Category: General news

Spring is almost here (honest!)

Spring photography is almost possible

Welcome to the February 2021 Nigel Hicks Photography news, the first time our monthly newsletter has been posted on the blog. We hope you’ll enjoy it!

It may not feel like it right now, but spring is kicking off all around us, from longer days, to more birdsong, to the first daffodils and snowdrops.

So, if you’ve forgotten where you put your camera during winter lockdown, it’s time to hunt around, dig it out and get ready for a few photo shoots. Even if Covid restrictions continue, you should be able to get out and about in your local area, with reasonable seclusion, to photograph many of the burgeoning signs of spring.

The above Grey Seal photo, while hardly a harbinger of spring, is nevertheless an indicator of just what luck you can have with subject matter close to home. This lone male was photographed last week, inside the harbour at Teignmouth, just a couple of miles from my home.

While you’re thinking about what you might be photographing this spring, you can find the following items in this month’s newsletter:

January’s talk can now be watched online

February’s talk: Low Light Photography

Writing reviews of Nigel Hicks Photography: and getting a discount voucher

This year’s photography workshops

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Watch January’s Focus talk online any time

My January talk, Focus: the third critical component of successful photography, went ahead live on the 27th of the month. The talk revolved around the central idea that good focus is much more than just getting your subject sharp, although of course that is critical. It also involves important decisions about how much of the rest of the image should be sharp too, whether that be absolutely all of it, or just a thin slice, for example.

The implications of this, and the use of some techniques, were illustrated for wide-angle landscapes, telephoto portraiture, wildlife, interiors, and macro photography. The use of wide-angle or telephoto lens, narrow or wide-open lens aperture was described as an essential part of controlling depth of field. As a finale, the possible use of image stacking in Photoshop – that is. shooting a series of identical images that are focussed at slightly different points in the view, and then blending them together in the computer- was introduced.

A video of the whole talk can now be watched online. Click the link below to see it.

February’s talk: Low Light Photography

February’s online talk is already looming on the horizon, scheduled to be held on:

Wed 24th Feb, at 8pm

Covering low light photography, in this talk I’ll introduce a range of techniques that can be applied in a variety of low light situations, including: Dark stormy days; Rural, urban and coastal landscapes at sunset; Photography at dusk; Photography at night: events, from carnivals to fireworks; Photography at night: the night sky. Not surprisingly, this talk will give only a general introduction to each of these, as any of them could easily be the subject of a whole talk by themselves (and perhaps will be in the future!), but this should give you pointers to a range of generally applicable techniques.

As always, this talk will be completely free to join. There is now a Donation button on the talks’ registration page, so if you feel like contributing to my costs that would be wonderful. But you should feel no compulsion.

To register for this talk, and the subsequent one (on 24th March, Wildlife Photography), click on the link below, and then fill in and submit the form.

I’ll look forward to seeing you online!

Writing reviews for my photography services

As previewed in my last newsletter, I now have an up-to-date system for reviews of my photography services up and running on the Nigel Hicks Photography website.

So if you’ve ever received any of my services, whether a photography course or tour, a talk (online or in person), or some commercial photography, then I’d be delighted if you would like to write a review.

These photography service reviews run separately from those for my books, prints and cards: for these you need to go to each product in the Products part of the website.

Discount coupon reward

As a big thankyou I’m giving a 10% discount voucher, for use anywhere on the Nigel Hicks Photography website, to anyone who writes a review: 20% if you write more than one. Each coupon will be valid until 30th June, and can be used just once.


To write a photography service review click on the link below.

This year’s photography workshops

With optimism slowly growing about our future and the kind of year 2021 is likely to be, I feel increasingly hopeful about the possibility of being able to run at least most of my workshops this year.

This year’s programme is scheduled to kick off on 21st March with Low Light Photography, in Exmouth. Admittedly, there is still some doubt as to whether this course will be able to go ahead – inevitably a lot hinges on how much longer lockdown lasts, and what any post-lockdown tier restrictions are likely to be like. As you can imagine, I’m watching this closely, but I won’t make a firm decision until nearer the date. 

Regardless of whether or not this spring low light course has to be shelved, I’m considering introducing a low light course in November, if I can find the right date (viz a viz sunset, low tide and moon times). So, if you want to come on a low light photography course but are nervous about March, keep a look out for an autumn event.

Subsequent courses

The second course this spring is not until 17th April, South Devon Coastal Photography, at Bantham and Bigbury, not surprisingly on the coast of south Devon. I’m quite optimistic this will be able to go ahead, along with all courses that follow.

The line-up for all of this year’s photography workshops is:

21st March; Low Light Photography, Exmouth, Devon.

17th April; South Devon Coastal Photography, Bantham and Bigbury, Devon.

24th April; Wildlife Photography, Exmoor National Park, Somerset and Devon.

16th May; Architecture and Travel Photography, Bath, Bath and NE Somerset.

22nd May; Exmoor in Spring; Tarr Steps and Lynton, Somerset and Devon.

29th May; Dartmoor in Spring, Dartmoor National Park, Devon.

2nd Oct; Jurassic Coast Photography, Lyme Regis and Charmouth, Dorset.

16th Oct; Exmoor in Autumn, Exmoor National Park, Somerset and Devon.

23rd Oct; Wildlife Photography, Exmoor National Park, Somerset and Devon.

30th Oct, Dartmoor in Autumn, Dartmoor National Park, Devon.


I hope you’ll like some of these courses and will decide to give yourself something to look forward to by booking onto any of them.

Refunds and deferrments

Rest assured that, if you are booked onto a course that has to be postponed or cancelled, then as with last year, you will have a full range of options, namely:

• To accept the new date (for a postponed course);
• To transfer to another course of your choosing;
• Simply to defer your booking to an as-yet undefined future event;
• Have a full refund.

Hopefully, things won’t come to this, but I want to put your mind at rest, that you will not lose any money you’ve paid.

To get all the details of the workshops programme, click on the link below:

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