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Landscape Photography Courses, Lake District, Peak District

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Dave Butcher runs black and white landscape photography courses in small groups, with his wife Jan, in beautiful English countryside such as the Lake District and Peak District National Parks.

Ilford Photo and Harman Photo support Dave Butcher Photography by kindly providing some film and inkjet paper to all participants on landscape photography courses.

Lake District 3 day courses

New for 2010 are 3 day landscape photography courses in the Lake District. These will use Eskdale in the Western Lakes as the base and run in March, May and September. Dates for 2011 are now planned and are in March, June and October.

Locations include:

Eskdale for mountains such as the Scafell and Coniston ranges, rivers, waterfalls up to 60 feet high, trees, old Roman Fort with walls around 6 feet high on all four sides. high mountain road pass
Wasdale for mountains like Scafell Pike (highest in England) and Great Gable, Wast Water (deepest lake in England), waterfalls, trees, boat-house
Ravenglass and Eskmeals for the coast, beach, boats, river and estuary
Duddon and Dunnerdale Valleys for trees, waterfalls and rocks
Ulpha and Birker Fells including expansive views, wooded gorge, large lake
Other possible locations include Buttermere and Ennerdale amongst others.

This will give us a wide variety of subject matter including mountains, lakes, trees, waterfalls, coast and rock formations.

There will also be time for a photoshop demonstration, usually late afternoon to early evening on the second day. I briefly show how how to edit a file using the most important tools in Photoshop Elements v8 for black and white photography and offer advice on how to edit your own images if you bring your own laptop.

We will be staying in Stanley House in the village of Boot in Eskdale which will provide bed and breakfast for 3 nights from the meeting day onwards. This is high quality accommodation ('equivalent to 4 star hotel bedrooms') with large en-suite rooms. If you would like to bring your husband, wife or partner then double rooms can be arranged for a small extra cost. They would just need to look after themselves between breakfast and dinner while we are off taking photographs. There is lots of walking in Eskdale from the front door of the b&b and is also opposite the station for the miniature railway between Eskdale and Ravenglass, and we do all of the driving during the course so if you come by car your partner will have the use of the car.

Lunches and evening meals will be in local pubs and cafes wherever we find ourselves. Not having a fixed time and place for dinner in particular will give us greater flexibility for locations.

In the event of poor weather we will use the large reception rooms at Stanley House for the odd lecture and discussions about locations, technique and the more artistic side of photography.

Each course starts with a welcome meeting in the evening of the first night and a short talk illustrated with my photographs to give you some ideas and inspiration for the photography days ahead. This is followed by 3 full days on location taking photographs Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The course ends at 4pm on the Wednesday to allow time for travelling home.

Cost: £550 each

Usual number of places available: 5

Transport: provided for the duration of the course.

Travel to Stanley House by public transport is very easy by train to Ravenglass (change at Preston or Carlisle) then catch the train to Beckfoot, the station before the end of the line at Dalehead (Boot in Eskdale).

Meeting Point: Stanley House Bed and Breakfast, Eskdale, Lake District, Cumbria, CA19 1TF

Not included in the price:

Travel to meeting point. If travelling by public transport take the mainline train to Ravenglass then change to the narrow gauge railway to Eskdale. Get off at Beckfoot, the station before the end of the line. It is 100 metres from Stanley House. Just walk down the track from the station, cross the road, the large building in front of you is Stanley House.
Lunch
Dinner
Insurance (personal, equipment and cancellation)

Peak District 1 day courses

There are 1 day black and white landscape photography courses in the Peak District (or you can combine 2 courses on consecutive dates to make a 2 day course) from April to October (except no courses in August).

We will continue to add new locations, as we have each year, so that if you have been with us before we will try and make sure you do not visit the same location again, unless you have a particular favourite in which case we will do our best to fit it into our itinerary.

We visit locations across the middle part of the Peak District including the Goyt Valley, Mam Tor, Padley Gorge and a host of other locations. In a normal day this will provide the chance to photograph wide views of the Peak District from one of the many edges and hill tops, waterfalls, trees and rocks.

Cost: £150 each

Usual number of places available: 5

Approximate Times: 9 am start, 5 pm finish

Transport: provided for the duration of the course. If you come with your wife, husband or partner they will be able to use the family car for travelling around and seeing the many and varied sights in the Peak District while you are on the course.

Meeting Point: Briarwood, Tunstead Milton, Whaley Bridge, High Peak, Derbyshire, SK23 7ER

Not included in the price:

Travel to meeting point. If using public transport the nearest station is Whaley Bridge. There is accommodation within walking distance. We will collect you from your accommodation and take you back after the course.
Lunch
Accommodation, if needed. This is a tourist destination so there is lots of choice available in the immediate area. See Links page for the web sites of accommodation in the local area.
Insurance (personal, equipment and cancellation)

Personal Tuition

If you would like more personal tuition for yourself or a group of friends then I can arrange landscape photography courses of one or more days in the Peak District or Lake District (or lots of other areas in the UK). We can go to more remote locations or stay near the car, you decide. This is a very cost effective way of rapidly improving your black and white landscape photography for both digital and film camera users while finding new stunning places to take photographs. If you are a digital worker we could also include some simple Photoshop image manipulation, which is not otherwise available.

Personal tuition can also be arranged for dates outside of the the normal courses calendar. So, if you want to come on a course in the winter months (November to February), for example, then this is the only way to do it.

