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TESTIMONIALS

If you’re in two minds as to whether it is worth investing in a Astro workshop – take my word for it, it’s worth every penny! Drew was very approachable and answered all my questions in an informative and easy to understand manner. We started off with a sky full of cloud, however, we stuck around and were rewarded with a beautifully clear night sky. Astrophotography was 100% new to me and now I feel equipped to head out and explore the beauties above on my own. I not only came away with lots of useful info and tips, but I came away with some great photographs of the milky way for my portfolio.

Neil

Astro Photography Workshop

I recently spent the day with Drew on a 1-2-1 Landscape Workshop where we got to grips with using filters , composition and functions on my camera that I hadn’t used before . We visited several locations drawing on Drew’s knowledge of the area and tide times / angle of the sun etc . He was easy to get along with and remained flexible ensuring I got out of the day what I wanted to . I was encouraged to ask questions throughout . We started at Amroth watching the waves come and go among the wooden groynes , went up on the headland to get shots of Barafundle Bay did long exposures at Stack Rocks and Green Bridge then finished with some shots at Freshwater West as the sun was going down. I would highly recommend spending a day with Drew.

Cath

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

Drew gave us a very useful informal shooting experience focusing on what we particularly wanted to learn. The session at Freshwater Bay enabled us to practice using filters and I think we learned a lot and had a very worthwhile session including seeing photo composition in a different way. Drew was very responsive and flexible about the content of the session which was tailored to our requirements.

John & Linda

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

I wanted to thank you for the puffin workshop, it was absolutely amazing, I managed to get the images I had in mind and the workshop exceeded my expectations. Thanks again for your advice, and patience; hopefully at some point I would be able to capture birds in flight with the same ease you do it.

Gabriel

Skomer Puffins Photography Workshop

Fantastic workshop from Drew, made me feel very comfortable and able to ask anything. Learnt a lot, highly recommended

Helen

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

I have just completed a 1-2-1 Landscape workshop with Drew and have to say it was everything I had hoped for and more. Not only did we cover the prime area of interest (use of filters) but I learnt so much more during the process. Drew is easygoing and tailored the program throughout the day to ensure we covered the key areas of interest (and a lot more). His local knowledge ensured we visited a number of different locations to maximise the best of use light and tides and ensured we positioned ourselves for the best possible shots. Having had the chance to compare my shots taken under Drew’s guidance with my previous efforts, I now realise exactly what was missing and I now feel much more confident in full manual mode. Ditch the photography books, a day with Drew is extremely informative and loads more fun!

Geoff

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

My friend and I booked a 2-day workshop with Drew located in the North Pembrokeshire region. Our primary brief for the workshop was to concentrate on developing composition skills in a few selected areas along the coast. Drew was very approachable and easy to get along with. He was an excellent guide to many unforgettable locations and has an immense breadth of knowledge on the local fauna and flora. Through his patient interaction with us discussing the settings of our cameras and artistic direction we certainly accomplished our aims. I would definitely recommend Drew to any photography enthusiast wanting to capture special images of Pembrokeshire.

Paul & Kevin

2 day Bespoke Landscape Workshop

A day exploring the Dale and Marloes peninsula with Drew on one of his Landscape Workshops. I’ve known Drew for a few years and often pick his brains for photography tips. Today I realised just how knowledgable he is. His explanations of what a landscape photographer should think about when approaching a location is so thorough even down to planning how you walk on the beach so that you don’t end up photographing your own footsteps. He guided me through composition, explaining how altering the height of the camera affected the image, the use of different lenses, not just wide angle, how to draw the eye into the frame, where to focus to gain maximum depth of field.

He then went on to explain how to use filters correctly and, more importantly, when to use them, what each type of filter did and its effect on the image. He also reinforced his explanations with a demonstration on the camera so that I could see the effect of the changes.

A lot of photographers think that spending money on a new lens will improve their photography only to find that it’s not the case. For far less outlay you can improve your photography by a far greater degree by going on one of Drews workshops.

Thanks Drew for a great day and good laughs.

Gary

Gary

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

I spent an excellent day with Drew exploring the area around Marloes, looking at landscape composition and unraveling my total confusion over the use of the many filters I had but did not understand how to use. He was immensely patient and explained in a way that I could understand; we experimented with all the filters and tried varying locations and the penny began to drop! I now have the foundations on which to build, I am no longer mystified and what fun is now ahead!

Drew is easy company, very knowledgeable and I would recommend anyone to attend a 1:1 workshop with him. Thank you Drew.

Jenny

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

It’s difficult to put into words what an absolutely amazing job you did with our wedding photos!

