Lightroom 4, Fetac Level 5 Digital Photography, Photography Education in South Kerry at Tech Amergin Waterville

With Photoshop ® Lightroom Adobe has created one of the most comprehensive tools for digital photography. From importing images, key wording and editing to final output for print, slide shows, books, geotagging, own website or Internet portal and social media, the entire digital workflow is covered by this software.
 In the current version 4, Lightroom has one of the best RAW converters on the market and delivers in all areas of detailed colour accuracy up to the impressive noise reduction results. This software can help the amateur to professional photographer work with the ever increasing flood of images of the digital photo age from time saving tasks to improving the quality of your photos.

 Intermediate Lightroom will start on Tuesday 5th February from 7 – 9pm. Lightroom for Beginners, Saturday 9th March, 10am – 4pm (1 day).
 Adobe Lightroom 4 for Digital Photographers ‘The Photography Book making workshop’ – Intermediate, Friday & Saturday 22nd & 23rd March.
 All courses and workshops are dependent on a minimum number to run. Please contact Angela at the centre on 066 9478956  or by email to admin@techamergin.com to reserve your place.

I´m also starting a new Fetac Level 5 course on Digital Photography.
Here is a link to the Tech Amergin website with my courses and workshops: Tech Amergin Photography Class

Winter at the Kerry Mountain

Lough Accoose and Mcgillycuddy Reeks

Lough Accoose

Lough Accoose and Mcgillycuddy Reeks

Lough Accoose

Old farm on the road to Killorglin

Lough Accoose and Caher Mountain

Mcgillycuddy Reeks from  the South

Lough Accoose

Caher Lake

Caher  Lake

On my way to Killarney, I took the road to Caher Lake.
 A nice sunny day, no wind. About 5°C, but it felt like 15.
I stopped several times to take photos and got just carried away.
I had never expected to take any decent photos in the middle of the day. Kerry seems to have a special quality in the light.
 You don´t need to wait for the evening, the clarity of the air and the subtle colours are very prominent all the time.
 Lough Accoose and the Mcgillycuddy Reeks were just there in silence.
I´m sure there were some climbers on there way to the top of Carrauntoohil, Irelands highest peak.
 I met a nice woman on the road with her son going for a walk. She had a camera too. I´m sure she has some nice photos taken. It could´nt go wrong.
 If you are passing Killorglin take the road to Glencar, you´ll be rewarded.
 p.s. I never made it to Killarney.
Photos were taken with 40, 50 and 70-200mm lens, some with Polarizer Filter.
 ©Michael Herrmann 2013

Finding Your Photographic Subject

Door Knockers in France and Germany

The number of subjects or themes for a photographic project is unlimited. You start noticing something in your little world that attracts your attention and you take  a first shot, maybe a second and a third and you are in the wheel.
A relationship has begun and from now on you feel a reason to coninue. Some photographers have a theme that seems to stay with them for their entire life.
Ansel Adams and the fantastic black and white  landscapes photographs he took in the Yosemite Park would be one of my favourites. Other photographers created collections of buildings during their life like the famous Bernd and Hilla Becher. Others shoot birds with their camera, or fish in the sea.
Sebastiao Salgado as a final example worked for over a decade on a project called "Workers" where he travelled all over the world to take photos of people working in different fields, projects, expertise. One of the best photographic projects I ever saw.

Once you get into a certain depth of your subject you will become an expert sooner or later. You start developing interest in all aspects of the theme and research will lead you into new levels of knowledge. You look back and notice the quality has changed and at some stage you start looking at your collection and you wonder about what to do next. The work is done but should you keep going?
A photographic project can stay with you for a short period, a year, a decade or your whole life. There is no rule when to finish, you make the decision or you never finish at all.
The end of a project can lead you into a new one.
You should start a new project this year. In 12 month time and 5000 photos later you know it had a purpose.

Lightroom Courses and Workshops, Tech Amergin Waterville

I´m going to continue to teach Adobe Lightroom 4 in Tech Amergin Waterville soon. In the new term we will look closer at the Map, Book and Web module.
 In addition to what we´ve already done in the Print module we are having a practice session about print settings and learn how to avoid costly mistakes.
The course is running for 4 weeks on a Tuesday night in two hour sessions and costs €50.
You need to bring your laptop with the program installed with you. The 4 week trial version can be downloaded here: Lightroom 4 trial
Please install the program only at the first date of the class to avail of the full four weeks trial. The download can be done at an earlier stage.
Workshops
  In addition to the intermediate course, I´m offereing two Lightroom workshops.
The first workshop is an introduction into Lightroom 4 for everybody who has not used Lightroom before or has just started using the program and need a bit of help. I´m covering the different modules of Lightroom 4 and show how simple and easy it is to organise your photo files, the editing process and how to export photos for different purposes like the internet and printing.
You need to bring your laptop with the programm downloaded and installed. You can bring your laptop and I will install the trial version before we start.
Saturday 9th March, 10.00-4.00 pm Fee €40

 The second workshop is called "The Photography Book making workshop" - Intermediate 
Lightroom 4 offers a very good module to create photography books.
In this workshop you will learn how to use the right settings and design options on the first day to enable you to use photos and text in your book project.
The second day will take place in a printers studio, here you will watch first-hand the printing of a sample book on a high quality printer.
Basic experience in using Lightroom required for this workshop.

 Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd March 10am - 4.30 pm Fee €75, materials €6.

You can register your place for the course and workshops at
Tech Amergin  in Waterville or online at Tech Amergin Waterville
You can phone Angela at the helpdesk  T: 066 9478956

Skelligs again, Tech Amergin Spring Programme

To know your subject well is always a great advantage in photography. Still, one of the great joys of a landscape photographer is to return to the same place and see the scene in new light, from different angle and in a new context.
 The seasons and the ever changing light in Kerry helps a lot so that you never run out of reasons to return. I love going to the same place again and again and find something that I did not expexted at all. Even if its just there for a couple minutes. The light becomes a special event and what Henri Cartier Bresson called "the decisive moment". If you are in the right place and your gear is ready and most importantly your mind is ready to receive the signal, you are lucky.
 Being prepared helps, like using a decent tripod and having gloves on when its cold.
You can´t be disappointed because you are coming home with something that can be a treasure, something special. The result can be very different but the main thing is, you´ve tryed and you can now review what you´ve done. Doing it is the secret.

 Moirisk, The Glen. County Kerry. The Skelligs. ©Michael Herrmann 2013

Tech Amergin Waterville click here for the link has published the Spring Programme now, have a look please.
 I´m going to teach further Lightroom classes and start a new Digital Photography Fetac level 5 course.
Some interesting workshops and special walks are also part of the programme

First Catch At Reenroe Beach,Ballinskelligs

Photos from my first walk on Reenroe Beach 2013. More to come. See you in Kerry. All photos Canon 5dmkII, 50mm.