Photoworks Academy by Leo Castillo: Two Thumbs Up!
For the most part of August me and my wife were enrolled in the Photoworks Class of Leo Castillo. It’s a 6-day basic photography course that aims to give students a solid foundation in photography. The class is taught by Leo Castillo, who is not only a photographer but also a trainer. The class we joined was actually the 70th already since Photoworks has been running since 2002!
The course is composed of 6 face-to-face sessions in a classroom set-up at his studio in Ortigas (near Pearl Drive). In between the sessions Leo assigns photo projects which will let you apply the lessons you’ve learned in the classroom into the field. When you get back there’s a group critique of your work. The critique part will really push you to do much better and exert more effort than you usually do when taking photos, lol.
So how was it? If I were to describe it in numbers and adjectives it would be: 30% technical, 30% creative, 30% inspirational, and 10% fun. Technical because you will learn all the functions and details of your camera. Creative because Leo will really drill in the importance of art and craft in photography. Inspirational because Leo is a fantastic trainer and speaker. Fun because meeting new people is always fun, hehe. Balik classroom!
I took the class with the goal of just improving my photography of gadgets for this site and I’m pretty happy with the way the photos have been coming out lately. Hopefully I get to refine my skills even more so that the photos on Unbox will truly be world class and not just your usual “photo-of-phone-in-my-hand” kind of picture. 😛
Some sample photos I took while taking up the class. It’s by no means crazy good but I do feel that it’s an improvement over the usual pictures that I post on Instagram, hehe.
Waterproof.
Anyway, I highly recommend Leo’s Photoworks class. If you guys want to get a solid foundation for photography go ahead and sign up for Photoworks Class 71. It should start in October. Enrollment fee is Php8,000 but if you catch the Early Bird Rate, you can get it for Php7,000. Details here.
