One elephant, two elephant, three elephant...........

Since the acquisition of my glass plate camera I have been waiting impatiently for my weekend workshop at Street Level Photoworks. On arrival I was warmly welcomed by Iseult Timmermans who is the Education and Development Coordinator for Street Level. The class in dry plate photography was led by Debbie Adele Cooper, Artist in Residence at WW Winter Photography, the longest running photographers in the country. With techniques that she has acquired through her residency at Winters Debbie passed on her skills by enabling us to masters the process, from the cutting and preparing of glass plates through to exposing in large format cameras then development.

The course was an intensive and exhilarating couple of days and it is fair to say that I learned as much from my three companions as I did from my tutor. In no particular order, my classmates where Arpita (a visual artist based in Edinburgh), Donald (an optometrist and pinhole fanatic) and James (a consultant doctor who is also an eternal student with an encyclopedic brain). Each of my classmates made me feel like I was back in the playground with my naughty friends and they enriched the experience tenfold. ​

Even though exhausted after my intensive studies my return train journey found me furiously writing down all the processes I had learned from the class. It has been an invaluable experience that has given me the knowledge and skills to begin my own adventures in large format photography. To all involved in the weekend, I am very grateful.