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Simon had organised for us to do a location shoot in the floristry studios.  We were given a week's notice and encouraged to think about what we would do, what equipment we would use and how we might go about the shoot.

We were then given a week to edit the images before presenting a selection to the floristry students and tutors.

In the end, it was pretty challenging assignment, as we went into a setting where we had never been before, so quickly had to assess the situation to identify what we could shoot.

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As we were mainly staying in cities and urban areas, these were mainly townscapes rather than rural landscapes.

'Greve in Chianti rooftops', 'Tuscan cypress trees', 'Nearly ready' and 'Duomo view' are a bit more rural and panoramic.

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This shot was taken on a bridge so I had to keep an eye on the traffic. The vehicle bottom right was crossing the bridge.

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We did a second week on portraits and focused on lighting equipment and set-ups.  We discussed different types of flash and continuous lighting and reviewed a number of images to try to identify the lighting used and set-up.

We then set-up some lighting equipment in one of the classrooms and took turns working in pairs using an on-camera trigger to control a powerful studio light with a diffuser on a stand.  This was set-up ‘Rembrandt’ style, at 45 degrees to the wall.

I paired with Felicity and we each had a go with the kit, and also practised trying to give directional advice when we each took the shots.  It is quite difficult trying to ask someone to pose, especially when their left is your right and it is all ‘back to front’. I found showing what I meant and wanted the subject to do, was the easiest way.

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I took some shots of Felicity under 'studio lighting', which I was pleased with.  I wanted to capture her with her camera to show what we get up to each Tuesday night. I had to be careful of the cables and the studio light we used had a very hot bulb.

On Sunday, we went shopping in Newcastle and I gave myself half an hour wandering around the Monument, Eldon Square and Northumberland Street.

There were buskers who nobody was paying attention to, so I tried to capture them standing still while people walked by.  The musicians were pretty still, so I shot them with a slow shutter speed to get some motion blur on the passers-by.  It was a bit hit and miss capturing them in the gaps between people.

There was a distracting blue neon sign behind the busker in Eldon Square, so I edited as black and white to disguise that.  There were also some children in shot, so I had to crop to avoid their faces.

I couldn't go black and white for the delivery riders because the colours of the bags show what companies they were working for - deliveroo and just eat.  I tried to capture them with their bags and bikes, while waiting for the next job, again as people passed by.

I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked one of them whether I could take his picture.  He said no.

I tried again with two lads sat right up against the Monument.  They said yes and I was able to get two shots, which I was happy with because they were happy and their eyes were smiling.

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Growing up, I was a big U2 fan, so also looked at the work of Anton Corbijn, who has worked with the band on album photography, videos and imagery since their very early days - I think he came on board with their second album, October in 1982.

The imagery he produced for The Joshua Tree album has elements of Ansel Adams' pictoral black and white American landscapes.

On closer inspection though, the iconic desert photograph of the band with a joshua tree in the background has an element of 'fisheye' distortion to it, so Corbijn has something ‘extra’ going on.

The image I chose to submit for this assignment though, was a portrait of someone else.

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The view from San Miniato al Monte, overlooking Florence and its famous Duomo.  Used St Mary’s arms to frame the domed roof of the cathedral in the city below.

I had to be careful as I was leaning against a railing on a terrace up at a height overlooking the graveyard.

Was a dull day so had to boost the shadows and whites in Lightroom.

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I missed week one as I was away on holiday but here is what I managed to do assignment-wise.

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The sun setting on a building by one of Livorno’s canals.  The render on the building was in the process of being repaired, creating a splotchy ‘camouflage’ pattern to the wall.  It was golden hour so the warm light really picked out the yellow colour, contrasting with the shadow below.

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I’ve been playing around with photography for five or so years. I started off borrowing my wife’s camera to take pics of my daughter playing football.  My wife got fed up with me borrowing her camera so much, that she gave it to me.  Since then I’ve been trying to learn more about how to use the camera and the basic aspects of photography to improve the pictures I take.