Days booked need not be consecutive. For example, book 1 day in the spring, 1 in summer, 1 in winter, etc and see the effects of the different seasons on the landscape and your black and white photographs.

The cost for 1 person is £300 per day. For groups of 2 or more the price is £500 for 1 day, £1000 for 3 days. Expenses are extra but are kept reasonable and can be estimated or fixed before any final agreement. Transport is provided for up to 5 people within this price.

The price is the total per day or 3 days, etc. (not per individual as for my other courses). The smaller the group the more attention each individual will receive but the larger the group the lower the cost to each individual. For example, if you can arrange a group of 3 or 4 it can be a very cost effective way of booking a course while still receiving lots of personal tuition. Choose whichever suits you best.

To talk through the options give me a call on 01663 733771 or send an email to mono@davebutcher.co.uk

General Information

All photography courses are suitable for digital or film camera users of any standard (absolute beginner to professional).

There are usually 5 people on each course.

There is no group tuition, it is all 1-to-1 from both Dave and Jan Butcher, a pupil to tutor ratio of just 2.5 to 1.

The locations vary, as you would expect with such varied areas to choose from.

The locations are spread across the Lake District or Peak District, as appropriate, and are mostly in the National Parks. The more popular locations are visited 'out of season' and during the tourist season we find more obscure locations to avoid the crowds.

You need enough fitness to walk 3 miles or so on rough paths and have stout shoes or walking boots, warm clothes and waterproofs. Other than that these are photography courses so we want to spend as much time taking pictures.

If you want something with more hill walking then talk to me separately and I'll see what I can do.

These are practical courses that concentrate on seeing and capturing pictures in black and white, but you will also see an improvement in your colour photography if you do this too, and are a mixture of art and technique. The basics of composition, depth of field (what is in focus), and exposure as they apply to black and white, where to point the meter (built-in or separate) and how to take a meter reading for both film and digital, are always covered. What to photograph in different types of weather are covered as dictated by the conditions! Hopefully, after one of these courses you will find yourself taking photographs that you would previously have walked past without noticing as well as improving the appeal and impact of any landscapes that you take.

Film users:

The use of filters is also included. I have a few filters to sell or lend you if you have none of your own. I can advise on processing and other aspects of using film. If you have no darkroom then there are 2 ways to use film but still make prints. Use Ilford XP2 film which can be processed through any High Street processing machine for colour print film (for example, the "1 hour" C41 process). This produces a black and white film but the prints will usually have a colour cast since the printers are not set up to make black and white prints, but at least you have a processed film and some prints for guidance. Once you have your negatives you can either scan them or have them scanned. Alternatively use Ilford FP4 or HP5 and send the films to Ilford Photo for traditional high quality processing and printing. They can also scan the negatives and provide a CD so that you can tweak the images and print from your own PC.

I am supported by Ilford Photo who provide 3 rolls of FP4 film free of charge to each participant (35mm or 120).

Digital users:

The use of the histogram and clipping functions, and adjustment of curves in Photoshop instead of the use of coloured filters on the lens, are always covered, as well as techniques such as underexposure and multiple exposure (you need a tripod for this) to keep details in the highlights and shadows. Polarising and grey graduated lens filters to compensate for very bright skies can be very useful for digital slr users. If your camera has a RAW file format then this should be used. Always record in colour mode to make sure you keep all the colour information so that you can apply filtration in Photoshop or whatever image manipulation program that you use. Some top end cameras let you record in colour RAW and view 'on-camera' in black and white; this is the best system of all. Don't worry if your camera only records in jpeg you will still get some good results but as soon as you transfer to your PC convert it to tiff format to avoid losing quality (every time you resave a jpeg quality is lost).

The use of a tripod will give you extra possibilites for photographs; slow shutter speed shots that cannot be hand-held are often very effective with water and in low light situations. The multiple exposure techniques to compensate for the deficiencies of digital camera sensors, in situations of wide brightness ranges such as sunlit water to deep shadows, really needs the use of a tripod or the acceptance of lost detail in highlights or shadows.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you fully charge rechargeable batteries and wherever possible bring spares. If your camera fails on a course there is very little that we can do about it. Also, bring enough storage space for lots of image files. In a typical day 150 to 200 colour RAW images is not unusual.

If you have been on a Photography course with me before we will try and visit some new locations.

Payment details

Either book here through my secure web ordering system, send me an email with your details or call me to book over the telephone or for more information.
Telephone: 01663 733771; Email: mono@davebutcher.co.uk

If you are using a credit card, click here to view the available dates, then click the buy button.

Alternatively, I can accept payments with a UK cheque made payable to Dave Butcher Photography. In this case please send your payment to:

Dave Butcher Photography
Briarwood
Tunstead Milton
Whaley Bridge
High Peak
Derbyshire
SK23 7ER
UK

You can either pay the full amount on booking or a deposit of 50%, the balance becomes due 2 months before the start of a course. Deposits and balances can all be paid through this web site, or directly with Dave Butcher Photography.

To avoid disappointment we suggest that you take out insurance as soon as you book a course that covers you for illness or injury, your equipment and course cancellation (see full terms and conditions).

Course Information

I have written some articles to help clients who come on my courses. They are freely available to anyone and cover:

They are also available, in a slightly different page layout more suited to printing, as a downloadable pdf from the pages listed above.

Here is some extra information to help you decide to come on one of my courses, or prepare for it:

Courses Leaflet

Peak District Landscape Course information

Course Dates 2010

Directions to Peak District Meeting Point

Local Accommodation

Terms and Conditions