Are you one of those who entitled to $500 worth of SkillsFuture Fund Credits but had no idea how to spend it?
All Singaporeans who are aged 25 and above have received an opening credit of S$500 starting from January 2016. These credits could be used to pay for a wide variety of approved courses listed on SkillsFuture credit website. These credits will not expire and the government will provide periodic top-ups!
There’s a whole range of workshop/courses offered on the SkillsFuture’s course directory which allows you to claim Skillsfuture credit. When SkillsFuture Credit first started rolling out, the courses listed were mainly towards industrial skill sets like IT, marketing and business. But now, they started working with more institutes and independent trainer providers to offer a wider range of courses for Singaporeans. I was so glad to discover that Canon Basic Photography course is one of those courses that allows you to used your SkillsFuture credits to pay for it.
I handle cameras all the time but I never really know how to shoot manually so I thought that this course could help me upgrade my photography skills. It sure did!
Previously, we have to pay directly to the training provider and then submit the claims to SkillsFuture but now, you just need to register for the course with the training provider and SkillsFuture will settle the claim. If there are insufficient credits in your account, then you would have to top up. The cost fees are $280 and it’s fairly reasonable.
Canon has their own photography academy. The basic photography course is organised by Canon Imaging Academy and other than photography/video workshops, you can also join their travel photography trips.
It was my first time taking courses at Canon Imaging Academy so I really didn’t know what to expect. There are 7 lessons in total and each lesson is 2-hours long. Other than theory lessons, they also include a few practical sessions where we practised shooting outdoors under different lighting conditions. Notes were given every lesson and a photography handbook was also given to each participant. Those notes really came in handy.
Theory lessons are held at Canon Imaging Academy which is located in Galaxis building, along Fusionopolis Place. Practical lessons are conducted outdoors.
My instructor was David Lim and he is a very experienced photographer. His expertise is in both photography and videography. I enjoyed his lessons because he was able to explain complicated photography terms in layman’s terms which is much easier for amateurs in photography to understand.
During our first lesson, we learnt about Shutter speed and ISO. After learning much about the Photography Trinity, we were tasked to put our knowledge to practice during next lesson. We met at Clarke Quay early in the morning and had a hands-on session with our cameras. (By the way, you don’t need to own a Canon camera to attend the workshops under Canon.)
We did several test shots to understand how light offers the shutter speed and how all the numbers interplay together.
We learnt more about aperture in lesson 3 and now that we fully understood the Trinity at a better level, we were tasked to take more challenging shots. Night photography! On our fourth lesson, we head over to Merlion Park at Fullerton to take photos with our tripod. Yes, you will need a sturdy tripod for night photography!
I forget to bring my SD card on that particular night itself so I couldn’t capture any shots. It was such a pity but at least, I have learnt a thing or two about low light photography.
Lesson 5 was conducted at Sentosa! Now, that was pretty interesting. Even though it was super sunny that day, but we managed to capture great shots there. One of our tasks was to take a photo of the mini waterfall close to the massive Merlion statue.
Noticed any difference in the photo right above and below? It’s the difference in shutter speed.
Exposure can ruin or enhance your photo. Lighting is tricky here.
I never know that my Canon M3 is capable of taking such water shots! I guess when you understand the basic camera settings, you would be able to fully maximise the capability of your camera.
Other than learning about the camera technicalities, we were also taught on photo composition too. I would say that the course is pretty comprehensive. By the end of the course, you would be able to shoot comfortably in manual mode and understand all about the camera body and lenses. This is great course especially for those who are just starting out in blogging. Aspiring to be an Instagrammer too? This could be a gateway to success.
You can check out the full lesson outline of the course right here!
Have you taken similar photography workshops before? Let me know in the comment box below!
