Professional photography tuition - a fantastic investment

We amateur photographers are always keen to learn, avidly consuming How To articles in publications such as PhotoPlus and Digital Camera magazine, and picking up tips for improving our technique and exchanging ideas on the PhotoRadar forums, but nothing beats face-to-face tuition from a pro.

Working on PhotoPlus magazine, I'm more fortunate than most amateurs (and I put myself firmly in that bracket – of course we have seasoned pros on the staff, but I'm the guy who makes sure all the words are spelt correctly), and was lucky enough to accompany some of our readers on a day's landscape photography workshop in Bamburgh, Nothumberland, led by the amiable and enthusiastic Dimitri Vasiliou of Earth's Beauty photography courses.

Bamburgh is a tiny village of 400 or so, but is dominated by a huge castle that sits above a vast dune-backed beach. You couldn't hope for a more picturesque setting, but the morning passed without a photo being taken; instead Dimitri patiently explained the techniques and equipment we'd need to master to improve our landscape photography.

There was a fair mixture of abilities on our course: one reader had invested in her D-SLR just a few months previously and was taking her first tentative steps beyond the basics, whereas another had invested seriously in his hobby, with Canon's grey L-series EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lenses among the high-end gear in his kitbag. But Dimitri made sure no one got left behind, explaining everything with such passion that it was impossible not to come away full of inspiration, and showed us landscape techniques that, it's fair to say, will permanently change the way we all approach landscape photography.

In the afternoon, we put what we learned into practice; Dimitri encouraged us to set up our shot, then reviewed each one of the group's settings and composition in turn, suggesting changes that would turn our so-so shots into ones we'd be happy to hang above the mantlepiece. As we discovered, when it comes to landscapes, it's not the moment of pressing the shutter that counts, but the half-an-hour beforehand of carefully scouting the location, setting up the composition, precisely positioning filters and making sure that everything is exactly as it should be.

The overarching lesson of the day was that landscape photography is all about quality, rather than quantity. As Dimitri says: "It's better to come back from a day with four photos you can be proud of, rather than 400 that will go straight into the wastebasket!"

So next time you're treating yourself to something to further your hobby, consider signing up for a day's professional photography tuition. It's an investment that could pay far more dividends than a new lens or camera bag.