EVENT | Lights Camera Currys!

A few weeks ago I was invited to my first ever blogger event, I received an email from the lovely Shaun who works over at Joe Blogs explaining that Currys were running a photography workshop with Brighton based happy snapper Dade Freeman and I was so excited! I've had my Canon 1000D for about 4 years now but I've never ventured off the 'auto' feature, I guess through my laziness and I really find reading about things isn't the best way I learn so I jumped at the chance to be taught properly by a professional photographer!   The event was held in central Brighton at the Brighton Media Centre and finding it wasn't what I was nervous about, I nearly bailed because I was literally terrified of meeting lots of bloggers that I'd never even spoken to but knew from Twitter and other social media, I braced myself and walked into a room of lovely ladies who I think were all as nervous as I, lesson learned don't freak out and run away.

After a little mingling, grabbing tea and juice everyone sat down to be taught all about how to get off auto!

Dade was brilliant at teaching us things, everything though complex was broken down into easy to remember chunks. He taught us about ISO, Aperture & Shutter speed, what they affect, how they work and how to use them correctly together to get better shots, my problem with auto was always not enough light in my pictures or then too much light so now I know exactly how to get the light I want and I won't have to spend hours trying to snap away or even editing. Dade showed us some of his work and how different actions on effect the outcome of your photos as well as explaining how auto restricts you from being creative, something I never knew. He also went on and explained to me something that had been boggling my mind for a long time.. Camera Modes. Those little P, S, TV and AV modes that meant nothing to me. Dade even told us about something called chimping and we all had a giggle at his monkey face, he was an excellent teacher and I didn't feel embarrassed to tell him I literally knew nothing about taking a photo. We had a delicious lunch that even included percy pigs and fruit kebabs before heading out onto the unsuspecting public to take some shots with our new found skills, fortunately at this time the Naked bike ride had finished so we weren't going to snap anything to NSFW!  We did have some challenges to do such as get a shot of symmetry and framing a shot but I think I failed every single one. Note to self - try harder!

Brighton was utterly scorching on Sunday so not the best conditions for your first attempt at photographing some incredibly busy places, the sun was my arch enemy but I think I did ok, this is the first time I've ever used my camera not on auto so I'm quite happy that there are postable photos!

There were prizes for the best shots, hashtags on IG and the challenge as well as free memory stick from Currys so that was really nice of them!

Here's a group shot of the other ladies I met, although a miscommunication meant we missed the photo at the end, a bummer but of course it had to happen to me. Luckily I stuck with two other ladies Ellie & Leah and we took our own one, maybe I should learn to photoshop myself in? Haha!

My little snack lunch although I didn't eat all of it, Boo! And of course an obligatory selfie in front of the carousel. Overall my experience at my first blogger event was lovely, I didn't speak to many of the girls mainly because we were busy learning but I'd love to have met more people so next time I'll try to. My anxiety nearly stopped me but honestly I'd urge anyone to go to a blogger event if possible not only did I have a brilliant time I learnt some really valuable skills from an awesome photographer.

I hope you enjoyed this post, let me know what you think below!

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