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ESSENTIAL INFO
If you purchase a ticket for this course, all the information on this page will be emailed to you with your ticket.
👥 Suitable for: Ages 13 to 17
📍 Venue: Bellingen Public School
📈 Level: Suitable for all skill levels
⏰ Schedule: Mon–Fri, 9am – 4pm (5 Full-Days)
⚠️ Extra info: This course involves excursions. Most excursions are walkable. If not, we've got you covered with the shuttle bus.
Students need to know
VIBE involves moving around the Camp Creative site and photographing activities in different locations, so participants should be comfortable carrying their own camera equipment throughout the day.
We'll be working around other participants, tutors, performances and workshops. Respect for the people we're photographing is part of the course.
Participants are responsible for bringing their camera, memory cards, card reader and charger each day and arriving with charged batteries and available memory-card space.
Bring your student/school email address and login details so we can get you using Lightroom and Photoshop during the course.
No previous photography experience is required.
Supplies that you need to bring to class
DSLR or mirrorless camera
Lens/lenses
Memory card/s
Card reader compatible with your memory cards
Camera battery charger
Your student/school email address and login details so we can get you using Lightroom and Photoshop
Notebook and pen
Comfortable, closed-in shoes
A comfortable bag for carrying your camera gear
Water bottle
If you have them, also bring
Spare camera battery/batteries
Spare memory cards
Tripod
Camera strap
Lens cloth
Weather protection for your camera and/or camera bag
Charge your batteries and make sure there's plenty of space on your memory cards before Day 1.
If you don't have access to a suitable camera or you're unsure whether your equipment is appropriate, contact Camp Creative before booking.
The gear is useful. Looking properly is the important bit.
Learning outcomes
By the end of VIBE, you'll have developed practical skills in composition, light, exposure, focus, timing and visual communication.
You'll have more confidence photographing people, movement, performances and live environments, along with experience selecting, editing and evaluating your own work.
You'll learn the fundamentals of a photographic workflow, from making the photograph and managing files through to selecting, editing and finishing images using Lightroom and Photoshop.
You'll also spend five days working both independently and as part of a creative crew, building a body of photographs across Camp Creative.
Most importantly, you'll have started developing something more useful than somebody else's preset:
Your own way of seeing.
COURSE PLAN
Day 1: LOOK
We start with the camera, but we don't stay there for long.
We'll get cameras, cards and workflow sorted, cover the fundamentals that actually matter, then get out and start making photographs.
Composition. Light. Exposure. Focus. Enough technical knowledge to stop fighting the camera and start paying attention to what's in front of it.
The first job is simple:
Notice more.
Day 2: PEOPLE
Photographing people without making everything weird.
We'll work with portraits, candid moments, interaction and expression, including the difference between taking a photograph of somebody and making a photograph with them.
Then we move through Camp Creative as a crew, learning when to step forward, when to wait and when the photograph is happening somewhere other than where everyone else is looking.
Day 3: MOMENT
Things move. Light changes. People don't wait for you.
We'll work with timing, movement, performances and events, learning how to anticipate a photograph before it happens.
You'll experiment with shutter speed, freezing action, showing movement and working in changing conditions.
Less wondering what to photograph.
More being ready when it arrives.
Day 4: MAKE IT YOURS
Edit. Select. Sequence. Finish.
We'll bring the photographs we've made so far into Lightroom and Photoshop, learning the fundamentals of selecting, editing and finishing photographs.
We'll look across the week so far, identify the photographs worth keeping and start shaping them into a body of work.
You'll learn how to make decisions about your own photographs, recognise what's working and understand why another frame might not quite get there.
Not every photograph survives.
That's part of photography too.
Day 5: STORY
One good photograph can stand alone.
A group of photographs can tell us where we were, who was there and what it felt like.
We'll use everything we've learned across the week to think in sequences, look for connections between photographs and fill the gaps in the story.
Wide. Tight. People. Details. Place. Moments.
By now, you're not just taking photographs. You're building a visual record of Camp Creative from the inside.
One last day. Go make it count.
COURSE TUTOR
James Lander
James Lander is a photographer from the Mid North Coast of NSW, working on Gumbaynggirr Country.
His work moves between people, music, place and community: live shows and portraits, streets, festivals, schools and youth programs.
For a long time, James thought he was building a portfolio.
Turns out he was accumulating a place.
His underlying subject is participation: what people are like when they're inside something together. The headline act gets photographed. So does the kid playing their first show.
These days the camera also gets him into schools, youth programs and community spaces, working with young people through photography, mentoring and creative learning.
His approach to teaching is much the same as his approach to photography:
Look properly. Stay curious. Keep coming back.
“Forget fake smiles and posed perfection.
I capture sweat, laughter, tears — unfiltered truth.
Gigs, weddings, portraits — no scripts, just stories.”
BUY TICKETS
Not ready to book just yet?
Pop your details into the form and we’ll email you when this course is almost sold out.
By filling out the form below, you agree to receive email course status updates from Camp Creative.
Filling out this form DOES NOT GUARANTEE YOU A PLACE IN YOUR COURSE OF CHOICE, it is just a reminder system to purchase your ticket before it sells out.
If you wish to buy a ticket now, do so in the section above this one.
