Our Photography Courses Blog - Crystal Palace Park, London

Rachel spent the day with Pete, a disabled serviceman who lives in Balham, near Crystal Park.  Although Pete was originally signed up for a day course, because of mobility problems we upgraded him to a day of one to one photography training at our expense.  They went to Battersea Park to get some creative professional-looking shots.  Luckily, Pete had already bought a 50mm f1.8 lens, although he hadn’t really used it much before, so here was his chance, to go from Auto to this in a day:

Pete is very keen to get some of his artwork up on the walls at home – with shots like this he’ll be spoilt for choice, well done Pete – makes us proud!

Even in February, Crystal Palace has wonders to photograph. We played with the waterfall for a while, then moved onto the dinosaurs. In the cold the crepes at Cafe St Germain were especially welcome.

Bromley doesn’t immediately come to mind as a great photographic location but the statues are great for trying things out. All these pictures are by beginners using Canon 500Ds and a Nikon D90.

Caroline’s picture is conventional – the gorilla perhaps slightly greyer than the real thing because of the metering. Half a stop of underexposure would have sorted this out – but it was her first pic of the day.

Amazing how a different angle changes the image. Martin’s picture of the same thing has a totally different feel – quizzical, even.

Mark’s picture of the dinosaur is so off centre it suggests it was taken hurriedly, or that the creature was about to move into the frame. Unconventional framing adding drama.

Lovely tones by Rosie – the D90 has done a great job of handling the tones here.

The same subject by Martin with shallow depth of field:

Unconventional depth of field here picks up the concrete in the foreground:

Totally conventional, but none the worse for that:

What it lacks in grandeur it makes up for in convenience – free parking, access from the tube and plenty of interesting subjects (even in February) make Crystal Palace Park great for photography courses.

We’re decided to brave the dinosaurs to bring some of our photography courses to London. See the website for details – we’re really looking forward to this, thanks to the borough of Bromley. Crystal Palace has 200 acres, lakes, dinosaurs, sphynxes – what more do you want?

It’s a great location for photography, and handy for the city. Free parking too.