Since the course doesn’t lead to a qualification it’s quite a relaxed program of learning (sort of education speak meaning that you’re not assessed to pass or fail the course). This means that the course is very much tailored around what the learners want to understand. After this course, if you still wanted to study more Cornwall Adult Education offers qualification courses from a City and Guilds Level 1 to an NCFE Level 2 in photography which I teach at Liskeard as well.

Interested in the above? There are some places still a available. The best thing is to call  0300 1231 117 or look at http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=2112 or email me on enquiries@johnhillman.co.uk . Look forward to seeing you on one of my courses.

I will of course get round to doing those parts of the site. In the meantime I’ve enabled comments on the posts and added the social media buttons just to see what effect (if any) they will have on my site and on the content I eventually place on here. This year I intend to begin posting tutorials based on my photography courses so that I can share some of the things I teach. I’ll also focus a bit more on the technical aspects of photography and the theoretical work which I’m also interested in.

So for the first time, I can say please feel free to add your comments, tell me what you think of the site, share, link, tweet or do what ever you feel compelled to do and I in turn will let you know whether it changes my life or at least my website in the near future.

You can email me  if you want more details or contact Cornwall Adult Education directly on 0800 1231 117 or look at http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=2112 . Email me on enquiries@johnhillman.co.uk if you have specific questions about the course content. I look forward to seeing you on one of my photographic courses.

Best of all the admission is free!

Each came to the group with their own previous experiences, various levels skills and expectations, and over a period of six months, learnt a vast amount and were able to put this new found knowledge into practice and to create the various images on display.

Some of these images are from the final selection of their course portfolio (a group of twelve images within a theme of their choice); Cornish landscapes, portraits and close-ups of flowers and animals. Other images have been selected by the photographers, to portray their own individuality and the new directions that they have taken in their ‘journey’ since the end of the course.

For further information about future Photography Courses, please contact: Cornwall Adult Education Department at Laity House, Liskeard. (Tel No: 01579 345384)

Here’s some photographs of the setting up of the exhibition:

I’ve been so busy this year that I’ve had less time to focus on the website and update the images but I have added some more portraits to the portraiture section. I hope early next year to update all the portfolios with the commerical photography I’ve undertaken for these new clients. I’m also going to be adding a tutorial section which will be based around some of the lessons I deliver on my photography classes throughout Cornwall and also on my experiences working as a professional commercial photographer.

The package includes hotel accommodation, four-course dinner and coffee, full English breakfast and three days practical photography guidance. When you’re tired of looking through the viewfinder there’s always the unlimited golf, swimming, sauna, outdoor hot tub, tennis and snooker to keep you occupied. The course costs £525 per person in a standard room and £590 per person in a superior room for five nights from Sunday 11th until Friday 16th March 2012.

Full details are available via the Budock Vean Hotel website.

Since the course doesn’t lead to a qualification it’s quite a relaxed program of learning (sort of education speak meaning that you’re not assessed to pass or fail the course). This means that the course is very much tailored around what the learners want to understand. After this course, if you still wanted to study more Cornwall Adult Education offers qualification courses from a City and Guilds Level 1 to an NCFE Level 2 in photography which I teach at Liskeard as well.

Interested in the above? There are some places still a available. The best thing is to call  0300 1231 117 or look at http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=2112 or email me on enquiries@johnhillman.co.uk . Look forward to seeing you on one of my courses.

A Pentax K1000 at Art College were the student loan cameras. Followed by a Canon AE1 – my first camera. There was a Mamiya RB 67 that I rarely got my hands on it at Art College but I coveted it because I read somewhere that top London fashion photographers used them.

In my first job I had a small budget for equipment and bought a Pentax (can’t remember model) 35mm and a Mamiya 645. The Mamiya was the best I could get for the budget I had (although I secretly wanted the larger RB67). The Pentax was again bought because I could get a body and some lenses and I had used the Pentax at college so I was looking for familiarity, too. I also bought some studio flash (Bowens Monolites – again because I’d used them at Art College). Manufacturers please note that supplying colleges with equipment could be a way of locking students into your brands. Although, I now don’t own a Pentax so perhaps that’s not always the case! I’d never been given a budget for equipment before so it was very strange spending someone else’s money on camera equipment.