It completely and utterly surpassed our expectations. We really wanted natural shots capturing all elements of the day and you delivered this and so much more. We all felt so comfortable with you and our two girls took to you and Andrea so well, absolutely treasure all the amazing pictures you took of them. You really captured their spirit!!! We were blown away when we saw the pictures and the album is such great quality and perfect arrangement. Also this was all done less than a month after the wedding! Such a quick turn around and we thank you for that.

Your wildlife and landscape photography skills meant that you captured Frodo (the owl) and his friends so beautifully and caught the light of the sunset and landscape in our final pictures of the evening, just perfect!

I’m so glad we found you. Everyone is amazed at the photos you took and says what a brilliant job you have done.  They really do tell the story just as we wanted! I recommend you to everyone in the world!

We are forever grateful to you and enjoy seeing your career progress on and on. We will have to book a wildlife photography workshop someday too!

Much love Darren and Ellie 🙂

Darren & Ellie

Wedding

Hi Drew, sorry it has taken us a month to do this but as we are literally obsessed with our stunning wedding photos, we wanted to write and say a huge THANK YOU and that we would recommend you to anyone.

Your photographs tell the story of our wedding day fabulously and it was as if you were never there-perfect for a couple who cannot pose for photos at all! You captured the laughter, the tears, the energy and the joy of the entire day and we are most grateful.

Best of luck with your photography venture, you deserve all the best.
Kindest regards, Ceri and Andy

Ceri & Andy

Wedding

Drew is an excellent guide, as I found out when I spent a day on Skomer Island with him. His local knowledge and experience helped me achieve all my photographic goals for the day! Drew’s camera skills and knowledge are spot on and I would recommend him to anyone wanting to explore the Pembrokeshire coast and countryside

Stuart

1-2-1 Skomer Workshop

After being with Drew for just half an hour I learned more about my camera and its settings, realizing there\’s more to the camera than just the auto setup. We reviewed the pictures on a regular basis and any amendments to the settings was explained to me in fashion easily understood. All in all a brilliant day with a great companion and teacher.

Barrie

1-2-1 Red Kite Workshop

I had a brilliant day on Skomer Island with Drew. Drew is an excellent guide and great company, making for an enjoyable day. He was encouraging throughout the workshop and offered advice on composition, settings and positioning. I came away with plenty of images of Puffins but most importantly I fulfilled my objective of enjoying a day of wildlife photography. What I especially liked about the day was Drew continues to challenge you during the workshop and whilst I didn’t get a Puffin in flight – it was fun trying. I’d highly recommend booking Drew and will be doing so again in the future.

Jason

1-2-1 Skomer Workshop

When I booked the 1-2-1 landscape workshop with Drew Buckley I was very excited but nervous at the same time at the prospect of learning from such a well renowned and respected photographer. I needn’t have worried and had a most enjoyable day in which I learnt an amazing amount of new things. I found Drew to be extremely helpful, knowledgeable and unassumingly down to earth.

My main photography interest is wildlife but I have always wished to be able to capture stunning landscape pictures. For this workshop my aims were to improve my landscape work, concentrating on composition, use of filters, use of extreme wide angle lenses and understanding how different light can affect the photograph. Drew covered all these aspects in detail and in a way that was easy to understand. I can now see why I was struggling and in just a half days workshop my landscape work has already improved.

We started with composition and in particular using height to alter the composition by shrinking or expanding vertical space, using lead in lines and positioning oneself to achieve separation between objects. Then onto use of filters and again I could not believe how much I learnt in such a short space of time. Towards the end of the workshop Drew encouraged me to take photos breaking the rules! This was the best bit in a lot of ways and a lot of fun.

I would thoroughly recommend a 1-2-1 photography workshop with Drew. It was thoroughly enjoyable with the advantage of being at a great location and the opportunity to learn so much.

Thank you Drew.

Monica

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

It was a typical late March day with mixed sunshine, cloud and a biting wind coming from the north-west. I met Drew as arranged at Abereiddi on the North Pembrokeshire coast for a long-anticipated day of tuition in the art of landscape photography.  He put me at my ease immediately by asking me what I wanted to get from the day.  “I want to know how to make my photographs ‘pop’ so that I can capture something of the excitement that I feel,” I told him.  “I am fed up with  the disappointment I often feel when going through my shots after a day in the field.”  “We’ll do something about that!” said Drew.