Earlier this year, I did the NCFE Level 1 course, which I really enjoyed and which helped me to consolidate my knowledge as well as plug some technical gaps - who knew histograms were so exciting!

For this course, I want to continue to consolidate my knowledge and understanding; I want to improve my ‘post’ editing skills; and I want to learn about flash and lighting.

I know we will be looking at different styles of photography and photographers.  I think I’m tending towards more street photography and documentary.  That probably reflects what I was interested in ‘way back when’ in college, when I studied economic and social geography, which focuses on people and place.

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When I came to present five of my images to the students, I explained that I was trying to capture the 'craft' of floristry and drew a comparison between floristry and the step-by-step process in cookery.

Admittedly, the reference to Mrs Beeton's rabbit pie threw them a bit, but when I showed them the images, I think the students understood what I meant by  'First, catch your rabbit.'

The five images I selected were ones which showed the selection of flowers, tools, the preparation of the stems, arrangement and the final product.

The floristry tutors were very complimentary about all of our photographs and asked for the images we had taken.  They also asked if we would come to take photographs of the students' pieces for their assessment, which was really nice.

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Dorothea Lange was an American documentary photographer, who made her name documenting the plight of ‘dust bowl’ migrant Americans in the 1930s.

Her image, ‘Migrant Mother’ is one of the most iconic photographs of the early twentieth century.

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‘The Creamery - dairying’, Doretha Lange’s Ireland, 1954.

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Once she had become established as a documentary photographer, Lange was commissioned by ‘Time’ magazine to take photographs for a feature they were publishing on rural Ireland.

Lange spent six weeks in the country in 1954, and in County Clare in the west of Ireland in particular.

I’m really interested in her Ireland collection because my mum is from County Clare and as a child, I would visit my grandad’s farm in Clare twice a year.

Lange’s photographs are of the 1950s but there is so much about them I recognise from my trips to Ireland when I was a child in the 1970s.

This photograph of ‘The Creamery’ yanks me right back to when I was three or four.  My grandad used to take milk to the creamery first thing, every day, on his donkey and cart.  When I was over, he used to take me with him.  I was his first grandchild; my cousins were younger by a couple of years, so I was the first one he could take with him ‘to show off’.

I remember it was quite scary.  The cart was rickety; the roads were rough and when we got there, the noise was incredible.  Everyone was shouting - banter, craic, arguing - but above all, shouting.  Large groups of tall dark men, putting the world to rights, and very loudly so everyone would hear.

It was the same every, single day.  And as a grown-up, I sometimes wonder what was it they got so excited about day after day, after day.

This image captures that daily assembly of men conversing; hanging out and ribbing each other.  The eyes are all about the same level, a bit less than a horizontal third from the top.  The man, third from the left is on a vertical third.  Everyone’s relaxed, which makes the intense stare of the man on the left, a bit intimidating.

Lange used to use a beast of a camera, but hardly anyone notices. Except the big bloke, staring directly down the lens.

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‘Girl on a space hopper’, Sirrka Lisa Konntinen, 1971.

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Sirrka Lisa Konntinen is a Finnish photographer who came to Britain in the 1970s.  She based herself in Byker and documented life on the terraced streets before the area was cleared and new modern housing built.

I saw this photograph in an exhibition at The Side Gallery, when I first came to Newcastle, 36 years ago.  I saw it again on a postcard in the shop at Tate Modern, earlier this summer.

I like the elevation and the shape created by the space hopper.  And the fact that the girl is wearing her best sparkly dress, even though she’s bouncing around in a back lane.  I was going to say dirty back lane, but there’s no litter, no rubbish, nor graffiti.

There are some horizontal thirds going on and the visual lines created by the gable ends and chimney pots ‘point’ to the girl.  My guess is that Konntinen got down low to maximise her point of view and make the girl look as if she’s bounced a lot higher than she has.

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I used a mask and a selection brush in Lightroom to de-saturate the red panel on the man's backpack so that it didn't distract from the main focus of the image.

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This was taken from the top deck of a city sight-seeing bus. had to hold onto the camera tight as the bus was moving quite quickly.

