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Hi [fname]

Happy New Year and welcome to the Digital Photography Courses newsletter for January 2011. We hope you had a fabulous Christmas and Santa gave you everything you wished for. If you were one of the lucky people who were presented with a photography course gift voucher then we look forward to seeing you on one of our small and friendly courses in 2011. Please keep an eye on the website and newsletters for course availability and dates. The next courses are: January 29th/30th & February 12th 2011

Changes to the Portrait and Night Time Photography Course

I thought you might like to see this selection of pictures of the lunar eclipse taken between 7.30 and 8am on December 21st. It was taken on a D5000 with the Sigma 500mm lens, a shutter speed of 15th second at an aperture of f6.3 using 800 ISO on a tripod. It is the first total lunar eclipse in three years and the first to fall on the Winter Solstice - the shortest day of the year - in nearly 400 years.

Save money and get cash back on cameras, lenses and much more with Quidco We all like to save a few £££s on camera kit so I've just started using Quidco. It's a referral web site which you click through to a range of stores who then give you around 4% cash back on purchases. It's free to join and there is no obligation to buy so why not click on the link on the right and give it a try.

Transferring pictures to a USB drive for printing using Picasa

One of the downsides of digital photography is we rarely print our pictures. Picasa makes it easy to edit and crop your pictures before transferring them to a memory card ready for printing.

1. Select your pictures. The easiest way to do this is to go into editing view by double clicking a picture then use the left and right arrow keys to choose your favourites by clicking the star button to mark it as a favourite.
2. Once you have selected all your favourites your will have a folder called "Starred Photos" ready for cropping and editing.
3. When you are happy with your work press the Ctrl and A key together to select all your images.
4. Now click the Export button at the bottom of the screen and move the resize slider all the way to the right for a 6" x 4" print. Choose a destination, like a USB stick or memory card, and leave the quality setting on automatic.
5. You can choose to add a watermark to all of your exported photos and then Click OK.
6. Edited copies of your originals will now be placed on your memory stick ready to take to your local printing outlet.

This month’s project. The snow has finally melted and left behind lots of mud and slush everywhere so why not start the new year with an early Spring clean of your camera lit.

Use a soft puffer brush first to remove any loose dirt from the body before cleaning lenses and filters gently with a soft lint free cloth and lens cleaning fluid. Check any straps for wear and ensure they are fitted correctly Check any filters for scratches and replace if damaged. Consider buying a lens hood for flare free sharp images To keep the sensor clean only remove the lens when necessary and keep the camera pointing downwards to prevent dirt around the lens falling into the camera and onto the sensor. Empty your kit bag and give it a quick hoovering before repacking. Fully extend your tripod and wipe all the parts with a soft cloth to remove any winter damp and grit. Recharge any batteries and consider buying a spare

Upcoming Photography Course Dates

• Photography Course Gift Vouchers
• Sat 15th Jan Beginner SLR Full
• Sun 16th Jan Beginner SLR Full
• Sat 29th Jan Beginner SLR 3 spaces
• Sun 30th Jan Beginner SLR 4 spaces
• Sat 12th Feb Beginner SLR 6 spaces
• Sun 27th Feb Portrait & Night
• The landscape & bird photography course will be in April 2011. Please enquire

Student Testimonials

The course was very easy to understand and follow. Glen made you feel comfortable and confident at all times when using all the camera settings. Very enjoyable, friendly and relaxed atmosphere. No More Full Auto. Clare Hartford.

Thoroughly enjoyable course. Everything was explained really well and the opportunity for one to one tuition during the practical sessions with things that I struggled on was welcome. Good mixture of information and practical guidance. - Sara Holland

Hi Glen,I just wanted to say thanks for the course, it was a great day, worth every penny. It's a great relief to now know that the expensive camera I have purchased and the new nikon 18-200 will be now be used correctly. I will hopefully be able to produce some fantastic picture in Borneo. I have recommended you to a few people, and I intend to see you for one of the wildlife courses in the future. Thanks again for superb day. Craig Rogers

We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter

Best Wishes and remember to send me some of your pictures.

Glen

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