AN ENLIGHTENING DAY WITH EMILY QUINTON

I have wanted to attend one of Emily Quinton’s photography courses for some time and in December I decided to stop procrastinating and booked myself on to her Makelight Photography Course – Level One.

For those of you not familiar with Emily let me fill you in. Emily is a blogger extraordinaire, super talented photographer and online influencer (not to mention mother to 4 little people) and to top it off she is just about to launch her first book! So I was pleased as punch that I had found my place at this table, in this studio, on this rather stormy Saturday!

A wonderful bright studio in Dalston was our creative hub for the day. And a group of wonderful ladies were my comrades searching for some inspiration. Between us we covered everything from online fashion and wedding yurts through to jewelry design and venue styling (and screenprinting of course!) and we were all looking down the table at Emily eagerly waiting to absorb her wisdom.

We started the morning with introductions, inspiration, composition, styling and the big one… lighting. The main point that still reverberates around my head: “If there is no natural light. Don’t take the photograph.” I will live by this rule from now on Emily! We started out using our phones and a plethora of wonderful props and goodies to play with. Here are a few of mine.

Then in the afternoon it went technical (gulp)! But… how refreshing when Emily explained the techy jargon in a language that we all understood. I have taken so much away from this course and it exceeded my expectations and then some. We talked manual settings, apertures, exposure compensation and lenses all whilst delving into some delicious cakes to keep our energy levels up!

Then the sun went down and the light went to bed so no more photographs were to be taken (see previous note!) so we all gathered back at the table to round up the day with some final tips on editing, apps and social media do’s and don’ts.

I can’t recommend this course highly enough as I walked away feeling inspired and with many new tricks up my sleeve. I will definitely be signing up for Level 2 in the summer!

Emily’s new book ‘Maker Spaces’ is out in April. I have already pre-ordered my copy and you can too over on Emily’s website here. If you order now you will be among the lucky few to get a limited edition letterpress card designed and printed by one of the makers featured in the book. Maybe ‘Maker Spaces 2’ will feature the B&F studio! You never know!