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Note the cyclists happily riding in a 'no bike' zone.

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The sun setting on a building by one of Livorno’s canals.  The render on the building was in the process of being repaired, creating a splotchy ‘camouflage’ pattern to the wall.  It was golden hour so the warm light really picked out the yellow colour, contrasting with the shadow below.

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Landscape assignment - Cathedral reflection

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Landscape assignment - Cathedral reflection

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Durham riverbanks. 13 August 2022.

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Although this looks quite isolated, the shot was taken along a 'fast' rural road. I had to find a safe place to stand and to watch the traffic as the cars were moving really quickly.

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Used a large aperture to create depth of field to 'peer' through the vine leaves to focus on the grapes.

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Really like this 'street' shot of two tourists trying to work out where they are, stood in front of a poster for the Lucca Summer Festival.  I like how the man's jumper ties in with the yellow in the poster and the way the woman is looking in the opposite direction to Kasbian's drummer, right above her.  Liam Gallagher's eye contact adds something as well.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger by Annie Leiborvitz

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This week we discussed portraiture and portrait photography.

We talked about the photographer's intentions - what emotional reaction or perception they were trying to generate from their image and how they wanted the subject to be perceived.

As part of the session, we looked at lighting rigs and off-camera lighting set-ups including 'rembrandt - 45 degree' and 'loop lighting.

We saw how a light at 45 degrees casts light and shadow across a face and how by moving the lamp, you can darken the background, which isolates the subject from their surroundings.

We had to be careful, as there were cables and tripping hazards and the ceiling lights in the classroom were switched off, so the space was dimly lit.

After the session, I had a look at some of Annie Leibovitz' work, and in particular her photography of celebrities.  There is a certain amount of humour in some of her portraits and what she encourages celebrities to do.  You got a sense that they would have enjoyed the shoot.  Her portrait of Arnold Schwarzenegger on a white horse, almost presents Arnie as a caricature of himself and I guess he must have been in on the joke, to take part and to consent to its publication.

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Other than a camera-mounted speedlight, I don’t have any lighting equipment.  So I took these images, late in the afternoon, when the sun was fairly low in the sky.  I tried to take the shots with my wife, Linda 'diagonal' to the light, to try to copy studio 'rembandt' lighting.

The 'story' is that our son gave his mum some trendy gardening boots for her birthday.

I started out trying to get a portrait of Linda in our garden in her new boots.  The only 'boot' shots I was happy with were close-up shots of the boots themselves and the seated shots where the boots were closer to her face.  I asked Linda to hold an angled garden fork as a prop at one point.

While I was faffing on, working out what I wanted to do,  Linda started picking her blueberries, so I took some shots of her doing that, which I was much happier with.  I ditched the boots for the berries and in the end, chose a shot of Linda holding a handful of berries.

The contact sheet shows a selection of the shots I took.

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Linda's new birthday boots. Close focus on the boots to pick out the detail. Cropped to remove the side of the shed in the background and added a touch of vignette.

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Linda seated, which brought the boots closer to her face.  I tried to replicate a Corbijn photograph of Bono, where he is seated, legs apart and leaning on an angled umbrella, ‘Dancing in the rain’ style, but also how he leans into a microphone stand.  Didn't really work, as the fork was too big, covered in cobwebs which put Linda off, and I had to change the angle of the crop to get the 'lean' I was after.

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The first shot of Linda picking her blueberries. Garden mesh in the way.

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Dog in the way.

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The first hands shot.  Used a wide aperture to create a shallow depth of field to focus on Linda's hands and to have her head and face, slightly out of focus.

I think this makes her look proud of her crop.

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Final chosen shot - Linda's berries.  Used a large aperture to produced a shallow depth of field to focus on her hands and the fruit.  Emphasised this with the crop and a vignette.

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I increased the saturation of the colour to try to make more of Felicity's orange cardigan, but think I have overdone it as her hair and face are a wee-bit too orange.

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I knocked the red down a bit because the light caught the thin bit of Felicity's nose and made a bit of it look red and a bit sore.

