Bamboozled by camera buttons? Help is at hand

By Sue Curnock

Nature Tots Officer

I’m so pleased I decided to go on Sussex Wildlife Trust's Beginning Nature Photography course at Woods Mill last weekend. I was given a super-dooper DSLR camera for my birthday last spring and have been guiltily using it in ‘Auto’ mode because I didn’t understand all the bells and whistles liberally scattered across its surface. Indecipherable little reminders of my lack of technical skill mocking me every time I tried to use the camera until I put it back in its box and pushed it to the back of a deep dark cupboard for a few months (but I still knew it was lurking in there).

I pretended I had only just got the camera when I turned up at the course because I was so ashamed I hadn’t been using it properly, but was very relieved to find several other people in exactly the same boat. Apart from being a truly excellent wildlife photographer, David Plummer is also an engaging teacher and put us at ease with some nice simple drawings and plenty of enthusiasm. I must say his photographic skills aren’t quite matched by his rather questionable but amusing white board diagrams (nobody is perfect). When we finally all marched out onto the nature reserve armed with new-found knowledge about the relationship between aperture and shutter speed (using a smaller opening means you need to keep it open for a longer time).

I thought the best way to tell you about the joy I am feeling after two days of head scratching and finally getting to grips with the ‘exposure triangle’ (controlling the amount of light), ‘depth of field’ (getting that fuzzy background) and composition (not cutting heads and feet off) was to show you my ‘before’ and ‘after’ flower shots. I know it’s not perfect, but I’m deliriously happy with the bluebell I took on Sunday afternoon – you can see why when you look at the fritillary I took on Saturday morning!

I’m so glad I did the course and would recommend it to everyone who is bamboozled by all those buttons. If you already know your ISO from your ball head tripod, then you would probably enjoy one of David’s more advanced courses. It’s given me the confidence to get outside and have a go at getting it spectacularly wrong until I can start getting it right a bit more often.

David Plummer is running more wildlife photography courses later this year.