New products featuring a juicy red strawberry include business cards, keyrings and magnets
Competitions: Join the Canon Keeper Hunt

- Do you own a Digital Camera but not sure how to use it?
- Are you interested in getting the most out of your camera?
- Not sure how to take photos of small and close up objects such as flowers, insects, jewellery and other objects which require macro mode?
- Do you want to receive one-on-one help in navigating the many functions and menus on your camera?
Then why not join me on a digital camera workshop?
About the Digital Camera workshop:
Workshops will generally run from morning till dusk on a weekend or public holiday however weekdays can be booked if required
Itinerary:
- Meet and greet, discuss the background of the group and what they wish to achieve in this workshop
- Share what type of camera each has
- discuss the important of setting the camera to the highest resolution file size possible
- explore whether the camera is capable of RAW files
- Discuss how a digital camera is different to a film camera (SLR camera with lens off, handout showing sensor size and resolution of digital vs film
Tutorial handouts covering
- Exposure
- Aperture
- Shutter speed
- ISO
- noise
- exposure variance
- Seeing the picture
- Rule of thirds
- Perspective
- Lines and patterns
- Art photography examples
Camera modes:
- P - Programmed Auto
- A - Aperture Priority
- S - Shutter Priority
- M - Manual
- Portrait
- Macro
- Landscape
- Sport
- Other modes, specific to camera model
Common mistakes:
- leaving the camera on custom setting
- leaving the custom white balance on
- over exposing the sky
- standing in the wrong position with regard to light
- more common mistakes
Composition:
Examples of photography from students and suggested crops or adjustments to make a good photo brilliant and suggestions on how to avoid problems such as colour temperature, incorrect ISO setting, finding the light and composition
Practice:
- Taking photos in low light and how to adjust the aperture, noise and ISO to get the best results
- Taking photos in full sun and how to reduce glare and burned out highlights
- Diffusion of light and flash
- Using the Macro setting on your camera or learning how far away from an object your lens can get to focus on an image
- Manual focus - why use it and experience taking photos of a moving object
- Manual mode - what it is and how to get started
- Aperture priority - why it is popular with professionals and amateurs alike
- Fill flash on portraits in sunlight
- When not to use flash
- Taking photos at night or in dark environments
About me:
- I am passionate about photography and find taking photos and editing them to match the image in my minds eye one of the most creative, fulfilling things in life
- I have a Bachelor of Education with a specialisation in Information Technology for Education.
- I enjoy teaching and would love to do it full time. Unfortunately I have several disabilities which inhibit me from teaching full time in a classroom
- I love sharing my love of photography and technology and I am truly interested in helping you to learn how to use your camera and develop a portfolio of images that you can be proud of
- I have a knack with technology and understand that there are many people who do not and need a guiding hand in learning how to adjust the settings on their camera, how to hold it properly for stability and provide feedback
- I have been using Adobe Photoshop for over fifteen years
- I like to set myself challenges and take part in group competitions and challenges which helps improve my photography and creativity
- I have been creating websites since the early 90s and would love to travel the world taking photos and doing photography, image manipulation and web design workshop to pay my way
PHOTOSESSION
You can choose to buy photos from a recent photosession in several ways
- on DVD - Your images on DVD with or without watermark
- by email (upon payment)
- complimentary prints with photosession fee
- display via a webgallery with download links so that you and your family can download at your leisure
- printed media (cards, prints, canvas prints, mounted prints,t-shirts etc) via Redbubble

You can choose to buy photos from a recent photosession in several ways
- printed media (cards, prints, canvas prints, mounted prints,t-shirts etc) via Redbubble
- on DVD - Your images on DVD with or without watermark
- by email (upon payment)
- display via a webgallery with download links so that you and your family can download or print at your leisure
- photo album from Queensbury Wedding Albums
- digital download from Buy A Photo at $10 per image
Digital Media
Stock photography - Oz Stock Images
Event Photos
Buy A Photo is the service which I use for Event photography.
Calendars
Greeting Cards
Mugs
Not sure what to buy for your family or friends? Why not buy a gift voucher for Vanessa Pike-Russell Photography and Design.

Gift vouchers from Vanessa Pike-Russell Photography are a great gift for birthdays, special events or Christmas presents
Family portraits of three families photographed on Windang beach in the Illawarra, NSW Australia

Family portraits taken on Boonerah Point Jetty with views of Lake Illawarra
Vanessa Pike-Russell Photography ABN 13 429 487 247
Photographer and Web Designer located in Lake Illawarra, NSW Australia
Do you own a Digital Camera but not sure how to use it?
Are you interested in getting the most out of your camera?
Not sure how to take photos of small and close up objects such as flowers, insects, jewellery and other objects which require macro mode?
Do you want to receive one-on-one help in navigating the many functions and menus on your camera?
Then why not join me on a digital camera workshop? ( Read more... )
Also available for small group or one on one workshops in using Adobe Lightroom and/or Adobe Photoshop to improve your photos and walking you through setting up a good DAM (Digital Assets Management) Workflow. How to download your images, assign metadata (such as tags, description, copyright etc) and using Adobe Lightroom to back up to multiple locations. Next step is editing, resizing and on to uploading, with or without a watermark and optimising SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) through the use of descriptive titles and tags. Finally we will explore the the use of presets and actions to speed up productivity.
Vanessa Pike-Russell (B.Ed)
