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A by-stander watches a street demonstration in Lucca, in the run-up to Italy's general election.

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I hadn't changed my settings properly so this is a HDR shot - a number of shots with slightly different exposures, 'stitched together' by the camera to create one image with a 'contrasty' high dynamic range.

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Edited this in black and white because there was a bright, blue neon sign above the busker's head. The face of the girl on the left was also visible so had to crop behind her ear.

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The bloke was pretty still so I used a slower than usual shutter speed to 'blur' the people passing by. Tried to frame him between two passers-by, while still getting a bit of his bike and bag to show his work.

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I needed the bikes and the orange and teal coloured bags to show that these were delivery riders.  I should have changed the shutter speed from the previous shot. I didn't need motion blur this time and the image would have been sharper with a faster shutter speed to avoid any hand shake.

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I was knocked back the first time I asked someone if I could take their picture. I saw these two lads sat up against Grey's Monument so chanced my arm and tried again.

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I cropped the second image to be a head and shoulders shot. The crop gives more focus to their faces and their eyes, which I think are relaxed and friendly. I wouldn't have got that unless I had asked.

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A street drain cover from Florence, Italy.  1/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1,000, 14mm (28mm equiv.)

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This week, we discussed the photography of objects and still life; the development of 'vernacular' photography and its evolution from documentary recording of everyday life into a more creative art form.

This was all a precursor to us joining the floristry students to 'document' their work through a combination of portrait, still life and documentary photography.

We had to work out in advance what kit we might use and what types of shot we might want.  This was tricky because part of the assignment was the challenge of walking into an unknown/unseen environment and quickly assessing what might make an interesting photograph, and trying to capture it quickly in a short period of time.

We had to think about capturing the setting/environment, as well as the floristry 'objects', and from my point of view, most importantly, the people who make it happen - the students.

It was a tight space, with lots of stuff on the floor so we had to be mindful of what was around us and potential tripping hazards.

The students and lecturers, were busy 'getting on' so we had to be sensitive about interrupting, holding them up or getting in their way.

We also had to watch out for each other as there were a number of us in the classroom at the same time, all trying to capture images without getting in each other's shots.

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This week we looked at the different versions of Lightroom, how to edit images and creating your own style, through choice of subject, composition and editing.

We also discussed how we might edit our floristry images and what we needed to do for the presentation to the students after half term.

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Mrs Beeton’s recipe for rabbit pie begins ‘first catch your rabbit.’

Floristry starts with flowers so I wanted to take that step-by-step approach to the photoshoot.

The lens I was using - a wide aperture, 25mm prime - could achieve a very narrow depth of field, which suits picking out particular elements through selective focusing.

I used that to focus on the flower, the tools and the arrangement.

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1/100 sec, f/1.7, ISO 400, 25mm

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This was the shot that the lady asked me to take. I used a shallow depth of field to focus in on her arrangement, emphasised by vignetting in 'post', whilst still showing that it was in the floristry studio setting.

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Simon took us through his typical workflow for editing images.

First step was to try to get as much detail in the image as possible, to provide a detailed 'solid' base, before adjusting exposure, colour etc to create the effect we wanted.

We looked at different types of masks and building up layers of masks to edit and tweak different parts of the image.

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We then headed out into the dark to photograph a shed in a clearing in the woods.

We had to be careful as it was dark and the path was muddy and slippy.  We used headlamps, phone torches and some of Simon's photography LED lamps to light the way.

When we got set up, we tried to get a correct initial exposure for the shed, which was tricky, a) because it was dark (obviously) and b) because it was difficult getting the focusing right when we and the camera, struggled to see the subject.

We then added different lights to illuminate the side of the shed and inside.

And finally used some of the techniques we had learned in the earlier session on editing, to enhance the images in 'post'.

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We played with some of the lamps and torches  to do some light painting - capturing light trails during long exposures, while moving ourselves so that we did not appear in the images.

First attempts were pretty ropey, but then Holly got creative with one of the lights and started to draw shapes, which worked well.

