The participants have an assignment and have to shoot and edit a complete photo story in 3 days. It’s an intensive exercise designed to stretch even the most experienced photographers.

I was a participant last year and it was a fantastic few days. this year I was lucky enough to be one of the staff.

I had a fantastic few days with some great friends and of course took a few photo’s myself, here are some of my favourites.

It’s a bit cliched but I thought it looked perfect with the blue sky.

These images sum up my time away on the Isle of Purbeck, in Sawange,  the weather was fantastic and the kids wished we’d took swimwear for the beach!

I also took quite a few photo’s on my iPhone, I’ve published these on facebook, have a look here

The MYVISION site has a lot of good stuff, including action shots of me working (check out the blog section).

I arrived in Brighton on Sunday afternoon not really knowing what to expect, I knew we were going to tested on our documentary photography skills but that was it! So along with 19 other participants we signed in and waited for our team leaders.

The first assignment was to split into pairs and take each others portraits, be on the other side of the camera, scary stuff. Still no word on what we would actually be doing for our assignment proper, this was be given to us first thing Monday morning when we arrived down stairs with our kit ready to shoot!

The next 2 days were spent documenting the workings of of classic car restoration workshop, with the results being critiqued into the early hours. The final slide shows of our work were shown on Wednesday night, it was pretty emotional and I’ve never seen so much amazing work back to back, not one bad photograph all night! The party continued until silly o’clock and to be honest it’s all still sinking in!

This was the most intensive, and the most rewarding few days photographic training I’ve ever done. I feel privileged to have spent time with such a fantastic group of people who have now become friends.

Here are a few images from my assignment, to be honest the photographs are pretty much irrelevant. the techniques and ideas that were taken away have changed the way I shoot and will continue to improve my photography forever!

Finally a big thanks to all the organisers, especially Jim, my team leader and to my hosts West Sussex Restorations.

Back in April I went down to Swanage in Dorset for a family holiday. Swanage is a fantastic place to take the kids, beautiful beaches, amusement arcades, great fish and chips! Swanage is also home to The Photographers Lounge, a dedicated photographers gallery. When I visited they had an exhibition of prints from Richard Heeps, well worth a look. Kate Cross the gallery owner is friendly and helpful, if you’re anywhere near in the future I’d recommend dropping in. Kate also runs a competition called openshutter, take a look www.openshutter.co.uk

Here are a few of my favourite images. All taken on my point and shoot camera.

Here are a few shots from the day.

I got the bike finished on Monday and went out for a quick 3 1/2 hour test ride on Tuesday afternoon.

Here is the bike all shiny and new;

This is Metz, our personal trainer, every time we stop Metz go’s mad barking at us to get moving!

3 1/2 hours later!