Wandoan Community Workshop

4 September 2015

After the school students from Wandoan State School had finished their workshop, it was time to welcome other members of the Wandoan community to the school for the afternoon My Space/Our Place photography workshop. We did have a few last-minute apologies due to illness, but three lovely ladies did turn up for an afternoon of photography, and a few lessons in exposure and other technical areas. Big respect to Kim and Tania, who only just arrived back in Wandoan after driving back from Brisbane (5 1/2 hours!), where they watched the Broncos take on the Storm the night before. Michelle from Glencore jumped in on the action and produced some great images as well.

After some time looking at photographs and talking about how to appreciate what is in front of the camera without trying to control too much of what goes into a picture, it was nice to see the old 'lightbulb' moments appear when the ladies started to appreciate things like street signs in their photos. Kym commented that it was things like that, light poles, signs and power lines, that she always thought ruined pictures. From now on, she said, she would look at all these things differently.

One of the main things we looked at on our walk was how to control over and under-exposure compensation. It was wonderful to see the ladies then use this technique to get some great shots in the beautiful afternoon light. We were fortunate that our walk timed in nicely with 'golden hour', that period just before dusk when the sun is low and strong, producing saturated colours, directional light and beautiful contrast.

Wandoan Community Workshop Participants: Kym Gunther, Tania Baker, Helen Golden and Michelle Hunter.

TIP: When shooting during the 'golden hour', experiment with over and under-exposing your shots, using the exposure compensation dial. Even one-stop underexposure can increase saturation and mood in your photographs.