She then started to 'write' words and managed to spell out 'houghall' in pretty clear handwriting.  She also wrote out 'photography' and '2022' which others managed to capture better than me.

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My daughter Evie,  asked me to take a 'profile pic' for her work social media, as most recent images she has are in social settings - at parties, festivals or out with the girls.

I got one 'professional' shot which she was happy with, but I also took this one, which I really like because it captures her as a happy and beautiful young woman, on her 21st birthday. Editing it as black and white, mutes the colour contrasts and puts the focus on her laughing smile.

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A long exposure to capture vehicle light trails. Vantage point from Claypath roadbridge overlooking the A690 at Leazes Bowl. Reduced the exposure and edited the sky to darken the image in Lightroom.

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I used a number of masks in the edit of this image.  Vertical linear gradient masks to the left and right.  Radial gradients around the streetlamp and the pool of light on the cobbles.  A third radial gradient mask around the man to lighten the exposure and a mask to select the window on the right to boost the warm yellow light.

I had to be mindful of vehicles because this isn't a pedestrianised street.

By-the-by, Owengate was the birthplace of Charles Barker, who is recognised as the world's first advertising agent.  After the Napoleonic War, he set up a business in London and took a punt on buying a whole page in The Times newspaper to split up into smaller 'boxes' to sell to third parties for business and personal notices.  His gamble paid off and he became very successful on the back of the birth of the railways, with railway companies having to publish development notices for new lines and then advertisements for train services and excursions.

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I took a chance with a slow shutter speed handheld shot of the door to my favourite café. Top tip: blueberry scone with clotted cream and lemon curd. I increased the exposure, the shadows and the whites to make the pink of the door more vibrant. I also used vertical linear gradient masks left and right to darken the reveal of the doorframe.

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Cafédral's kitchen window up on the first floor of Owengate House. I used a sky mask to reduce the temperature of the sky to make it more blue - it was grey/white. I reduced the exposure and the highlights to make the stonework more sombre, but used another mask to select the window and increase the temperature, exposure and shadows. I like how they hang all the kitchen tools in the window. At night it makes a really interrsting silhouette.

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Used the arch of the bridge and its reflection in the river to frame Riverview Kitchen. Used an angled radial mask to lighten the exposure around the kitchen window and a second at an opposing angle to do the same with the window reflection in the water. I also selected the tree growing on the buttress of the bridge with the brush masking tool, and adjusted the exposure to highlight the yellow leaves, which complement the warm light from the kitchen window.

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This is a passage leading from the riverbanks under Chorister School to College Green at the back of the Cathedral.

I cloned out a bright, distracting light above the doorway.  I also selected the doorway with a mask and reduced the exposure so that you can more clearly see the trees in College Green.  I toyed with leaving it as a colour image, because the leaves were yellow but decided that the light catching the flags provided more interest and was best shown off in black and white.

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Here's the same image in colour with the yellow boosted to pick out the leaves against the grey flagstones.

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Contact sheet from Felicity portrait shoot

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This week we reviewed a number of different images and tried to work out focal length, shutter speed, aperture and ISO, explaining the thinking and logic behind our choices.

We also discussed the arrangements for the equestrian location shoot next week, what we could expect and advance planning considerations including health and safety.

We then looked at Simon's new studio lights and set-up before taking it in turns to experiment and produce one portrait image each from the session.

I paired up with Felicity and tried to take her portrait with 'rembrandt' lighting, also capturing the wall clock behind her head.

I had the studio light set too bright initially, so the first images were very over-exposed and the light incredibly hard.  So I dialled the light down to 1/64, which gave a much softer light across her face.

I asked Felicity to stand at an angle and knelt down so that she was looking down at me, very slightly.

The clock in the background didn't really work, so I decided to crop it out in the final image.

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When cropping out the clock, I placed Felicity's face in the top right hand third.

I added an offset radial gradient mask to add some 'backlight' interest and to create the impression that she was turning away from the dark. I used another mask to desaturate the colours in her lanyard so that it wasn't so distracting.

The aspect ratio on my camera was set to 1:1, which I think worked well with Felicity's orientation, particularly in the cropped final image.

