What is A Year With My Camera...

… and why should you join?

The basics

It’s a beginner’s photography workshop.

It’s online and it lasts for a year.

The email version is free: join today (see link below) and you will receive an email every Thursday with a new lesson. By the end of the first month you’ll be shooting off auto. By the end of three months you’ll be taking images you’re proud of. By the end of the year you’ll be confidently joining your local camera club, entering competitions, helping friends and family learn photography and generally having the time of your life with your camera.

Why is A Year With My Camera different?

Search online for “free photo lessons” and you will get tens of thousands of options. You might have tried some of them. You might have tried paid-for lessons, online or in person. They probably went too fast, assumed you knew more than you did and didn’t explain things in a way you could understand. You might have “got” it during the class but the next day you couldn’t remember which dial to turn and which way to turn it. The teacher might have made you feel stupid for not keeping up. If you were in a group you might have felt intimidated by other students who probably just talked about their gear and how expensive it was.

If you do A Year With My Camera (“AYWMC”) you do it once and you do it right. You’ll never need another photography lesson again.

Also: you’ll start to love your camera instead of being scared of it or hating it or feeling guilty for not using it.

Also: you’ll suddenly find you are actually confident that you know what you’re doing. You will understand WHY you need to turn the dial instead of just being told, “Turn that dial!”.

Also: we don’t talk about gear. The best camera is the one you have with you.

Also: the community is the best part. We are utterly non-competitive. I know it’s hard to believe given the state of most online photography groups, but we all enjoy our own journeys and joyfully support each other’s progress. AYWMC has been running for 3 years and many, many long-lasting firm friendships have been made.

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Emma wrote AYWMC for people who are nervous about joining a traditional more competitive photography class. Typical AYWMC students might have spent their lives so far caring for children or parents, working round the clock and haven’t had time to do something for themselves in a long time. For whatever reason they decide that now is the time to pick up that camera. Emma wanted to build a course they could trust (there are no third party ads), a community that will support them (we have two community managers to moderate the groups) and a course that is truly step-by-step delivering manageable amounts of information to gradually build confidence.

If you’re ready to join, sign up here:

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What do AYWMC students say?

Melody

I'm part of the Jan 2019 class. This course has given me the building blocks to not only improve my photography, but to have a better understanding of how my camera works. From the very first lesson about the camera seeing 18% gray, I knew this would be a great course. I haven't been disappointed and I thank Emma for so generously offering this course to all of those struggling a bit. Best decision I've made was signing up for this class. I'm going to miss my weekly emails when it ends.

Sue

I did the course in 2018. With the help of emails and the books my photography has come on so much. Understanding techniques in such a simple form has given me the opportunity to explore my way of photography thank you Emma and a year with my camera

Federica

Before starting the AYWMC course I would have taken this shot on auto, wouldn’t have stopped to look around and think which viewpoint might have been the best, I wouldn’t have been looking for the reflections of the mountains in the water and I wouldn’t have cropped the photo, to make it look more balanced. I would have taken a snapshot, not a photo.

Thank you Emma and the team.

Erin

This immersive course, which I began in January 2019, has changed the way I view the world around me and prepared me to capture moments and scenes as they unfold. I started the course to become more familiar with my camera's abilities and to learn how to take better photos to submit to the newspaper at which I am an editor. Now, as my year with AYWMC comes to an end, Emma and her admins have helped be do all that, and they have made me a more confident artist, open to visual opportunities and willing to take creative risks.

Daren

I started AYWMC in Sept 2018 having never picked up a DSLR camera or had a clue how to use one. I bought myself an entry level modest camera to get started with a promise to myself I wouldn't upgrade until I knew what I was doing. Well I've just treated myself to a shiny new full frame mirror less camera but more importantly thanks to AYWMC I feel confident and actually know how to shoot on all modes with confidence. I'm still learning and had a few bumps along the way but AYWMC has been fantastic, bite size modules that after going back over a few times they really do start to sink in. AYWMC has not only taught me how to take photos but has more importantly provided me with a new hobby and a passion to get outdoors to explore new places and hopefully capture a few beautiful images along the way. Thank you AYWMC 🙏

Cheryl

I started this course in July 2019. I had a new camera and no clue how to use it. This was taken in October 2019. I have so much more to learn but have made so much progress in these few months. Thank you, Emma for sharing your knowledge with us!!

