Day 5, Friday 6 April

Friday -10.45 p.m. and my turn for the 'diary'.

Our normal classroom session this morning was abandonned as we are all now so thoroughly hooked that there was a rush to get to the computer/network (Sam's office) to start printing out our images.Kim and Jane even willing to forego a second helping of porridge. Jo made it with milk this morning - Sam still in favour of the authentic version - coarse oats and water.

Kim and Jane have been working mostly on 'Duotoning' - changing some of their colour images to black and white. There has been some discussion over whether their extra-curricular activities, shooting a video film, with a pumpkin in the chicken shed - not to mention Charlie Dimmock behaviour in the herb garden - should go out on release to the general public.There is a suspicion that Sam and Ian may be banning it - although they both claim there is no censorship here.

Ian is a brilliant and patient teacher who has managed to instill into us, with a considerable amount of humour, the routines for Photoshop. Meaningless words such as 'Adjust Levels', 'Unmask Sharpen' come tripping off our fingers at a great rate. He was also David's prime target for his portrait session.

A nice sunny day and we had a picnic lunch on the lawn. Kim complains we always take photos when she's eating something.

Back inside where Sam , as ever, directed us gently towards a more creative output and despite being presented with a stream of work this afternoon seemed to find a place to hang and display it all.

Jo is seen here showing her seascape to Anne Marie, one of the guests from Columba 1400.

There have been some heated exchanges as regards definitions of photography, creative art and manipulation throughout the week and the guests were bowled over by the exhibition - as we were ourselves. I had never expected that it would have been possible, within a week, to achieve the results we did. Some of the group are very experienced photographers, but none of us in digital photography. Certainly it was the first time I had ever used one and I was very nervous , especially as I had borrowed my son's 'state-of-the-art' Sony and the only instructions I had for it were scribbled on a scrap of paper tucked inside my spectacle case. What a relief when Ian dialled in the magic words 'Google.com. ' and sorted out how to download for me.

Sue Fallon

on to Saturday ...

Go to Sue's gallery