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Added a slight vignette and a mask across the belt of trees in the middle of the image to bring out the shadows and boost the autumn colours.

Framed the scene by standing under the branches of the oak.

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The cathedral was lit-up that colour due to the setting sun. Edited the sky with a sky selection mask to bring out the definition of the clouds.

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The leaves were back-lit by the setting sun, which emphasised the autumn colours.

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A late poppy on Observatory Hill.  Was shooting into the light so had to edit heavily to bring out the shadows.  Used a mark to introduce some colour and shadow into the sky.

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I missed week 9 and the Equestrian Centre location photoshoot, because I was in Bristol for my nephew's graduation.  I took a number of images to record Seth's day - the university setting and the fun when he graduated and received his degree.  It was a poignant day for Seth because he lost his dad to cancer in the final year of his degree and it was the first big family occasion without his dad. So it was extra special for me to be invited to take the pics.

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We didn't have tickets for the congregation so watched the ceremony on a screen in the Students' Union. I had to heavily edit the images to boost the colour saturation and reduce the noise, to get anything near decent. Luckily, Seth was on the first row in front of the stage and the video camera.

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A corporate identity banner next to the assembly area.  I took this to capture the sense of place and to provide context for the images - it was one of the few instances where the words 'University of Bristol' were displayed.  The image required minor cropping and adjustment of shadows and highlights in Lightroom.  The colour of the banner complemented the autumnal leaves behind.

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Another sense of place image to show the setting for the congregation.   I crossed the road and stood down the hill to capture the height of the tower.  It was a busy road - pedestrians and traffic - so I needed to be very aware of what was going on around me; not only for my safety but also for other pedestrians so that I didn't cause an obstruction and force people to step into the road.  I took several images from this spot but settled on this one because the red of the Honda Jazz matched the red autumn leaves.

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The university armorial bearings on the Wills Memorial Building where the graduation congregation took place. I took this image again to provide a sense of place and to capture the sense of history and prestige of the university. The shields were up a height on the side of the building's tower so I used the geometry tools in Lightroom to adjust the image so that they appeared more 'face-on'.

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I used a large aperture and relatively high ISO to enable a fast shutter speed to 'freeze' everyone in this family group shot.  Although only Cissy, Seth's big sister is looking directly at the lens, Donna, Seth's mum is looking up at him with pride.

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I encouraged Seth to throw his mortarboard into the air.  I opened the aperture as far as I could and used what I thought was a fast enough shutter speed, but the hat still had a lot of motion blur.

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The same settings as before but the mortarboard was moving more slowly as it floated down so had far less motion blur.  Seth is a keen footballer and I was lucky enough to capture the concentration in his eyes as he tried to catch it on his head.

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I used the the arch of the doorway to frame Seth and the height of the steps so that he had an elevated position in relation to me, which gave him a more commanding stance.  I also stuck him up on top of the steps because it was mayhem down on the level where I was, with hundreds of people milling about.  Up on the steps was the only place I could take a picture of him without other people in the background. It was standing room only where I was, so I had to be aware of other people moving around me a) so that I didn't bump into them or obstruct them; and b) to keep them out of the foreground of the shot.

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A jokey crop of another portrait of Seth, up on the steps. This time I got him to stand side-on. I cropped the image in Lightroom to focus in on his boots. The back story was that he was working on a farm in Germany the day before his graduation and his mum was worried about the 'state' he'd turn up in. Everything was smart, other than his boots which were still covered in muck from the farm until his mum insisted he tried to clean them for the ceremony. The image may not make sense to other people, but it will to Seth and his mum.

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A crop of the image from up on the steps, with Seth looking down at me.  There was quite a lot of noise in the image which I tried to disguise by increasing the 'grain'.  I converted it to black and white to give a 'vintage effect' and used a radial mask to darken the background so that the focus is on Seth's face.

