Advanced Grad Customer Stories – Floss Butterworth

Think our photography courses are only about learning to take beautiful portraits?

Well that’s part of it… but if you think that’s all you’ll learn, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The photography skills we teach are universal… by which I mean, you can apply to them to any genre of photography you could ever imagine wanting to try.

In our Advanced Photography Course we build on your sound foundational skills, to take your photography to the next level. Our lessons deep dive into more intricate techniques around light, exposure, colour theory, composition, editing, session planning and more, for a comprehensive advanced course that will teach you exactly how to take your photos from good, to amazing.

Over 12 weeks on our online course, our students learn:

• How to find and harness more dynamic and creative light to bring their images to life
• Exposing for creative effect and how to shoot purposefully for light and airy or dark and moody
• Next level compositional concepts for creating more artistic and powerfully visual imagery
• The skills to plan and execute a photo session that perfectly matches your creative vision
• A deeper understanding of your gear so you can expose confidently and consistently in any situation
• How to hand edit in Lightroom for complete control (it’s not about filters people!)

So regardless of the genre you’re most interested in improving or exploring, armed with these skills you can go out confidently and nail it in any situation, with any subject!

And with that, today I’m excited to introduce you to a very talented Advanced Grad, Floss Butterworth. When Floss fell in love with photography, her subject of choice was landscapes and a little bit of wildlife, and she very quickly proved the skills she gained in the Advanced Course could be applied anywhere, and to anything…

Meet Floss!

Hi there, I’m Floss. Mother of two boys (well men really) who are just about to turn 21 and 18. I live on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula, just over an hours drive out of Melbourne, Australia. It is a beautiful area which allows plenty of opportunities for photos.  My husband bought me a basic entry level camera 3 years ago for my big 50th birthday, and neither of us realised the love affair that was about to blossom (with my camera that is!).

Now that my boys have grown and I have a little bit more time to myself, it has allowed me to explore and escape into what I consider ‘me time’.  I love the learning, the creativity, the skill, and the achievements that I have made.  My favourite quote from Sam Abell is “Essentially what photography is is life lit up” and I couldn’t agree more.

A Desire to Keep Learning

I had just completed the Enthusiast Course and had really enjoyed the structure and style of the course. I had learnt a tonne and I could see the progress in my photography as a result, and that made me hungry to keep learning more. At the same time I was looking at the photos coming out of the Advanced Course, and I was really nervous that it was beyond my abilities to achieve the amazing photos they were sharing. I thought I might be well out of my depth… but I also knew I wasn’t going to learn anything more if I didn’t put myself out there.

So I dived right in!

The Skills to Capture Your Vision

As a hobbyist, I didn’t have any photography goals other than a desire to continue to learn and to be able to take better photos.  I’m not really sure if I even knew what “better” was, but I wanted to be able to look at an image and at least be able to understand how it was achieved.

I live in such a beautiful part of the world and my camera allows me to explore the area I live in with a new set of eyes, and I really wanted to learn how capture what I was seeing.

Up until the advanced composition lesson I was still working almost entirely with the rule of thirds and making sure that I was sticking to my grid. Learning and understanding different composition techniques and using them purposefully was a big game changer to really give my images a more dynamic feel.

Also essential in good landscape photography is the ability to analyse the scene before you and determine which element should be the hero of the shot. Then you need to decide how to best expose for that element, and you need a solid understanding of the camera’s histogram and lighting in order to get it right purposefully.

Learning about histograms, metering and lighting was my biggest takeaway from the Advanced Course, as it taught me how to expose for the hero element in the scene before me in a way that would showcase it to its best advantage.

The Art of Analysing Imagery

I really appreciated and benefited from the honest feedback from both the instructors and other students. It helped me see my images with fresh eyes and think about what I could do next time to improve it, and that was such a powerful learning tool for me.

The other aspect of the course that had a big impact on my photos was that students had to give and receive feedback on our images. It taught me to unpack the layers of an image, and really analyse what elements appealed to me in an image, and what I felt didn’t quite work, so that I could try the same thing or avoid the same mistakes.

Grow in Skills and Confidence

The Advanced Course allowed me to consolidate all the foundational skills and information I had learnt doing previous courses, and I was able to grow and expand to feel much more confident on how to get the photo that I wanted.

I now know what to look for in a location, and I understood the light and elements at a location to determine what it is I want to capture, and how to capture it.

Why Click Love Grow?

The instructors and other members are all so supportive and helpful, and the thing I love most about learning with Click Love Grow is that its structure allowed me to learn at my own pace.

The course broke things down into easily understandable “chunks” that I was able to practice and actually achieve at my own pace.

l learnt that really looking at other peoples images and giving and receiving feedback or constructive critique is a fabulous learning opportunity. I continue to be inspired by many members in this group!

      

Before & After

After Advanced Photography Course