If you want to start taking better, more creative photos, with your DSLR, mirrorless or compact camera, this is the right course for you. During this course, I'll teach you to understand your camera so you can achieve more creative, satisfying results with your digital photography. Completing the course will take you longer than the 1.5 hours of video lessons because I've also included comprehensive assignments for each of the 20+ lessons. Each assignment will take at least half an hour, or more, depending on how much you want to put into it.

The videos are full of footage of me working, photographs we've taken, graphic overlays, and animations all demonstrating what I am teaching. There are pages and pages of .pdf files accompanying the lessons with further information and assignments designed to help you put it all into practice and gain experience. There's also a number of quizzes throughout the course so you can easily assess your own progress. And if you have questions, just ask me in the Q&A section of the course.

In this course, I'll teach you to take control of your camera and creativity the way I have – by using the Manual Mode on your dslr, mirrorless, or compact camera. I find most people we teach in our workshops don't know how their digital camera works or how they can really control it to create more interesting photographs. They've had their cameras set on one of the many auto modes and wonder why the results are not so pleasing and their photos look the same as everyone else's.

In this course, I'll teach you to understand the three ways of controlling your exposure – using the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO so that you can be in control of how your photos look, rather than your camera being in control of the results. I'll demonstrate how to effectively use the exposure meter to capture images that look the way you want them to and I'll teach you techniques to use the aperture and shutter speed to achieve truly creative photographs.

This course is presented in a concise manner. We live busy lives and personally I prefer a course of teaching which is focused and clear to the points being made, rather than one that contains little useful information padded out to make the course seem of greater value than it really is. The aim of delivering the teaching in short modules is so that those who do not understand the lesson the first time can easily go back and watch the video again, read the accompanying PDF files and complete the assignments. This way you will learn through my teaching and your own experimenting, practice, and experience. After all, if you do not pick up your camera frequently and practice what you are learning, you will not develop as a creative photographer.

I do not use much camera jargon and keep my language simple so it's easy to understand if English is not your first language. I asked a Thai friend to check over some of the assignments as I was writing them to make sure they were easy enough to understand. As she read through them her main feedback was "This is much easier to read and understand than an academic textbook." She could follow them through and understand without difficulty.

I've been a professional photographer since the 1980s, with a background as a photojournalist and freelancer covering everything from international sports events, corporate portfolios, weddings, travel, and much more. My wife and I have taught 100's of people in the photo workshops we run in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I am a self-taught photographer and teach from my many years of experience.