Photography Course

Most visitors to Cape Town soon come to realize that the city has so much to offer - from diverse cultures, gorgeous landscapes and scenery, flavorsome food and a rich history all bundled up in one place.

As humans, we of course also can’t help capturing these experiences with a few photos and sharing our new-made memories with our friends and family back at home. Last week I got the chance to join our Photography Course and learnt first-hand from our photographer how unbelievably amazing Cape Town really is!

Monday – We started the day with an orientation about Cape Town and then discussed what we hoped to achieve from the week ahead with our photography teacher. We spent some time setting up our cameras before heading off to our first stop of the day, Newlands Forest, where we learned about the basic settings such as aperture, shutter speed and white balance. We then moved into the city centre, to the Bo Kaap with all its beautifully colored houses where we were challenged to take a “non-touristy” photo.

Tuesday – With lots of clouds in the sky and rain being forecast, we headed to Kalk Bay Harbour to work on taking photos “from the hip” in a more documentary style. This was a fun experience as the clouds kept moving and the light changed continuously, so we took lots of time to work on the previous days newly acquired skills. We then took the short drive to Boulder’s Beach near Simon’s Town and got to see some African penguins and their new little downy chicks. At both locations we learned to deal with the challenge of taking photos with strangers around and how to creative a narrative in one shot.

Wednesday –The last two days saw us mastering the different setting on our cameras, so today we headed off to World of Birds in Hout Bay to try our hand at taking photos of the quick moving birds and wildlife. The sanctuary covers almost 4 hectares of land and houses about 3000 different birds and small animals so we had a lot to look at and photograph. What an incredible place to practice in! After a quick lunch, we head down the road to Imizamo Yethu for a guided tour. Our guide took us for an hour long walk around the area whilst explaining some of the history, introducing us to a few of the people living there and we learned a lot about their lifestyle and the different cultures.

Thursday – Personal Project Day. Each student got to choose if we wanted to head back to a location we had visited in the week and improve on the photos we had taken or source a new location to craft our own “passion project”. Cape Town has so many remarkable places to visit that we each chose a new place to spend the day taking photos for our personal projects.

Friday – Time to select and edit our best photos from the week. We had experienced and learned so much, so it was a bit of a challenge to choose the best photos, but with some guidance from our photography teacher and a few small lessons on post-production edits, we managed and got them ready for our final presentations.

Our Photography Course is a great way to work on your photo-taking skills and see a good variety of what Cape Town has to offer in just one week. Each course offers one-on-one support and guidance from a professional and is structured according to the students and their previous experience level. You will learn a lot no matter how knowledgeable you already are.

Yours Bridget,
Volunteer Coordinator

To be part of our amazing volunteer community, please contact us.