I found the link to photographic day courses on the Wildlife Trust for South and West Wales Skomer website after spending several unsuccessful months trying to teach myself the basics of photography so I could use settings other than auto.

Before the boat even arrived at Martins Haven to take us over to the island, Andy spent some time going through the basics, finding out what I knew and what I wanted to learn and we took some photos of the jetty and bay, considering the composition of the shots.

The island itself was incredible, a puffin to every square foot as far as the eye could see. Several hours were spent photographing the puffins, explaining what affect changing aperture, shutter speed and exposure etc had on the picture. A lot of things I hadn’t even considered before, such as background and over/underexposure.

As a result of the day’s course, I now have a collection of puffin, gull and landscape photos I am quite proud of, and have not used the Auto setting once since then on my camera! Time well spent, thank you Andy!

Alannah Ruthen.