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A portrait of Seth holding a photograph of his late father, Alan. Seth and his mum wanted Alan to 'be there' so brought an old photograph of him into the ceremony. Alan's passing hit the family hard (and still is) and they were upset when they took out Alan's photograph and asked for their picture to be taken with it. In this photograph though, Seth is proudly holding up the picture of his dad. I squatted down a bit so that he was looking down at me, very slightly which gave him a more commanding pose. He is as proud in this image as he is in the earlier one where he is holding his degree at the tope of th steps.

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While I missed the Equestrian Centre location shoot, I spent some time trying to capture the sense of place in Bristol and its street art and life, in particular.

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Down by the docks, I found a Banksy.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is a seventeenth century oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer.  It's regarded as the most beautiful painting in the Netherlands.

In 2014, Banksy recreated it with stencils on a warehouse yard wall, with the portrait 'positioned' around a burglar alarm, so that the alarm box replaced the pearl earring.  The title of his work, Girl with a Pierced Eardrum makes a joke about 'piercings' and piercing noise affecting hearing.

Banksy started off as a graffiti artist and like a lot of his works in Bristol, other people have sought to graffiti over them.  Security fencing has therefore been put up to keep people out and to protect the artwork.

I wanted to include the fencing in the composition, but used an aperture of f/5.6 so that it was slightly out of focus in the foreground.

The 'narrative' of the photograph is that when he first started to create street art around Bristol in the nineties, Banksy was seen as a criminal, even though his art was innovative in technique, execution and social comment.  The City Council wanted him apprehended and 'locked-up' as a vandal.  Twenty years on, Banksy is an internationally-renowned contemporary artist, whose work is worth millions and attracts large crowds and audiences.  The City Council now trades on his reputation, with Banksy tours and trails and his accessible street art being a key element of Bristol's bid to be UK City of Culture.  When he started off and became notorious, fences were put up to keep Banksy out; now they are erected to keep him in.

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I have a Panasonic Lumix G9 mirrorless camera.  It has a micro four thirds cropped sensor.  I opted for that because the previous camera I used - my wife's Lumix G3 - is micro four thirds and I had bought a long zoom lens for that, so wanted to keep to the same system rather than have to buy new lenses.

Compared with the G3, the G9 has separate dials for shutter speed, aperture and ISO which is really handy.  It also has a number of function buttons to quickly access focusing and metering options and to review images taken.

The G9 has a 12-60mm kit lens.  I've bought a 25mm wide angle lens and a 75-300mm zoom lens.  From my wife's G3, I have two kit lenses - a 14-42mm and a 45-150mm.

I've got a couple of spare memory cards and batteries, which I always keep charged up so that I don't run out of puff.  I also have a third party battery grip which gives me access to a second battery when I am out and about.  The G9 takes a SD memory card and has two cards slots, which I've set to JPEG and RAW.

The G9 doesn't have a built-in flash, so I've bought an external flash, but don't have a transmitter trigger so can't do off-camera flash as yet.

Beyond that, I have a travel tripod, a monopod, a cable release and a variety of basic UV, ND and polarising filters for the different sizes of lens I have.

I've also invested in a warm hat and gloves as it can get bloody cold when you're out and about, particularly on winter evenings!  And walking boots because it gets slippy too.

I have a basic laptop with Photoshop Elements 2019 installed. For the NCFE Level 1 course, I subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud and am now using Lightroom to edit images.  I’ve installed it on my work iPad as well and use the web version at work, which is really handy.

I've set up a Amazon Prime Photos account for on-line storage and also have an external hard drive.  I've got USB card readers for my laptop and also work iPad.

I post photographs to The Northern Echo Camera Club facebook page and occasionally have had images published in The Advertiser and the Northern Echo.  I also post to 'I love Durham' and 'County Durham Loves Photography' facebook pages and submit images to competitions on the 'Photocrowd' website.

I follow some photographers on  Instagram but haven't really posted any of my own photographs there.

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Part way through the course, I dropped my G9 and had to revert to my wife's Panasonic Lumix G3 while my camera was sent off to be checked and repaired.

