Clapham photo club meets for the first time with Charlie Round-Turner photographer

Here is a link to a note that Charlie shared with us. It gives some easy to grasp descriptions of aperture, shutter speed, ISO; the range of different types of lenses from wide lenses to standard and telephoto ones; a little exercise to try different apertures and shutter speeds to get the same effect; short advice on light directions and finally the rule of thumb 'keep it simple'! 

Charlie Round-Turner photographer note

I had this idea of setting up a local photo club to share and learn from others with an interest in photography in particular mums who would be in a similar position in terms of available time.

So I asked the question on NappyValleyNet - the site for mums in South West London and I had very surprising results.

First mums showed an interest. Second a great photographer Charlie Round-Turner (http://charlieroundturner.com/) offered a free photography basics class. Third we found the perfect place to host it, Eat Play and Love on Battersea Road, spacious, with a soft play area for the children and nicely decorated. And amazing staff!

So as a result the 'Clapham photo-club' held its first meeting last week and hosted a very practical lesson for its members.

Charlie was very focused, gave us practical tips about composition

- Keep it simple 

- Try to reduce the scene in simple elements, or shapes, or lines 

- Adopt an interesting perspective 

- Use the soft light that comes from a window for example 

- Play with aperture and shutter speed until you get the results you want 

- If the scene appears dark shoot again and increase the exposure and if too bright decrease it

Although we were in a cafe, as you would expect full of people, kids, objects etc he pushed us to take pictures and apply some of the rules. 

Here are 4 out of maybe 50 or 60 of the photos I took which I thought I could share. 

 This is part of a nicely decorated wall, in Eat Play and Love cafe. 

My son playing with a balloon.  

A happy cat playing the guitar part of another nicely decorated wall.  

Son smiling after the flying balloon. I should have moved so that the bag and buggy in the background were not in the frame (I tried cropping but unless I chopped part of the little head, they were still there), but that was difficult to notice at the time and is a lesson for next time. 

Now that it exists the Clapham photo club will meet again for other exciting activities. So if you want to join or have any suggestions please do get in touch.