As a life long technophobe and newcomer to photography I found myself in what must be a common position. I had been given a stonking new SLR camera, which resided in it’s box looking downright scary. And of course a detailed book, which soon lapsed into technical areas like ‘depth of field’, ‘focal legnth’ - surely a foreign language?

I joined evening classes on photography, only to find they were all on Photoshop, with very little on tackling the monster in the box. I joined a local camera club, and found them so accomplished, and the visiting judges so erudite I felt too foolish to ask my basic questions.

I then chanced upon an article on the Beyond the Image Gallery (at Thornham Walks, near Diss) and their photoshoots, and was assured absolute beginners were welcome.

The photoshoots have a general theme, and are usually at the gallery, showing the complementary exhibition. The themes are loose enough to allow almost any interpretation, but specific enough to be thought provoking, they have certainly helped me to progress from holiday snaps. Sessions usually begin by looking at some images, and a general chat on interpreting the theme.

We then go out, or stay in if we want, and take some pictures. The friendly and informal sessions are led by members of the gallery who have extensive technical skills, which they are quite happy to share, and you can gain what you want or need from them.

At the end of the day we each choose our best images of the day, and they are projected on the screen for friendly discussion.

On my first session the beast came out of it’s box, was assembled and set on fully automatic, and I just followed the others and joined in. Some of my favourite images were taken on that day. Informal help over the last four years have built on my knowledge, technical terms have been addressed, the magazine articles and books now make sense, most of the buttons on the camera have been explained and experimented with.

At the end of every year participants are encouraged to put a couple of pictures in a special exhibition. As a beginner most of us are reticent, but it is a great opportunity to look back through your year’s work, and amongst the errors and blurry ones, there WILL be a couple that, with a bit of cropping, look good in a mount. There is nothing like seeing your images in the gallery to give you confidence, and to focus your mind on the next photoshoot.

You may have a beast lurking in it’s box, since Christmas (and it doesn’t even have to be a SLR), or have got started and run out of ideas. You may have got bogged down with the technicalities, and can’t commit the time and money to go on a high level training course. Come along and join in - you may well find what you need.