This half term we held two photography courses for Kids and Teens at Petworth House. 

Colour

The first course theme was ‘Colour’. In the morning we taught the kids photography course (ages 7-11), and in the afternoon we taught the teen photography course (12-15).

For the kids course we started by talking about how the camera works and which settings to put it on in which situation to take the best possible photo. We focused mostly on the ‘flower’ or close up/macro setting to create a beautiful depth of field. The kids loved seeing what they could achieve just by changing a few of the settings. We also talked about composition and the ‘rule of thirds’- placing your subject at the bottom or to the side of your frame. Here are a few of the kids great photos!

 

 

 

 

The bright coloured flowers at Petworth, along with the beautiful blue skies, made for a perfect day photographing colour!

 

 

 

 

Our teens photography course in the afternoon was very similar, however we step it up a notch and talk a lot more about what their camera can do. As well as talking about the cameras semi-automatic settings like the flower mode, we also talked about the ‘A’ or ‘Av’ setting, where they have a bit more control over their aperture and depth of field. 

Here are some of their photos!

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are so impressed with their photos. They have each really taken on board what we taught them about their camera settings, as well as experimenting with different perspectives and compositions.

 

 

 

 

Capturing Wildlife

The next day brought about our ‘Wildlife photography’ course. Pet worth is perfect for this theme as they have loads of wild deer, geese, ducks and loads of bugs! We started the day with the kids (7-11) group again. This course was focused more on shutter speed, as photographing moving animals can be tricky! The setting on most of the kids camera’s was the ‘shoot a series of pictures’, ‘running man’ or ‘burst’ setting. This enables the kids to be able to photograph lots of photos in one go. Here’s some of the kids photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They managed to get quite close to the deer, but they didn’t stay close for very long! We were also very lucky to see the baby geese! Loads of great photos from the kids photography group! 

 

 

 

 

The afternoon teens photography course is slightly longer, so we had more time to go into more detail about how to control their shutter speeds themselves and get the effect they want. We practised using all the shutter settings and then head back out to photograph the wildlife at Petworth. Here are some of their amazing photographs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to choose just a few photographs as they’re all so great! 

 

 

 

 

We had such a great couple of days teaching some very talented kids and teens! If your kid or teen is interested in taking part in one of our photography courses over summer, head to our Courses page to check them out and book on! Remember to keep up with our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts to stay up to date with courses, tips, great photos, competitions and more!