Course Duration: Four weeks
Dates: September 6 to October 8 , 2010
Location: Cardiff

Course summary

This highly-practical course will develop the skills and confidence needed to excel as a photographer working with newspapers, magazines and online media.

Participants will be working individually and part of a team to research, shoot, edit and print picture stories throughout the month. Lectures will reveal the techniques used by the world’s leading photographers for capturing award-winning shots.

Daily feedback and discussion, led by course leader and internationally-recognised photographer and trainer Glenn Edwards, will feature strongly. Themes covered by the course include:

• Specialist newspaper and magazine photography styles
• Picture idea generation
• Use of stock photography and libraries
• Design, editing and PhotoshopWorking with a newsdesk and achieving professional results to deadline

The course will also explore video as a requirement for the modern staff photographer and freelance.

Renowned photojournalists will visit the course to share their experiences and tips, and participants will continue to receive support from Glenn Edwards after the course has finished.

A photographic book featuring the work of participants will serve both as a  souvenir of this action-packed course, as well as a reminder of the lessons learned.

Who’s it for

Professional staff and freelance photographers, operating at all levels, who want to develop their skills, approach and confidence.

This course also offers great benefit to established photographers wishing to broaden their experience of new technology and techniques in the fast-changing media world.

For the duration of the course, participants will become staff photographers for a Thomson Foundation newsdesk, working to real-life briefs and deadlines.

Trainees must have access to, and bring to the course, good-quality photographic equipment (digital camera – not compact – with basic lens and flash suitable for newspaper photography as a minimum)

About the course leader

Glenn Edwards is an award winning photojournalist with three books and numerous exhibitions to his name.

He is a former Wales and UK News Photographer of the Year and his work appears in national UK newspapers such as The Independent and Independent on Sunday.

Glenn has worked on international stories in Somalia, Albania and Bosnia and, since 2000, he was worked on over 70 commissions in 18 African countries. His teaching experiences have taken him to Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Maldives, and Abu Dhabi as well as workshops throughout the UK.