Photography workshops with Pip Sides
Pip Sides is an exciting new photographer based in the Buttermarket Craft Centre in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. He has orgainsed a number of Courses and Workshops with people who wish to stay at the Belmore Court Motel, Enniskillen.
Suggested Schedule for the Photography workshop / course in Enniskillen - The lakeland paradise of Northern Ireland.
Fermanagh 2nd to 4th March, accommodation in Belmore Court Motel, Enniskillen.
The first day of each workshop is in the field, Fermanagh is ideal for the landscape photographer due to their vast expanse's of unspoilt natural beauty.
We will specialize in using the traditional darkroom, with an emphasis on darkroom techniques known as Dodging and Burning or Painting with Light. This is where the student uses their hands to control the light and shade of the image - in other words manipulating the scene for the negative and then manipulating the negative for the photograph.
We can now cater for the digital enthusiast 
with our Chief Editor Padraig Donnelly, who will be on hand with a laptop and high performance inkjet printer to advise photoshop skills.
As opposed to the student simply completing the course with a certificate, each student will produce at least one framed photograph 12 by 16 inches in size; this will be included in the course.
These workshops are for 5- 10 people and include the following, camera rental, black and white film, photographic paper, Pip and Pod for two days, darkroom rental, inkjet printing, if nec, and framing of your final piece.
Workshop Prices
Enniskillen - £300 Residential (this is on a self-catering basis) £200 non-residential
For more information or too book a place of a workshop visit http://www.pipsgallery.com
or contact Pip Sides on 028 6632 0018 email: info@pipsgallery.com
It was not the love of art that got me into photography but a beautiful art student whom I met when serving A la Cart dishes to the high brow millionaires in a restaurant in Guernsey.
This was at the age of 20. I retired from silver service waiting and went to Belfast to study photography for my GCSE. I then did A level and decided to study philosophy and religion at university to develop my interest in world philosophies and leave my photography free.
One year later, Pip's Gallery was established on the Galway Art and Craft Market in the summer of '95. Our first gallery consisted of my mother's picnic table, an umbrella, a nice Celtic throw and sheer determination, necessary in Christmas when the wind and snow is blowing down the Galway market like a wind tunnel and you have to do your best to keep the collection from disappearing in the wind.
This empire continued to thrive over the next few years where I exhibited my work when home for the Christmas, Easter, and summer holidays. My first Christmas I spent my student grant for the coming term on frames and materials. We recouped this cost in my first day! I walked away after the week with four pictures out of one hundred and fifty! At this point I knew that I could make something out of this photography game and my ideas for joining the Church started to change.
Christmas 1998, the Garda Schionna put a stop to this little empire; they had the audacity to ask me for a license, I mean a license huh? I honestly replied that I was a student earning a few quid for the holidays and I did not have a license. This officer was not very sympathetic to my plea however, and he promptly carried away my pictures and my mother's picnic table. I did protest but he was not having any of it! I mean it's not like I was selling stolen or counterfeit goods.
Still the gard was only doing his job and sense of humour or tolerance are qualities that I am convinced get driven out of you when in garda training! The word spread like wildfire round the market however, and Mick the Crepe man - with the finest Crepes in the whole of Ireland! - gave me some complimentary crepes. Everyone really supported me in this crisis and their generosity and kindness on this dark morning will never be forgotten.
I later heard that my fellow market traders were going to organise a whip round to reimburse me for my confiscated pictures that day, only for the fact that on my complaint to the Sergeant in the Galway Garda Station, I had my pictures returned and charges dropped for first offence.
For more information or too book a place of a workshop visit http://www.pipsgallery.com
or contact Pip Sides on 028 6632 0018 email: info@pipsgallery.com