Jane Goodhall

Tonight’s evening was given to us by the lovely Jane.

It was entitled Photoshoot and was designed to show us how to set our stall out for this kind of photojournalism.

Is it journalism?

If you take the news side out of the story, you’re left with a life in the day of a family. This family, and Jane’s attempt to give them a moment that this family could treasure for all time. Quite scary really!

She showed us the minutiae of things that most of us wouldn’t even consider, getting the family to consider their outfits, how to deal with unhelpful children and/or parents, choice of weapons and their correct use. How and why to quickly change your settings when the camera is to your eye, no tripods or monopods here. What’s in the background, does this pose work, can I get them to do this, all before they get bored. How to get Dad and Mum involved. Wow, such a lot to consider. All interestingly handled.

Then the second half, trials and tribulations of setting up a photo book. Why a photo book works better than a memory stick. How to balance the storyline in your pictures.

Then some ideas for photos you might take and how to polish the images before publication.

I left there thinking ‘Sod that, I’ll leave that to the experts’ but did come away with the thought that I could do some of this with my kids, yeah, that definitely going to improve my family shots. (and we’ve got a street photography competition coming soon)

Thank you Jane,

I genuinely found this interesting.

You covered the ground so well that you left us virtually no questions worth mentioning.

Good job.