Tutoring

I ran a tutoring session in the studio recently. The participant brought energy, enthusiasm, and a camera, as well as her two dogs. We’d discussed her hopes for the tutoring before meeting, so I had planned which areas to cover. It’s very inspiring working with people who share your passion. In this case, we had two immediate areas of mutual interest; cameras and dogs.

This student preferred learning by doing, rather than focusing on theory. It might seem self-evident, that photography is best learnt through practical work. There is however, plenty of theory behind creating pictures. Iconic photographers have written extensively about use of light, capturing the moment, and interpreting life through photographs. At college, we covered concepts such as the exposure triangle, the golden ratio, and the rule of thirds. Ultimately though, creating a photograph is very much down to the individual. As in this post from last year, it’s about finding your own style.

A few years ago, I took a BTEC qualification in Education and Training. Much of the emphasis was on recognising, and understanding different learning styles, and building a portfolio of inclusive teaching approaches to accommodate these. The recent student had reasons for preferring a practical approach to learning, and one of the benefits of one-to-one tutoring is being able to adapt the teaching to suit the student.

Working with the student and her dogs, we practised composition, use of light, and experimented with aperture and shutter speed. We covered areas such as the exposure triangle, but without dwelling on the label. Instead, we combined different settings to assess the impact on the photographs. We ended the session in high spirits, having spent almost two hours working together. Photographing by instinct and experiment, the student captured a range of wonderful pictures of her dogs.