Advanced Photography Course Student Story

Does this sound familiar?

You’ve taken control of your DSLR, you’ve worked on your technical skills to take a well-exposed and nicely composed shot that’s in focus.

You’re enjoying your photos and know that you’ve made great progress to get into manual mode and take shots that you love.

Buuuut….you’re feeling a creative urge to push yourself further… you’re yearning for something *more* from your photos, and you’re just not sure what that *more* is yet.

Maybe you’re seeing beautiful work on insta…. or following other photographers and wondering what those next steps are to get photos that look like theirs (I promise we’ve been here too)

You want more than a great shot… you want next level AMAZING!

You want to use light more creatively, and develop an artist’s eye for powerful, eye-catching compositions. You want to take the kind of photos that make other people ooh and ahh over YOUR photos in THEIR feed! But you don’t know what the next steps are to get you there.

That’s where our Advanced Photography Course comes in. It’s designed to help you develop your own expert eye for more creative lighting and the intricacies of advanced exposure. To go deeper on your technical mastery, and tap into your inner artist to expand your creative muscles.

We will be there with you, all the way, encouraging you, critiquing your work, pushing you to where you want to be.

And someone who knows exactly how all this feels, and found the answer in the Advanced Photography Course, is Bronwyn Pickering. And I’m very excited to introduce you to her today!

Bronwyn Pickering and her 3 lovely muses

 

Meet Bronwyn!

Bronwyn lives in Mildura with her husband, her three daughters aged 18, 17 and 14 and their boisterous but extremely loveable and fabulously named basset hound Hurricane Hank. Bronwyn and her tribe love family time, and in the warmer months you will often find them at their favourite Lake Cullulleraine, camping, skiing and enjoying a cheeky beer by the campfire.

Read her story, check out her photos, and ask yourself… did the course meet her photography goals? We say a resounding yes!! But we want you to be the judge…

 

DSLR + Auto = Meh

I had a DSLR, and I was desperately trying to capture and replicate amazing images I’d seen online… on auto mode, in full sun, at 12pm, with absolutely no idea how much of an impact light and composition would have on the outcome!

 

Fix it in Photoshop?

So then I would attempt to get the same results through some clever and creative photoshopping… haha, nup! It turns out I am a photoshop disaster! I learned the hard way the direction of light and the time of day make a huge difference, and you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear in photoshop!

I needed help!

Manual Mode – The Logical Place to Start

I learned to use my camera in manual mode through 3 (yes, three!) in-person courses (this was before Click Love Grow was born!). So now I could control my camera and my exposure, and I had an entry level understanding of the fundamentals of light and composition… but it wasn’t enough.

I still had a burning desire to create really visually dynamic and artful imagery. I also wanted to learn how to capture mood, emotion, character… and I wanted to be able to do it more instinctively.

But I couldn’t do all that with just basic skills. Enter Click Love Grow’s Advanced Photography Course.

Game changer.

 

The Game Changer

As soon as I started the first module, I saw things completely differently.

I finally began to see light properly, I noticed shadows, framing, I fell in love with negative space.

 

 

 

I loved the assignments, they were my favourite part of the course! I desperately craved to be creative, I wanted to be just as good as the other students, and I wanted to feel really proud of the images I was submitting.

The support and the friendships, the kind words and encouragement were a real buzz. I really enjoyed seeing everyone else’s visions and how they approached the tasks.

Around the same time I also realised that my children were never going to willingly sit and smile lovingly at me, so I had to capture them without them taking any notice of me whatsoever or they were going to run away never to be seen again.

And thank goodness!

We have so many images of my girls’ real childhood captured. The messy, the silly, the real memories that I think they will really cherish in years to come.

 

 

Skills & More… So Much More

The friendships I formed through the course, although not always in person, have been beautiful. We follow and support one another’s journeys and celebrate mutual successes, and on a daily basis the messages and banter that I share with these ladies makes me smile.

So my goal was honestly just to capture some great family memories, in a really artistic way that I could be proud of, and I achieved that. Sprinkle those friendships on top, and the combination was life changing.

But there was more to come.

 

 

Shooting for the Stars

Over time, people began asking me to take photos of their families. Then I had a wedding enquiry which I quickly refused. Gosh no! I didn’t want to ruin the bride’s day with terrible images! Eventually I reluctantly said yes and from there the enquiries started to come in.

 

 

Just when I thought I’d stepped well out of my comfort zone already, I was asked to document a birth, from a lady I had only met THAT morning. What?? No thanks! But then I thought, oh gosh what a miracle to capture and what a truly amazing honour to be invited into someone’s birth space. Wow!

 

 

So it’s fair to say this photographic passion has chosen it’s own path, and I’m just going along for the ride.

Photography has also totally boosted my confidence!

When the girls’ were little we lived on a farm 120kms out of town. I was so blessed to be able to be a stay at home mum living on the farm, and I loved it. We live in town now, I am still at home with my girls but making enough income from photography to feel I’m making a valuable contribution to our family and lifestyle.

 

Big thank you to the lovely Bronnie for her words and sublime images! Bronnie is principal photographer at Essie and Elsie and one of our Advanced Photography Course instructors. Given her amazing talent, you can understand why we’re so grateful to have her on our team!

 

If you’re already shooting in manual mode, on our Advanced Photography Course you will learn to shoot with confidence in any scenario, and push yourself creatively to find and develop your style through intensive 1:1 critique on your work.  Our next course is starting soon… join our wait list to get an email when we go on sale!