Landscape Course.

A weekend break where the partners come free of charge. This is proving to be very popular, and we have already added more dates for this year, as all the courses were fully booked. It turned out to be a nice weekend, with the weather improving on Sunday. It was beach weather, with one family bringing their two children with them, they headed for Broad Haven.
Each delegate had their own computer to work on and printed out some of their work to take home. The aim of the course was for each delegate to be able to see the picture through the lens as an end result.

April 25th / 26th Wedding Course.

As one course finishes another starts. This course is to teach people how to photograph a wedding professional, with some of the work being produced is of a very high standard.
Each delegate has their own computer to look at their work taken during the day.

May 10th / 11th Wedding Course

Another two day Wedding Course with has been full for quite a time now. Delegates coming from Yorkshire and London. We had Aimee as our model on both days with everyone getting carried away on the second day that they all missed their lunch! Available light was covered and the use of fill in flash was one that every one wanted explained.

May 24th / 25th Portraiture Course.

Covering high key and low key work during the first day, with a new model called Amy. It was her first time with us and the results were excellent. We covered some business, with how to get started in the professional portraiture field, showing the various aspects of portraiture. Most of the delegates were well into Photoshop and each had a different way of handling the images.
The second day we went on location to show subtractive lighting, stopping at St Brides and Milford Docks. Then over to lunch at neyland Marina.

June 6th / 7th Landscape Course.

A course designed as a one to one, covering the basics of photography. There were many tasks set during the course to complete, with plenty of hands on experience out in the field. Some of the images taken were beyond belief, as there are images all around us.

June 11th / 12th Landscape Course. Weekend Special.

A very busy weekend with the course being fully booked months ago. This is our special weekend break, where your partner comes free of charge. The weather was perfect for Landscape photography, with plenty of sunshine and patchy cloud about. Learn all the secrets that professional photographers keep to themselves. There was plenty of hands on experience, with plenty of location work with set images to take during the course.

June 14th / 15th Wedding Photography Course.

We have another full two day course, with one of the delegates, called Linder Porter who has traveled all the way from the USA just for the course. Linder is hoping to start taking pictures of weddings in the states. No one on the course has covered a wedding before, and at the end of the two days each had the confidence to cover a wedding, now thats saying something!

June 21st / 22nd Natural History Course

Weather was perfect for the course, with plenty of outside work during the two days. The first day we ran through composition and how to build up an image. Lunch was at Neyland Marina, and then a visit to the nature park. We also had a stroll around our lakes in the monring and discovered a kingfisher, a bat and baby otteres! Amazing how the wildlife has developed over a short period of time since the lakes were put in. The picture taken on the left was shot by one of our lakes..

The second day we visited Skomer Island to take images of the Puffins. The ferry "The Dale Princess" was boarded at martins haven for the short passage across to the island. On the way we saw seals in the water as we approached the landing jetty in North Haven. The Island is a paradise for wildlife with the main attraction at the moment being the Puffins.
There are feeding their young at the moment and they come within a few feet of you as they land with the ells in their mouths.

June 28th / 29th Landscape Course.

Again the weather was perfect for landscape photography, with blue skies and puffy clouds. A visit to Solva harbor at high tide produced some stunning images, using multi layer images. Lunch was outside overlooking the harbor soaking up the sun.

June 30th / July 1st Wedding Course.

A one to one wedding course for someone who has his first wedding on Saturday! He left with the confidence to do one! These courses are not only ideal for people who have photographed hundreds of wedding but also suitable for people who know absolutely nothing. We try and match experience levels to every course, so most people at at the same level.

July 5th / 6th Wedding Course

Another course on Wedding photography thats been added to cope with the demand. These courses are limited in numbers and are very popular. We do not keep things to ourselves, we will pass on all the secrets that other professional photographers keep to themselves.

July 7th / 8th Advanced Wedding Course.

Designed to follow on from this course, running through a whole wedding, providing delegates with a list of images that they have to take in a set time. This puts them under pressure as if they were actually doing a wedding, but with more things going wrong!!!

July 9th / 10th Portraiture Course.

This is one of our weekend specials where your partner comes free of charge. The course covered many topics, such as "How to get started in the Professional Portrait market", "Lighting" "Composition" Digital Portrait" "Competitions".
This was a course packed with information, with plenty of hands on experience.

July 11th / 12th Digital Course.

Following on from the last course, this course covers mainly digital, using Photoshop CS. The first day we went out to a place called Solva, a very pretty little harbor near us. We looked at what made up a good image, and trying to see the end result when first looking through the lens.

July 13th / 14th Wedding Video Course.

Showing you how to video a wedding from start to finish. The first day we started by going through all the different camera techniques, and practicing on location at a church. Sequences were discussed and how we put them together during a wedding. Music was blended with the sequences to make more of a production than a record.

July 18th / 19th / 20th Landscape & Portraiture Course.

A one to one course with a young lady that has come all the way from Holland especially for the course. A three day course running through composition and lighting. We traveled along the coastline to Solva, Newgale, St Davids and Porthgain. Stopping for lunch at Solva. There were plenty of chances to take some great images of this spectacular coastline.

July 23rd / 24th Landscape Course.

A special weekend break where we traveled around Pembrokeshire looking at all the superb locations.

July 25th / 26th Landscape Course

A one to one course, covering Portraiture as well as landscapes.

July 27th / 28th / 29th Careers Course

A three day business course, covering both Portraiture and Weddings

August 16th / 17th Portraiture Course

Some great weather at the moment as we made the most of the outside Portraiture by visiting some nice locations along the coastline. Covered quite a bit on business, as the delegates were new to professional photography and wished to get started in that field of work.

