It’s easy to take a photograph. Point the camera, zoom a little and click. If the scene is right you might be lucky and have a prize winner.
I’m a firm believer that the best camera is the one you have with you. Mobile phones, smart phones with clever visual effects and compact cameras will allow you to take a photo on the move without much thought and effort. They’re great, light and easy to carry, but they are limited in what they can achieve.
SLRs (single-lens reflex) and DSLRs (digital single-lens reflex) are a different story. They have more buttons, more knobs and more options that can help you to dictate how the camera represents your view of the world.
You can take control. You can decide if everything is sharp or if only a small element is in focus. You can decide if people dominate a crowded square or if they are allowed to blur into the background allowing buildings to reign supreme. You can decide what is exposed and what you want obscured.
SLRs and DSLRs properly used allow you to get creative.
The team at CityPicTour want you to take better pictures using SLRs or DSLRs and they use the backdrop of Dublin City to help you along the way.
I signed up for both their Dublin City Centre Photo Tour and their Old-Modern Dublin Photo Tour over one weekend and I loved every minute of the experience.
Luca and Antonio brought their eager students on a journey from St Stephen’s Green, through Trinity College to Temple Bar and from the Ha’Penny Bridge along the Liffey to Grand Canal Dock.
As we walked, talked and took photographs Luca explained how to set the right exposure, the effects of changing aperture and shutter speed on the characteristics of an image, and the impact zooming has on depth of field and perspective.
If you’ve an SLR or DSLR and the last paragraph lost you a little then I recommend walking around Dublin with Luca Truffarelli and you’ll be surprised how much you’ll learn.
Luca doesn’t just go into the theory. With the aid of a trusty iPad he’ll take a look at your photos and give you the benefit of years of professional experience. He was instantly able to spot ways of improving the composition of images that seemed so obvious once he pointed them out, but were so easily overlooked when the picture was taken.
I thought I knew a lot of the theory, and I’ve certainly put some of it into practice, but after the tour I realised how much I didn’t really understand or had simply forgotten as I lazily used Aperture Priority instead of Manual!!!
Apart from their love of photography and their desire to pass on their knowledge to others Antonio and Luca think Dublin is a fantastic city. You realise quickly that although they are both originally from Italy they have fallen in love with Dublin and have made the city their own.
Whether you want to learn more about photography, you want a refresher course, or you simply would like to spend a few hours seeing Dublin in a different light, CityPicTour is certainly worth a shot.
Take a look at the CityPicTour website or visit them on Facebook.