 

And do something about it he certainly did!   To my surprise many of my long held beliefs were knocked into the long grass and countless new ideas and techniques were put in their place.  Who would have thought that one does not need to use f22 in order to get great depth of field?!  Smoothing out the sea through slow shutter speed can be a valuable tool for any seascapes and not just for fancy effects on beaches!  Focussing on a point 1/3rd into the frame works!

 

In the face of a cold wind, we started at the Blue Lagoon at Abereiddi where Drew checked out my gear and my knowledge. The former took a while, the latter not long at all! I soon learnt that my Canon 7Ds, being cropped sensor bodies, were not as good for landscape photography as full frame models, and that both my tripod and my filters were candidates for upgrading if I wanted to improve my chances of success in the future. And then it was down to the task in hand!

 

Check the direction, intensity and colour of the light; look at the composition of the scene in front and work out the creative opportunities; decide what I want to achieve from the final results and set up the camera accordingly.  Lens choice, position and height of tripod, aperture, depth of field, filter choice, shutter speed, where to focus, angle of sun in relation to polaroid filter, etc. etc. – so many things to consider and I was guided through it all by Drew with great patience and infinite knowledge.

 

A major revelation at this early stage was the importance of the Live View feature to landscape photography!  This was not a feature that I had looked at seriously before, but in the hands of an expert the value of its use was immediately obvious and it will now become a vital part of my repertoire.   And so it went on!  Via the harbour at Porthgain to a sunset at Pwll Deri, Drew led me through a range of subjects, each with their own challenges and techniques.

 

By the end of the day my head was swimming with information and it is clear that it will take a while for me to assimilate and practice all that I have learned.  Drew was patient throughout and determined to ensure that I was getting the experience I wanted. I can heartily recommend this to anyone who wants to push their knowledge and creativity with the help of a good teacher.

David

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

I had a fantastic morning walking the Pembrokeshire coast path with Drew, exploring the various photographic opportunities the area has to offer.  Drew is great fun to hang out with and when you put that together with expert local knowledge and his ability to share his photography expertise, you’ve got a recipe for a great time.  I learnt a huge amount about composition, settings and the use of filters and came away with a few great shots too.  Drew happily answered all my silly questions and was nothing but encouraging despite my butter fingers. I’d definitely recommend a one to one session with Drew for anyone who wants to learn more about capturing high impact landscape shots, or for anyone just looking to carve out some top quality photo time during a family holiday to Pembrokeshire.

Sian

1-2-1 Landscape Workshop

Just a few words of appreciation for the wonderful photos of our wedding. Your professionalism and courtesy put everyone at ease and made the whole day a real pleasure. We treasure so many happy memories captured in your photos.

All our best wishes
Llew and Jan

Llew & Jan

Wedding

I recently did three workshops in a row with a delightful photographer called Drew Buckley in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. First day was at Gigrin Farm at the Red Kite Centre where I spent an amazing four hours shooting in Manual – something I had not done before. Actually managed to get some great shots to my surprise and Drew’s advice was spot on. We constantly checked settings to ensure optimum shooting which is crucial whilst in Manual Mode.

Second day was four hours doing Landscapes/Seascapes and Birds in Flight around the Deer Park near Marloes. Again everything in manual mode plus the use of filters. I have used them before but not to such good effect. At the end of the day we had a ball shooting gulls in flight as they cruised around the headland just below our feet. And I finally got a shot of a Chough – a rare bird that looks like a crow but has a red beak and feet.

Final day was the all day trip to Skomer Island to photograph puffins in flight. This was a special treat for me as it was also my birthday. Up early and finally managed to get on the 1130am boat (big queues form to get to this island which has restricted access to only 250 people per day). So whilst we waited we went and did small birds near Deer Park again. I managed to get some very good shots of a stonechat and a pipit again all in Manual Mode under Drew’s guidance. Then we set a challenge to get a swallow in flight which has extreme levels of difficulty. When I couldn’t do it I offered Drew my gear to see if he could get one and so didn’t feel bad when he could not achieve a sharp shot. His reward however was having a kestrel fly up beside us and hover twenty feet away allowing him to snap a magic series of shots. I was most pleased for him as they say timing is everything.

Skomer Island after that was a hard slog for me although Drew carried my gear a lot of the way (thanks Drew as the weight was killing me!!!). Although I tried hard and with Drew’s best endeavours I could not get that elusive shot of a puffin in flight with a mouthful of sand eels but it was not for lack of trying. That just means I will have to come back and do it again with Drew!!

These three workshops were different and amazingly good value and I would recommend Drew to anyone who travels to the UK who needs some help in locations and photography settings. I really had a great time and Drew was an excellent coach and extremely helpful.

Cheers!

David

Mixture

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