Photography Beginners Course 12 –
15 August 2010
Dear Friend in Photography
You too can take portraits
like these…
Learn Photography hosts a
fantastic weekend getaway at
Noorspoort Guest Farm for students
wishing to combine an introductory
photography short course with a
fun filled weekend.
Our aim
is to provide an
easy-to-understand and
user-friendly learning experience
that will enable you to produce
stunning photographs with a high
level of consistency.
The
location is carefully selected,
allowing you to experience some of
the most beautiful parts of our
country.
Course
Aims
1. To
demystify camera controls.
2. To teach you to use your camera
to its full potential and have fun
at the same time.
3. To
provide an easy-to-understand and
user-friendly training experience
that will enable you to produce
stunning photographs with a high
level of consistency.
Course Contents
The courses content is divided
into theoretical classes and
practical workshops.
Theory
The theory
component includes:
1.
Camera controls and menus
2. The creative use of camera
controls
3. Camera care
4. Lenses and accessories
5. Introduction to composition
Practical Workshops
The workshops allow students
to put to practice lessons learned
during the theory sessions, under
the guidance of a professional
photographer. Four workshops are
included:
1. A natural
light documentary workshop.
Students learn the art of
documentary portraiture by
photographing local residence in
and around their homes. The
workshop centers on the use of
natural light to create character
studies of rare and sublime
beauty. Special attention is also
given to composition, posing
subjects, and background control.
2. A light painting workshop.
Light painting is a form of night
photography where scenes are lit
with powerful hand-held torches
during long exposures. It is an
experimental technique that
produces surprising and stunning
results.
3. A
sunset-silhouette workshop.
Students learn to deconstruct
landscapes with the aid of
exposure manipulation to create
foreground silhouettes with strong
communication value against
intensely colourful skies (Please
note that this workshop is weather
dependent).
4. A outdoor
natural light workshop
The
workshop centers on the use of
natural light for portrait and
landscape studies. Students learn
to utilize both direct sunlight
and open shade. The creative use
of camera controls, light
direction, using fill-in flash,
composition, assessing light
quality, controlling unwanted
backgrounds, and posing subjects
are stressed yet again (Please
note that this workshop is weather
dependent).
About
Noorspoort
Noorspoort is an operational Karoo
farm situated 175 kilometers north
of Port Elizabeth in the Karroo
Hartland. The farm has a close
association to the late rugby
legend Dr Danie Craven, whose son
currently owns the farm. The main
farmhouse, currently used as a
guesthouse, is an historical
structure built in the mid 1800's
complete with a wide stoep and
whitewashed outbuildings
surrounded by large blue gum
trees. It is situated in an area
where game is not fenced in and
where the surrounding mountain
folds bear testimony to the Earths
shifting crust. Orphaned game
makes the farmyard their home from
time to time, allowing visitors
the opportunity to make close
contact.
Peripheral Activities
In addition to the photography
workshop, students will be
entertained to the following:
1. An astronomy lecture with
colour images produced with the
world's largest telescopes. Learn
about birth and death of stars,
the big bang theory, black holes,
the expansion of the Universe at
supersonic speed, the speed of
light, and much more.
2.
View the Karroo night skies
through a 10-inch deep space
telescope. Students will be awed
by stellar phenomena such as the
globular clusters of the South
containing millions of stars, the
rings of Saturn, Jupiter's moons,
and the truly magnificent center
of our home galaxy, the Milky Way
(Please note that telescope
viewing is weather dependent).
3. A visit to Draaikrans,
where the river cuts deep into the
mountain side to expose evidence
of the upward thrust of the
Earth's crust over millions of
years, revealing a 20-storey high
Cape fold rock strata. The visit
is accompanied by a short lecture
on plate tectonics and the
formation of the Karoo landscape.
Students will also be allowed
to handle and inspect 300 million
year old fossils found in the
area.
4. A scrumptious meal
and cabaret show at the simply
fabulous Karroo Hotel in nearby
Steytlerville, currently the only
theatrical hotel in South Africa.
About your lecturer Pine Pienaar
Pine lectured photography at
the Port Elizabeth Technikon’s
School of Art and Design
(currently the Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University) for over
20 years. His vast knowledge of
photographic processes, both
commercial and fine art, together
with his extensive experience in
working with students (both
novices and advanced) makes him
highly sought after for public
training programs such as these.
During his final years of
lecturing at the university Pine
formally studied astronomical
photography. In this capacity he
worked at the Boyden Observatory
photographing deep space objects
such as galaxies, nebulae and
globular clusters.
His easy
manner and fluid way of teaching
makes him hugely popular and much
in demand as a photography
lecturer, and mentor.
Pine’s interests are wide ranging
and include modern art, Greek
mythology, astro physics,
paleontology and geography. As a
young man he traveled the southern
regions of Africa extensively
using Mozambique as a base. He is
equally at home in a tent in the
African bush, or in a street café
in a Spanish village. He enjoys
Mediterranean culture and cuisine.
He is fascinated by the exotic,
easily bored by the mundane, and
has been called an incurable
romantic. His students invariably
go away with far more than the
expected.
Students meet at Noorspoort Guest
Farm on Thursday evening to start
the course
Cost: R2950
For bookings please call Danie
Craven or Frieda Kleynhans at 049
835 0001 or
cell 082 482 4345
or email at info@noorspoort.co.za
