Does anyone know of photography courses held in English, in Taipei? I am about to by a new Nikon D80 and I would really love to learn how to use it properly, but my Chinese is still so poor that an classes in English would be the only alternative for me. I can see that people have been asking for this kind of classes on the forum here before, but from what I can see they’ve had no luck yet. Does anyone know of any other good way of learning to use a really good camera? I have some friends that also would be interested in learning this, so if there is anyone out there feeling like teaching us on private basis, please let me know!
I can’t help you with classes in Taipei as I don’t know of any. There are plenty of resources online though. Most of what you’d need to learn applies equally to film cameras as it does to DSLR - the basics are all the same. One good site is www.photo.net They have some good articles and a helpful forums section. Or just google something like “basic camera use” and you should find something. To start with, learn about aperture and shutter speed and how to operate a camera in “M” mode.
If you want to organize a group of people one weekend, I could head up to Taipei and give you some basic lessons to get you started, then take you out to shoot some stuff. Let me know if you’re interested.
Thank you! Sad to hear that there seems to be no classes to be found, but very nice of you to offer to come and shoot some stuff with us! My friends are traveling right now, but I will get back to you when they come back.
I’m a keen wildlife photographer and have just got back to Taipei. I’m not great with Nikon cameras as I use Canon but I was hoping to start a camera club where people could share expertise, photos and maybe organise some trips and contests. I have put the idea to the community centre and am awaiting a reply. They may be able to help put the word out there.
If there are enough people we can organise somewhere to meet maybe one evening a week. All meetings would be in English and mostly be aimed at ex-pats.
Let me know if you’re interested or know anyone that might be. I’m sure someone out there would be only too pleased to help you, I know I will if I can.
[quote=“cfimages”]If you want to organize a group of people one weekend, I could head up to Taipei and give you some basic lessons to get you started, then take you out to shoot some stuff. Let me know if you’re interested.[/quote]That is a fabulous idea!
[quote=“taraleigh”]…I was hoping to start a camera club where people could share expertise, photos and maybe organise some trips and contests.[/quote]That too.
Sign me up.
Wait, let me get out of some other commitments, then sign me up.
A camera club would be great! I guess I would need both a club, and an introductory thing to get me started, since I just got my Nikon D80 5 days ago (already loving it though!) My friends are still traveling (Sony Ericsson apparently have offices all over the world…puh!) so I don’t know if they would be interested in something like a weekend thing to get us started yet, but I know for sure that I would be interested in a camera club (and maybe some of my friends too). And if all of the people interested in the camera club will be beginners, like me, maybe that would work out for me anyway, without any further meetings, don’t you think? Anyway, sign me up, too!
I have a D80 as well and it is a great camera. I also have a video that explains all it’s functions, it’s long and a bit technical but I found it very useful to beginning understanding what this camera can do.
I can send you a copy if you want. PM me.
I’m hoping that we could attract photographers of all abilities, that way people who are not so experienced get to benefit from those who are.
Am waiting to see what the community centre think and if they are keen to help get it up and running.
Also, I’m free any night and all afternoon…well actually all of the time, so if people are really serious about wanting to come along then letting me know you’re unavailable is a benefit of getting in early.
I’ll post back on this thread when it looks as if we have a venue, date and time.
I had attend a photography classes for a year in Taipei. The class is in Chinese, however, the president of the class speaks English. If your guys still interested in photography class in English, I could help to check his shcdule, fee and so on.
Moreover, the class is aimed at concept of photography instead of technical matter.
Here is my photo links, please feel free to take a look: flickr.com/photos/wanda1018
Also, I am also interested in being a part of photography club, if there is any.
As mentioned earlier, I’d be happy to head up to Taipei and give some tips to anyone who’s interested. It’d have to be on a weekend though, as I don’t live in Taipei. I don’t have any free weekends in December (although I’ll be in Taipei on 15/16 and might be able to squeeze in an hour or two), but at this stage I’m free on weekends throughout January.
And if anyone’s interested in a trip to Kaohsiung, there’s a bunch of Flickr people getting together on the 22nd down there to spend a few hours chatting and taking photos.
Chih Yu, I just took a look at your Flickr. Nice work, you’ve got some great shots. I added you as a contact so I can take a better look when I’m not so tired.
The Taipei Photography Group is going to happen … although probably not before Jan due to personal commitments until after the new year.
I am quite keen to try and have a first meeting before the end of January and if necessary we could hold the first one at my apartment and get an idea of what other facilities might be available elsewhere as an ongoing task.
The first one really would just be an opportunity to get to meet everyone, share a few photos and most importantly the sort of things people want to discuss or any photographic trips people might be interested in organising. Its all sort of based on what everyone wants, rather than having one person dictating.
I am in the process of getting a Flickr account set up so will hopefully be able to share some of my photos with anyone that’s interested in the near future.
Look forward to meeting some of you soon. Keep spreading the word!
Sign me up for the club! I have a Nikon D70 and need to use it more. This will give me a chance to meet others and take more photos around here. Let me know when the first meeting is…
Nice to see you organizing this, taraleigh! :bravo: When you do have a meeting date set, you can put the announcement in the Events Forum and link to it here.
I’m wondering if I should ‘volunteer’ to do some ‘instructing’ on photography I used to do some teaching and lecturing at photo clubs in my days as a professional photographer in Belgium … but that was in Dutch …
There was a tutorial group running on flickr for a while. The organization and execution were somewhat wanting, but perhaps there’s something worth cribbing from for those wiser than I organizing this.
Good idea, so to get the ball rolling, could anyone interested in learning post what their general skill/knowledge level is first?
Ideas for level include :
Absolute beginner.
I know the basics of point and shoot, but not much more.
Used to know a lot, but need a refresher.
Know all the technical stuff but need to learn about light, composition etc.
Know all the important stuff but want to start shooting in RAW instead of jpg.
Feel free to adapt the list to anything that fits - I haven’t finished my first coffee yet, so it probably doesn’t make much sense.
Once there’s a few responses, I’ll think about what would be good to teach that’ll be useful to everyone.
I’ll be in Taipei from 28th (late) until the 1st, so if anyone wants to get together to shoot some stuff (or for anything else), let me know
I used to do some teaching and lecturing at photo clubs in my days as a professional photographer in Belgium … but that was in Dutch … 
