“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”  (Socrates)

To have a whole weekend to explore, learn and be inspired is a real gift and one I was able to unwrap at the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday I attended Travel Photographer of the Year Live at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Attendees were in for a difficult time making choices between excellent presentations from leading photographers. Of course the main focus was travel photography but the range of topics within that broad theme was vast. I decided to split my time evenly between learning about the business side of photography and talks that would inspire and inform me about the way successful travel photographers work. I am going to share five things I learnt from the weekend:

1) That my heart beats faster when I think about being a visual storyteller! Listening to talks by Gavin Gough, Eamonn McCabe and Anders Ryman I was able to reflect upon the fact that I love what I do in the way that they obviously love what they do! I am also so far away from being at their skill level and the talks were therefore both inspiring and humbling.

2) I need to organise my workflow – thanks Gavin Gough for sharing such awesome tips! For those of you out there who are also using Lightroom less than efficiently then check out http://www.gavingough.com/photo-workflow/ – it is illuminating! (Sorry, poor pun)

3) The anthropologist in me (my degree studies) actually comes through in my work. Listening to Anders Ryman made me realise that a lot of his motivations and interests actually chime with my own but the style he uses to represent his work is very different to mine. I am still fascinated by the way we mark our lives. I am going to check out a lot more of Ander’s work as the hour flew by.

4) I listened to talks by the awesome Philip Lee Harvey and the highly knowledgeable Colin Finlay and learnt lots about the business of photography but also indirectly came to the conclusion that the niche I am working in is completely right for me.

5) I have learnt I still have so much left to learn! I hope I always feel this way.

There is always more to learn!