Shoot like a Pro with Topshop and Olympus Pen ~

Hey Surfers!

So this week I met up with my friend and fellow blogger, the lovely Josie of A Pretty Post It, headed up to London and took part in the Photography Summer School hosted by Topshop and Olympus Pen. The hour long workshops were held in the flagship Topshop store in Oxford Circus hidden amongst the racks. There were several different options to choose from but we went with "How to Shoot A City Scape" which was led by Mademoiselle Robot and R.Cleveland Aaron

We were given the option of borrowing one of the Olympus Pen camera's to try but as I had my own camera with me I declined, though I do wish I had had a chance to have a play with one. The Olympus cameras had a lot of functionality and produced some really dynamic shots with the press of a button that you would have to spend quite a while setting up on a DSLR; they're also wonderfully compact which would be perfect for trips such as this one. Josie and I soon had aching shoulders from lugging a pair of DSLRs around London.

Everything you need for a day out in London ;)

Once the introductions were over we were split into two groups; half went with Mademoiselle Robot and the others, our group, went with Cleveland. Before we left he gave us some instruction on what we were to take pictures of: Old meets New, People, Reflections and Shapes (either circles or triangles) we were then set loose on the streets of Oxford Circus.

Oxford street in selective colour

Cleveland was an amazing teacher, he pointed out things on the street that I would have never noticed, let alone thought to photograph. Looking for triangles made me see so many new and interesting angles and buildings that would make stunning photographs such as the one above; it's actually the top of the Boots store! I was in Oxford Street just a few weeks ago and had no idea that this was even there, Cleveland showed us his own picture of this building before we left so I had to try it out myself. 

Twins

We were accompanied by a representative of Olympus Pen on our excursion and she pointed out to Josie and I how our reflections in this building's window would make an interesting picture. We'd unwittingly worn similar colours which worked really well in the picture.

A little bit of old meets new.

More experiments with reflections

I really love this shot; it truly captures the insanity of Oxford Street. When I saw the bright yellow awnings I had to stop to get a shot; even though the picture is grey the yellow screams summer.

Triangles :)

I'll have to admit that I cheated on the "People" part of our assignment. Having a willing model for the first time I asked Josie to pretend to be taking a picture and snapped a shot with one of the effects on my camera.

This cafe was located down one of the quieter side roads; the sandstone building and the woman in her sunglasses paints a picture of the chic side of London. Almost feels like the opening of a movie.

"make MINE yellow"
Name courtesy of Cleveland :)

Our final stop was the BBC office, yet another building I had no idea was just down Oxford Street. When we had first headed out Cleveland showed us an effect on the Olympus cameras which made the dull British sky look stunning. I wanted to see if I could replicate it on my Nikon and managed the above using the "Low Key" effect; not quite the same but still pretty cool.

The stone tiles around the BBC building was dotted with the names of cities, I wanted to get more pictures but unfortunately we had run out of time and it was time to go back to the store.

Once we were back we were presented with an amazing gift bag! It was a complete surprise and filled with some awesome goodies. The Olympus Pen cameras actually had WIFI capabilities so you can send your pictures directly to your phone (after downloading the app) which meant Josie was able to keep all of her pictures from the day without having to wait for them to be sent over to her.

Having a look at our goody bags whilst enjoying an iced coffee.

I have to say I am quite sold on the Olympus Pen camera; while I love my DSLR it would be nice to have a camera with so many amazing capabilities but a lot less bulk! 

The Topshop Summer School was an amazing experience and I cannot recommend it enough. We both learned loads and had so much fun! Thanks to Cleveland and everyone who came with us around London, you were all brilliant and so friendly.

I believe that they still have some workshops coming up,  I'll put a link to their website here definitely go if you get a chance.

As the workshop was quite short Josie and I were left with the rest of the day to enjoy, but I'll save all of that for next week! 

I hope you enjoyed the post, Josie's blog is linked at the top of the page, make sure to pay her a visit!

See you next week.

Love Lily

x