Surrey Homes | SH63 | January 2020 | Travel & Wellbeing supplement inside

Ditch the
Couch
A new activity can do wonders to
improve wellbeing. Here are some ideas
to inspire an active 2020
Photography
RHUBARB AND CUSTARD’S
Halid Izzet talks to us about why
photography is the perfect hobby
What are the best things about taking
up photography? It enables you to
capture the moments that you’ll
want to look back on in the future.
You don’t have to spend hundreds of
pounds on equipment if you don’t
want to. It’s a magical process that
gives and gives, while being healthily
frustrating at times. A great way to
‘test the water’ is with one of our
free Saturday Sessions, where you
get to meet us in our Gallery and
find out about the things we do.
We also sell gift vouchers for anyone
interested in helping encourage
someone else to get into photography,
and they make great gifts.
What equipment does someone
need to attend their first session? A
camera – anything from a compact
to a professional DSLR is fine as
we have a wide enough range of
workshops and courses to cater for all.
What are the wellbeing benefits of
taking up photography? It’s really
the perfect hobby. Photography gets
you outside when it’s fine, releasing
those endorphins, and getting the
blood and circulation going. It also
allows you to stay inside when it’s
wet, developing your photos (usually
on the computer) getting you to
take time to be creative and artistic.
It develops your right brain – the
side that processes artistic thoughts,
visualisation, and imagination, as well
as the left side of the brain, the part
that is analytical, linear and logical.
It can be totally ‘techy’ for those
who like technology, but can also be
totally ‘artsy’ for those who want to
get creative. It’s social, as you’ll meet
new people with our workshops,
and also meditational – when you’re
in the photographer’s ‘zone’ you
can often feel enormous calm and
wholeness. It gives you huge feelings
of satisfaction when you achieve
a vision, while being something
that you never stop learning.
Do you need to be confident of your
creative ability to attend your courses?
Absolutely not – quite the opposite!
The whole point of photography
is to help everyone develop their
creativity on an ongoing basis
and from whatever stage they
start at. From complete novice to
accomplished professional – we are
all constantly learning and developing
our skills (sorry for the pun!).
What is the structure of your
courses/sessions? You have a
choice of the following:
• One Day Workshops that usually
run on Sundays or Mondays.
• Multi-lesson evening courses
(from 5 to 10 lessons)
• One to one lessons which can be
run most evenings, on various
Sundays and Mondays
We have a maximum of four people
on a workshop or a course at a time,
meaning we get the chance to make
sure everyone achieves optimum
progress. Depending on the subject
of the course, we try to fit in as much
practice as possible to make sure that
what you have learned really sinks in.
I always describe the workshops
as a fairly intense injection of
knowledge, getting you up to speed
quickly and efficiently (perfect if
you’re about to go on holiday), and
the multi-lesson courses as more
of a drip-feed of knowledge that
allows it to sink in over a longer
period of time. We give a few fun
tasks that for the (non-compulsory)
homework – will result in an excellent
understanding and long term learning
of the various skills required.
rhubarbandcustard.com
19 surrey-homes.co.uk