In my next job we used Nikons and Hasselblads. There was also a 5×4 camera, probably a Sinar. It was a big photographic department, well equipped with studios and darkrooms. I always felt very lucky to have access to so much gear. At this time, personally, I only owned the Canon AE1 from my college days as I could never have bought myself the amount of kit there was in the camera cupboard at work, so I never bothered trying. However, I did begin to feel the need to own some kind of medium format camera so my boss sold me her Mamiya C330 twin lens reflex camera, which I still have today. I think lighting was Bowens again and some Reds which were used in video production.

I then went to work for a less well equipped company. There were still Nikons and a very non-professional medium format camera which I can’t remember what it was. There was also a 5×4 Land Camera which we used as the “high quality” studio/location camera. We had some Bowens flash and some Metz flash so it wasn’t all bad!

At my next job at the University of London I felt as though I had finally arrived at my photographic equipment destination. I was the only photographer on the team so all the equipment was”essentially” mine and the medium format camera was the Mamiya RB67, the camera I’d never quite used enough at Art College. Again we had Nikons and Metz flash and some studio flash lighting which once again I think was Bowens. The Mamiya was a really nice camera but a little on the bulky side. I used it as the main kit camera with the Nikons being used for 35mm slides etc.

I then began working in the best equipped photographic department I had ever worked in. Hasselblads (at least 4 full kits), Nikons with pretty much every lens available, Sinars, Elinchrom and Broncolor studio lighting, machine colour and black & white printing. There were times when on location I think I counted myself using 8 Elinchrom studio lights and 3 Metz Portable Flash units. We went on to acquire one of the first digital cameras I think it was called the Kodak Nikon DCS3 and a Dye Sublimation printer and were the one of if not the first digital photographic department in the country.

Personally, I’ve remained with Canon despite using Nikons constantly throughout my career. I have EOS 1Dsmk2 and a 5Dmk2, various lenses and portable flash guns. I also have Bowens studio lighting.

So that’s my life in photographic equipment. I think I like the idea of gear more than actually owning it. For me, this equipment really has been “tools of the trade” since I began my working career. I know that I never had that initial interest in gear that a lot of photographers have (and which usually accounts for their interest in photography). I was always, and still am, more interested in the pictures.

The City & Guilds L1 course is ideal for anyone with a camera who wants to get to grips with all the basic functions and settings. We’ll also look at some simple techniques to improve your images and what you can do to really get the best from your photography. It’s a shortish photography course and once you’ve completed it you’ll get an award from City & Guilds. You’ll also be well placed to move on to either a City & Guilds Level 2 course or our NCFE L2 course.

The NCFE L2 course is ideal for people who are a little more confident with their cameras and who want to develop their skills in specific areas and explore photography in a more creative way. You may have completed the Level 1 course or have some other experience using your camera. We cover as many techniques as can fit into the 30 weeks and we look at other photographers work in the process. At the end of the course you’ll be producing work which you can either hang on your wall at home or sell in a gallery (well that’s what previous students have done!)

Right now there are lots of people taking up photography and these courses will really help you quickly understand more about your camera and photography in general. During the courses I’ll be showing you some of the professional tricks you can use to improve your photography. We’ll look at technique, composition and creativity with the single aim of getting you to improve your photography and your way of seeing the world through the camera. You’ll also learn from the others on the course and from the workshops and session I put together each week. You’ll learn a little bit more about what makes a good photograph and what makes a great photograph. We’ll also consider things like different styles of photography and what it means to be taking pictures right now in the twenty first century.

My courses are generally a mix of practical work and technique, creativity and also “Thinking Photography” where we consider what photography is and what it means to all of us. In essence, I guarantee you’ll be seeing things differently after the course and armed with this new vision you’ll be taking the photographs you always wanted to take but never really knew how or why!

I look forward to seeing you on one of the courses I teach.

The Royal Photographic Society, founded in 1853, is the most prestigious international photographic society. It was long been recognised for the promotion and maintenance of high photographic standards around the world and established itself worldwide through its programme of touring exhibitions, events and special interest groups.

The awarding of Distinctions is fundamental to the Society’s promotion of standards of excellence, universally respected by amateur and professional photographers alike to whom RPS membership is open.

In order to gain a Distinction, a photographer has to submit a portfolio for approval by a highly qualified Panel of fellows of the Society, or hold one of the accepted qualifications.