Living Lens Photography Workshop
Bikes all loaded up, we were headed for Wales and the home of 2RidetheWorld and their Living Lens Photography courses. Simon and Lisa lived on the road for 18 years and their wealth of experience was going to be exceedingly informative.
We attended the Post Processing course - designed to help you navigate your way around and get the best from Lightroom and Photoshop.
We are both reasonably experienced photographers but the tech can often get in the way of creating some beautiful photos. The last proper processing I did was in the eighties in a darkroom - technology has certainly moved on since then and so it was going to be a fairly steep learning curve! Carl was quite familiar with Photoshop having used it years ago, but unless you do things regularly you forget. We wanted to hone the skills we had and learn a host more in preparation for our own round-the-world trip, to enable us to process photos on the road easily and quickly.
So we were excited to get there. The courses are run at the Nick Sanders Expedition Centre, just outside Machynlleth in Powys. Set in the hills with shepherds huts and cabins as accommodation, it is a beautiful location and we had stunning vistas across the valley towards Cadair Idris from our cabin.
We settled in and went to join the group.
Eight of us were on the course and they were a really fun and friendly bunch. The first night was getting to know each other, sharing a drink in the converted barn whilst relaxing on the sofas around a huge log burner. All very civilised.
Caroline (Nick's wife) kept us very well fed all weekend with amazing, locally sourced cuisine. The food was exceptional. I only wish I had taken photos of every single course and meal!
The next morning we were straight into the work after breakfast, laptops out and brains in gear. I got my laptop out at least... 😂
Simon is an enthusiastic tutor with so much experience and knowledge gained over his years on the road that I think he would have liked us to have been there for weeks so that he could share more of it, but with just two and a half days, he broke it down into sensible elements, giving us a good grasp of the workings of the programs.
It can be mental overload with things like this, but with regular tea and cake breaks (fabulous home baking each day - diets now needed!) and some fresh, mountain air to clear our heads, we worked until early evening. Basically until Caroline kicked us out as she needed to organise dinner!
After the work finished each day we took a quick twenty minute walk up the hills to shake out the limbs and burn off some of the calories we'd consumed!
Wonderful walks over the hills.
We were sad to leave. An extremely helpful and educational course, Simon and Lisa are excellent tutors and hosts. Our bed was so comfortable I had my first full nights sleep without interruptions for four years!!
But leave we must, because we had another course to be getting to the very next day….
More on that here!
