The New Forest Observatory runs courses on Deep-Sky imaging and general photographic techniques for beginners.  These courses will show you how to take the Deep-Sky Images you can see in the New Forest Observatory galleries, and how to take the macro, micro, Nature and high-speed shots you can see on my Flickr site.

Full-day courses will be held in a friendly New Forest setting from 10.00 a.m. until 3.30 p.m. complete with morning and afternoon teas and a mid-day meal provided.  The lecturer will be Professor Greg Parker and the courses will be run in a friendly, informal manner. All attendees for course DS101 will be presented with a signed copy of Prof. Parker’s “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images” book published by Springer.

So that we can cater for everyones personal requirements [and still cover the course content!], courses DS101 and DS102 will be limited to 5 people.

Deep-Sky imaging courses available:

• DS101: Fundamentals of Deep-Sky Imaging
• DS102: Intermediate deep-sky imaging

New courses available at the New Forest Observatory, Brockenhurst, Hants:

Following a number of talks in Hampshire on the subject “The Magic of Photography” I have received requests to create a number of beginner’s courses for enthusiastic DSLR owners.  Always happy to oblige – the New Forest Observatory now offers the following (non deep-sky!) photographic courses for the novice digital photographer:

1)  Photography in the New Forest.  A full day course with packed-lunch provided.  Bring all your lenses along to this one.  A specialism of this course will be an introduction to the techniques required for taking stunning Panoramic images.  You shall be shown how to create and assemble panoramas back at base where we have a suite of computers for image processing.  The forest route we shall take will be dependent on the weather conditions and the time of year.  Arrive at the NFO by 9:30 a.m. for a coffee/tea to start the day, collect your packed lunch and off we go for a day’s photography of flora, fauna, and views over the magnificent New Forest.  We arrive back at the New Forest Observatory by 3:00 p.m.  where we continue the course with some image data processing on the computer.  Cost for this course is £145 plus VAT at the current rate.  Course is limited to 5 persons.  Please note that the course cost does not include Insurance cover for any accident that may occur whilst photographing in the New Forest.  Please arrange for your own personal Insurance Cover if you feel this might be necessary.

2)  A beginner’s guide to macrophotography.  A half-day course beginning at 9:30 a.m. and concluding at 12:30 p.m. with refreshments provided throughout.  We shall cover the basics of macrophotography and the equipment required to carry out macro work.  You need not provide your own equipment for this course but please feel free to bring your own gear along if you are already set up for macro work.  Samples will be provided to take macromosaics and computer facilities will be available to construct your own macromosaics using Photoshop CS3.  Cost for this course is £65 plus VAT at the current rate.  Course is limited to 3 persons.

3)  Setting up for digital microphotography.  A half-day course beginning at 9:30 a.m. and concluding at 12:30 p.m. with refreshments provided throughout.  We shall discuss the equipment requirements to undertake microphotography and we shall use the NFO’s trinocular research microscope during this course, you do not need to bring along your own camera for this course.  We shall use the “Helicon Focus” software to create deep depth-of-focus images that resemble scanning electron microscope images – but ours are in colour!!  We shall also see how to create and assemble micromosaics using a combination of Helicon Focus and Photoshop CS3 software.  Cost for this course is £75 plus VAT at the current rate.  Course is limited to 3 persons.

4)  Basic Ultra-High-Speed flash photography.  A half-day course beginning at 9:30 a.m. and concluding at 12:30 p.m. with refreshments provided throughout.  We shall use highspeedflash dot com’s “Ultra” units which provide ultra fast light pulses of just 9-microseconds [1/111,111th second] to create fantastic high-speed images of fast events.  You do not need to provide your own equipment for this course, but you are welcome to bring your own camera along to take HSF images – just be sure you know how to operate your camera on the “bulb” setting and make sure you have a remote shutter controller.  You will see how to set up a studio high-speed flash system to create stunning HSF images as seen on my Flickr site.  We shall process our HSF images on NFO’s computers using Photoshop CS3 software, and you can take home processed images on a CD for further processing/manipulation in your own time.  Cost for this course is £75 plus VAT at the current rate.  Course is limited to 3 persons.

The New Forest Observatory offers ample off-road car-parking space

We are always updating course content and developing new courses so please check back here regularly for details of all courses available at the NFO.  We are also happy to develop new courses to meet your own requirements or develop a bespoke course for you, your group, or your company.

If you have an interest in any of the above courses, or if you would like a bespoke course arranged on a different topic, please contact courses@newforestobservatory.com and we will be happy to discuss your requirements.

Or, if you would prefer to discuss your requirements on the phone, please call 01590 622775 between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.