Learn Time

Good morning, and welcome to a new week. The sun is up, you are alive, and your computer has enough electricity to operate - life is good.

Time to consider something new - something to fire your enthusiasm and add to your skills - something to help you see more clearly. Time to learn. And here are two very good teachers.

1. The first is a man who Canon users will recognize immediately. Darren Jew visited us last year to show us his skill at underwater photography and to help Perth photographers have a wonderful open day at the Perth Zoo.

Darren will be visiting again and will conduct two unique events. He will be teaching a 1:1 Masterclass for underwater photography and in this case it will be in a very appropriate classroom - under water. You get to dive with Darren, shoot with Darren - including using some of his equipment - and come back to the surface. This may seem an odd thing to say, but go and look at some of the places underwater that Mr. Darren goes to and some of the creatures that he swims with, and you will appreciate the thought of getting home and drying out and looking at your pictures on the computer.

One to one courses with master photographers are rare enough - what about one to one at ten metres down? Wow. You'll be best contacting Darren on his website to get details but be aware that it will be a Saturday course and you will get wet.

Now Darren will also be conducting a dry-land class after this detailing his work with the Adobe Lightroom program. Even if your photographs are not full of sharks, rays, and whales, Darren can show you some of the most efficient and creative ways to use this program. Remember that Lightroom and its companion Photoshop are the two of the most compatible and slick photo-editing tools available for computer users on any platform.

2. Our second man is someone who may be new to you. Thorsten Overgaard is from Denmark - he conducts classes, tours and workshops all over the world and has launched out this year on a complete circuit of the globe. Saul learned about this and called him. They had a good long chat and as a result Saul convinced him to add Perth to the Australian part of the tour - this will be of great interest to our readers who live in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia - you see some of these places will also have seminars with Thorsten but they have SOLD OUT. Maybe it would be a good idea to grab a plane ticket and pop down to Perth for a bit of a holiday and bit of photo learning...

Thorsten works with Leica equipment - he is an expert with this gear and he likes to make sure that all his students get a chance to try it out and to really learn what their cameras can do. His website mentions that he tries to instill enthusiasm as well as raise the skill level,self confidence, and productivity of his students. That's no mean ambition in anyone - and when it is combined with the best of the German camera systems you can expect real improvements

He'll be doing two things - a one-day workshop on November 19th that runs from 9:00AM to 6:00PM for about $ 300 - and a more extensive photo seminar that runs over several days for $ 1500. This will be a busy time, with lectures, field assignment, guided workshop, and final computer work and presentation. But you will learn all about Leica work with people from a man who really knows how to make it happen.

Best thing to do is to pop over to Thorsten Overgaard on the computer and book directly with him. November is not that far away and this will be an ideal opportunity to develop real skill before the summer starts. Note: for North American and European readers, we have summer in December, January, and February - you may have been wondering were all the heat went during those months while you are shivering in front of the radiator. We have it, and we use it to go to the beach and sit out watching cricket. You can't have it back until we are done with it...

Where was I - Thorsten. Good man and Leica expert. Remember that if you need some Leica equipment - either to get started or to add to your collection - we have it here at Camera Electronic.