Mentoring

Sharing Knowledge. Building Confidence. Learning Together.

One of the great strengths of Dunchurch Photographic Society is the enormous amount of photographic knowledge and experience held by our members. Between us, we have skills covering everything from camera basics and image editing to wildlife, portraiture, printing, competition photography and much more.

Our new DPS Mentoring Scheme is designed to make it easier for members to share that knowledge with one another.

After all, no one knows everything — and everyone was a beginner at some point.

How does the mentoring scheme work?

We have put together a list of members who have kindly volunteered to act as mentors in areas of photography where they have particular knowledge or experience.

If there is something you would like help with, simply look through the list of mentors and find someone whose skills match what you are hoping to learn. You can then get in touch with them directly and take it from there.

The scheme is deliberately informal. There are no courses to sign up for, no fixed syllabus and no expectation that mentoring has to involve a major commitment.

Sometimes all that is needed might be a ten-minute conversation on the phone to explain a camera setting or answer a question.

At other times it could involve sitting down together in front of a computer to work through Lightroom or Photoshop, meeting up with cameras to practise a particular technique, or spending more time together exploring a subject in greater depth.

It is entirely up to the mentor and mentee to decide what works best.

There are no silly questions

Photography can sometimes seem unnecessarily complicated. Cameras have hundreds of settings, editing software has seemingly endless options and there is always another technique to learn.

So please don’t be afraid to ask.

Whether you’ve been taking photographs for three weeks or thirty years, there will always be things you know and things you don’t.

The mentoring scheme isn’t about experts teaching beginners. It is about members helping members.

Someone who is highly experienced in landscape photography might want help with studio lighting. A Photoshop expert might want to know more about photographing birds in flight. Someone who regularly produces excellent prints might need help creating an audio-visual presentation.

We all have something we can learn from one another.

What can I ask for help with?

Pretty much anything photographic.

Our mentors have volunteered to help with a wide range of subjects, which may include areas such as:

• Getting to know your camera
• Exposure, aperture, shutter speed and ISO
• Autofocus and camera settings
• Composition
• Landscape photography
• Wildlife photography
• Sports and action photography
• Portraiture and lighting
• Macro photography
• Flash photography
• Long exposures
• Intentional Camera Movement
• Lightroom
• Photoshop
• Image processing and workflow
• Preparing images for competitions
• Printing and colour management
• Audio-visual presentations
• Photographic equipment and accessories

The available subjects will naturally depend upon the skills offered by our current mentors.

Find a Mentor

Below you will find our current list of mentors together with the subjects they are happy to help with.

If you see someone who can help with what you are trying to achieve, please feel free to contact them.

Remember, our mentors are volunteering their own time, so please be considerate and arrange any telephone call, meeting or practical session at a time that suits you both.

Could you become a mentor?

The mentoring scheme will only get better as more members become involved.

You certainly don’t need to regard yourself as an “expert” to become a mentor. If there is something you know how to do and you would be comfortable helping another member learn it, we’d love to hear from you.

You may be surprised just how valuable the knowledge you take for granted can be to somebody encountering it for the first time.

And volunteering as a mentor doesn’t mean committing yourself to hours of tuition. You decide what subjects you are happy to help with and how much time you are able to give.

If you would like to be added to the list of DPS mentors, please speak to a member of the committee.

Photography is better when knowledge is shared

Dunchurch Photographic Society has always been about much more than competitions and Wednesday evening meetings. It is a community of photographers with different interests, different levels of experience and different skills.

The mentoring scheme is another way of making the most of that community.

Ask questions. Share what you know. Try something new.

We can all become better photographers by helping one another.