Dahlias at St Ethelwold's

I've had a great day!

Spent all afternoon at a "Beginners DSLR photography" course in town. My camera isn't actually a DSLR but the organiser had previously said by email that I could still learn a lot from the course - and she was dead right.

It rained all morning but luckily it eased up by the afternoon so we were able to go into the garden of the beautiful early 18th century St Ethelwold's House where the course was held. Later in the afternoon we all wandered down the road to St Helen's Church (which I have blipped several times) and practised photographing buildings and the Thames.

My head is buzzing from all the info re. ISO, F numbers, shutter speeds, etc. I am the first to admit I still don't understand it all but I do now feel much more confident about taking my camera off auto. Towards the end of the session I got in a bit of a tizz wozz as somehow or other I'd got my camera into "Exposure Compensation" mode and all my pictures came out white. Thankfully I managed to figure it out by studying my manual.

This was the very first photo I took in the garden whilst we were working in pairs. We also had to take portraits of each other. We then worked in two larger groups of six, taking turns to direct a group shot. Each of us had to choose our own area in the garden.

I finally set off back home at 7pm, at which time the heavens opened and I got absolutely drenched cycling back!