Please Don't Say Cheese – Photo Workshops For Mums on Sydney's Northern Beaches

Photo by Robyn Mayne of Please Don’t Say Cheese

If you’re thinking of buying a new camera for a Sydney mum for Christmas, here’s a handy child photography workshop that you could throw in with the gift.

Robyn Mayne is a Sydney child and family photographer who runs workshops for mum on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.  The workshops are three hours long and ideal for mums who have a good camera but aren’t up to speed with getting the most out of it.

If you’ve ever been frustrated with the photos you take of your children… try getting some expert tips from Robyn.

The Please Don’t Say Cheese website is well laid out and easy to use. The ability to book a workshop online is terrific.

The blog part of the website has HEAPS of useful, usable information for amateur photographers.  There are online courses coming soon too, plus a handy ebooklet is delivered free when you sign up for Robyn’s newsletters.

Here’s Carolyn of Desire Empire taking a shot of her gorgeous daughter.

Recently Robyn boldly took several Northern Beaches bloggers out on a wild and windy day. She explained all sorts of things to us both about our cameras and about photographing children.

Robyn’s many years of experience shine through when she explains what to look out for when shooting kids. Her tips and tricks seemed simple, yet I certainly hadn’t thought of them.

Robyn shows us exactly where we should be focussing.

We looked at using low aperture settings to blur the background of our shots – it worked here!

And here’s one I took of Robyn as she explained photography techniques to us.

We looked at facing away from the sun to take shots in bright sunshine. I would NEVER have tried this… here’s me taken this way.

Here’s Julie Cross of MrsPomInOz taken the same way

Using a longer lens is the biggest take home message for me from this workshop. I attached a 70mm – 200mm zoom lens to my camera and went mad.

And here’s the result. ‘Fill the frame with the child,’ says Robyn.

‘You don’t need the whole of the face,’ Robyn also said… and here I take her at her word.

Nothing like a bit of movement in an action shot.

Here’s Robyn from MrsDPlus3 and her lively little Lexi pausing for thought.

Robyn gave us a rundown of the ‘rule of thirds’ which I think I’m using in this shot.

It was a wild old day and I enjoyed trying to catch the waves as they crashed using a fast shutter speed.

If you are quite experienced with your camera and already using it on manual a fair bit, get in touch with Robyn to see if she might be able to fit you in with a more advanced group.

In 2014 I’ll be aiming to improve my photography and would like to sign up for one of Robyn’s online classes. I’d love to chat to her more about using Photoshop (in fact, we bloggers will be doing so as Robyn’s workshop includes a one-hour follow up session looking at the photos taken.)

Thanks so much for inviting me along Robyn. It was fun to focus on photography with this good gang of girls. I’m now using a much longer lens on my camera and  looking forward to getting some better Christmas snaps than usual!

Have you ever done a photography workshop?

What did you learn?