The G3 is a much older camera than the G9 (2011 as opposed to 2018) and was one of Panasonic's first mirrorless compact cameras with interchangeable lenses.  It has a 16 megapixel micro four thirds sensor, an ISO range from 160 to 6,400 and comes with a 14-42mm zoom kit lens as standard.  Unlike the G9, it has a 'pop-up' built-in flash as well as a hot shoe for an external flash or trigger.

It has a single card slot and takes a SD memory card.

It can't take a battery-grip but the batteries are pretty small so I can carry a couple of spares in my pocket.

Like a lot of compact cameras, most of the functions and settings are driven by the menu.  In addition to the programme dial, it has one external dial which toggles between shutter speed and aperture.  ISO, focus and white balance are all accessed via the menu, so it's not as quick to change the settings as it is with the G9, which has separate dials and function buttons for the most important settings.

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I have an Adobe Creative Cloud photography subscription and as part of the NCFE2 course, we have looked at the different versions of Lightroom, and spent more time learning how to organise images and use the different editing tools available.

Simon took us through a typical workflow for editing images.

The starting point was to try to get as much detail in the image as possible, to provide a detailed 'solid' base, before adjusting exposure, colour etc to create the effect wanted.

We looked at different types of masks and building up layers of masks to edit and tweak different parts of an image.

I've moved on from simple crops and adjusting highlights and shadows, to more sophisticated lighting and colour adjustments, and using a range of different types of mask to edit an image.

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I tend to do most of my photography outdoors and a fair bit of it at night.

I have therefore invested in a decent backpack and some waterproof boots with cleated soles, to help avoid slips and trips, as well as warm gloves, hat and coat to keep me warm and dry at night.

I have a head-torch and also use a pocket torch if it's dark.  Both came in handy when we 'shot the shed' one evening in the college grounds.

I'm always conscious of health and safety and 'lone working'.  I will let my wife know where I am going and what time I expect to be back.  I tend to keep away from the riverbanks in Durham at night because the paths and decks can be slippy and it's really not the place to fall over when there are few people about.

In this course, I have taken more photographs in city centres, where I have had to be mindful of my location and traffic.  Some city centre locations are private property and there are restrictions on freely taking photographs there.

In cities, you always have to be aware of cars and cyclists, especially so now that there are far more 'quiet' electric vehicles and scooters on the road.

I'm also conscious of the risk I pose to others when I'm taking pictures and try to ensure that I don't get in people's way or obstruct their view.

On the course, we had great fun learning how to use and experiment with professional lighting equipment.  The first kit we used was cabled, so we needed to watch for tripping hazards.  Simon's new kit is battery-powered, so there aren't as many cables to trip over but we still had to take care moving bulky, electrical equipment about.

The one location shoot I did was in the floristry studio, where there was a lot of equipment and people ('us lot' and 'them lot') in a relatively small space.  There were also stem cuttings and foliage on the floor, which posed a slipping hazard.

The external shoot I did at my nephew's graduation was packed, so I really needed to be careful to not bump into or obstruct people and also to be careful of the traffic as the university building was on a busy city-centre road.

When I was in Italy, I dropped my camera because I hadn't attached it properly to my tripod when doing an early morning shoot.  It was an expensive mistake to make - not just financially, but also because it meant I was deprived of my best kit, when I needed it most - to take pictures in a stunning place when I had time off work.

I am now extra careful when I set my kit up and always use a wrist strap if my camera isn't safely hanging around my neck.

With digital photography, you spend a fair amount of time on a computer organising and editing images. To protect my back and neck, I have a proper desk and chair set-up at home, with a monitor set at the right height. That makes editing more comfortable, but even so I have to watch how much time I spend staring at a screen in order to protect my eyes.

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I discovered this photographer by googling 'top landscape photographers in 2022'.

Of those that came up, I was drawn to Callum Snape's work the most because he presented consistent themes of people set within landscapes; and the contrast in scale between people and nature.

In college, I studied geography and we had to discuss and define what was 'physical geography' and what was 'human geography'. We came to the view that landscapes were 'social constructs' because a lot of landscapes include man-made elements or are considered 'notable' by people, either observing or interacting with them.