Wendy

I started this fabulous free course in April 2018.

I found the course to be informative, making learning to go full manual fun and exciting, following the beautiful books part 1 and part 2 or the homework emails everything explained making it easy to learn.

Can’t praise Emma and this course enough.

Jennie

I started my course in September 2018. I considered myself to be a complete beginner. I was always on auto and had no idea what MASP stood for let alone what the exposure triangle was and how they connect to each other. After a few months I was off auto and using manual all the time. I find the books were a great resource as I like to refer to them from time to time. I also love the app to communicate with other like-minded souls. I ask a lot of questions which is scary to bare your soul like that, but Emma creates a safe environment for questions and I find the other photographers who are more experienced than me are friendly are keen to offer support. After all we were all beginners at some stage!

Cheryl

I started in July 2019. When I got my first camera I was in tears trying to figure it out. It was like a foreign language. After the first two months with AYWMC I was able to go completely manual and started capturing images I had always wanted.

Sally

I started the course in September 2018 and it transformed my photography skills from total beginner to being confident with camera settings, understanding how to go about achieving the images I have in my head - and often surprising myself with better images than I could imagine. The course was gentle but encouraging; at times I had to revisit a module to get my head around it but there was only ever a positive, nurturing support from Emma and from others on the course. I still dip into my course material and love keeping up with challenges and advice on the App. I tried various courses, both paid and free, but AYWMC outshines them all. And, above all if your instincts are telling you to stand in a weird place, kneeling in the mud, capturing something special in a magical shaft of sunlight... just do it!

Karen

I started in January 2019. Was a bit of a 'all the gear and no idea' !! Auto all the way. Pot luck on shots. No composition and no knowledge of just what me and my camera could achieve. I liked art, photography etc. Well, that's all changed! Now I have the same gear, a lot more idea, manual 80% of the time but never Auto anymore, the shots are mainly planned, I know what I want to achieve and mostly how to achieve them! I flippen love photography now! I'm proud of my photos and the way I go about it now. Oh, and I've certainly learned the art of patience!! Thank you Emma and to all the people who make my journey a fun and informative one to be on.

Paul

April 2019 group. Life's about who you meet along the way and through someone else on a Lumix forum I was recommended to Emma's course - Emma has inspired me to want to do more and more photography - I simply do not look at the world as I once did & I am unafraid to tackle any subject. Emma explains things in a way which is totally easily informative, uplifting and inspiring. Thank you Emma

“Fantastic, friendly, non-judgmental way to learn photography”

— Jane

“You don’t just learn photography and creativity, you join a supportive, worldwide community”

— John

“I really like Emma’s thorough and clear teaching method, and believe that this is the last photography course I will have to take”

— Corinn

“I love that it’s so simple to learn the aperture, shutter priority and the exposure. I never understood this until this course. It’s explained in simple terms and it’s a friendly place to learn!”

— Karen

“Learn to take control of your complicated camera one button at a time”

— Jane

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Why is it free?

Quite rightly, most people are suspicious of something that is free nowadays.

The email version of AYWMC is free and you can do the whole course via the emails. But many people like to hold a book in their hands – so the whole course (plus some optional extra projects) is available on Amazon in workbook form. More than 500 people each month who sign up go on to buy the books which is a win-win for both of us: you get to try the course for no charge before you decide you might like the books, and Emma reaches a much wider audience than would be possible if she charged up-front. And Emma genuinely doesn’t mind if you stick to the free emails: you can give something back by enthusiastically joining the community or telling one of your friends about the course if you enjoy it.

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Join here and get started today

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You might also enjoy:

The AYWMC app launch

Which camera should I buy?