August 19th / 20th Wedding Course.

A busy weekend covering wedding photography. Lizzy our young model is getting more beautiful every day.
We covered some business as well as running through the order of a wedding. All the delegates attending have not photographed a wedding before, so we covered absolutely everything for them, from taking the pictures to supplying the wedding album.

September 6th / 7th Wedding Course.

Another Wedding Course put on as the last one was full, infact the next three are full and we are now introducing some new dates. October 29th / 30th is the next available course we are running and we have a few places left at the moment on that one. These Wedding Courses will teach you everything you wish to know about how to photograph a Wedding. We shoot mostly with digital and we will also show you how to get the best out of Photoshop.

September 17th / 18th Wedding Course.

This course has been added to cope with the demand. All the people on the course had not photographed a wedding in their life before! This does not really matter, the courses are built around the people attending them, as we try and put people together with the same experience levels.

September 20th / 21st Business Course.

Joe traveled all the way from Glasgow to attend the course. A very good photographer but needs to be pointed in the right direction and to be able to make money from the photography trade. Most of the business courses are a based on a one to one, going through ideas on an individual basis getting to know what each wants from the course.
Joe had come away with a lot of new ideas, and with a plan in hand. We wish him all the very best and have set a launch date for March 2006 for his new company.

September 29th / 30th Pictorial Course.

This course we teach the basics of how to use your camera. We look at using the settings such as aperture and speeds to show you what the camera can do with setting it to manual.

October 1st / 2nd Landscape Course.

A follow on from the above course, where we will show you how to put an image together using lines and shapes. We also show you how to look into an image and see the end result. So what we see is not what we are going to end up with. There are ten stages to go through and we need to "SEE" all over again.
On one of the beaches we went to, there was a stranded seal which we reported. We helped then to rescue it and it was taken to a seal hospital. It had been swept up on the beach by the waves and it was so tied having tired to get back into the water for seven hours. We could see the track left by the seal along the beach as it headed back towards the out going tide, but the tied was going out faster that the seal could make it!

October 4th / 5th Portraiture Course.

Working with studio lighting for the first day, with our new model called Charlott. It was her first time modeling for us and she photographed really well. The second day we covered subtractive lighting, taking the delegates on location showing how we use outdoor lighting. Topics covered were, flash, fill light, subtractive light, composition, posing, studio light, working with Photoshop, resizing, soft focus, colour management, running competition, types of Portraiture, starting a business of your own, styles of portraiture, web pages, data base and lots more. A full two days, covering absolutely eventhing you will need to know about professional portraiture.

October 15th / 16th Pictorial Course.

Covering camera basics and the third image. Travelling along the coastline and stopping at Solva for lunch. Weather was mixed, with some misty conditions on the second day. This course we teach you how to "see" into an image. What you see is not what you get, you need to see the end result and learn to see all over again.

October 17th / 18th / 19th Careers Course.

A three day course covering business, portraiture and weddings. Ideal for people wanting to start their own photography business, but dont know where to start. The course is packed with information. Usual these courses are run with very small numbers, and the feed back from this course was that they have learnt more in three days that the last 30 years!
Our model Charlotte shown above was again in action, this time she became a Bride for the first time!

October 25th / 26th / 27th Careers Course. One to One.

Designed especially for you. Wanting to start a career in photography and want to know where to start, then this is the course for you. A three day course covering all aspects of photography, from taking photographs of people, wedding and business.
Charlotte was our model over the three days and glamour is what she would like to do as a career. As you can see from the picture taken by Hazel, she looks really good, and has a good chance of making it.

October 29th / 30th Wedding Course.

Another weekend wedding course, covering a complete wedding, from house start to reception. We cover all aspects from bad weather, indoor lighting, fill flash, subtractive lighting, business, web page, gaining qualifications and album presentation.

November 5th / 6th Wedding Photography Course.

Again another course to cope with the demand for these courses. A lot of attention was paid to the lighting, using both additive and subtraction. Most of the delegates have not photographed a wedding before, with some taking it up as a full time career.

November 19th / 20th Portraiture Course.

Charlott was again our model for the weekend, with subtractive lighting covered outdoors. The weather being ideal, a bit on the cold side but beautiful lighting. Using available lighting inside was also shown. Our topics such as business, types of portraiture, studio lighting, high key and low key.

November 26th / 27th Wedding Video Course.

This course is all about how to video a wedding. Looking at types of sequences that can be done to enhance the video. We talk about camera techniques, movement, music, sound on the day, how to video the service, love story and business.
The course is becoming very popular at the moment, which is a good sign that things are getting better, as wedding video have not been as popular as they use to be.

There was plenty of hands on with cameras, filming different sequences, which were looked at later.

December 5th / 6th Wedding Course.

Bad weather was covered as the rain came down when we were at the church. There was no difference in the pictures at all. Available lighting was shown as we took pictures inside the church. What happens if you have a wedding at 16.00 in December? We explained how we would handle a wedding in the dark!

December 7th / 8th / 9th Landscape Course.

A one to one three day course on Landscape photography. Showing how to see into an image, using lines, shapes, depth, focus and thirds. Alister is from the BBC in North Wales and is retiring soon and wants to improve his photography. He understands all about cameras and computers, but not how to "see" into an image. We also covered some of our portraiture and wedding photography photography.

December 10th / 11th Digital Course.

A course combined with use of digital, as most of our courses do at the moment. Covering landscape and pictorial and using digital to enhance these images. An early morning safari on the second day to get the sunrise across the Haven, using the chimneys as a foreground.

May we wish all our past delegates the very best this Christmas, and wish you all a prosperous new year.