REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival– Bob Holman: “Have A Go: Phone Photography” @ Cheese Hall (Monday 8th June 2026)

I Think I Get The Picture Now

by Andy Fawthrop

Monday morning seems an odd time to be going to an “Arts” event, and early heavy showers didn’t do the day any favours either.  It almost felt like getting up to go to school when double maths is scheduled, but that was a very (very) long time ago for me, so I sharpened my pencils and set out in determined fashion for the Cheese Hall……

A doughty class of about twenty folks had turned up to hear professional photographer Bob Holman run a workshop session on “how to elevate your phone photography and WOW your friends”.  Not only had this master-class been the first item on DAF’s Events Calendar to sell out, but had proved so popular that another session had been arranged for the afternoon – and that had sold out too! So I guessed there were a lot of people around the town who were having issues with their competence at phone photography!

This was another one of those little DAF gems which gave our good citizens a chance to actually “have a go”, rather than just sit back passively and be entertained.  And this was definitely not entertainment, much more instructional in nature.  It fell into two basic halves: the first being almost traditional chalk-and-talk from the front, and the second was a much more hands-on practical session.

Bob ran through a lot of basic settings, and how to set the phone’s camera up to suit the types of things you might want to do.  Cue lots of “a-ha” moments as people began to discover some basic things about their phone that they’d not realised before.  Previously unexplored menus, sub-menus and options came blinking into the light. This then morphed into a tips-and-techniques section (including “filling the frame”, never using the flash, using the timer, macro shooting, video including slow-motion etc).  We got plenty of advice on what NOT to do, and features NOT to use, which was equally useful.  We talked about focus, contrast, using the light, burst mode, black-and-white….well you get the picture (see what I did there?.

After the break and a chance to let our spinning heads settle a little, we donned coats and headed into the great outdoors for some much more practical shooting tips, causing alarm and amusement in equal measures to ordinary citizens of the town going about their daily business.  Before you knew it, twenty-odd folks were swarming around the Town Hall, down St Johns and into the churchyard, taking pictures of all sorts, from a variety of strange new angles.  We were taught about “leading lines”, “framing”, composition, perspective and some lovely trickery using a range of reflecting surfaces (windows, mirrors, puddles of water).  Again you could hear the “oohs” and “aahs” as various pennies dropped.  Finally, after this enjoyable bit of play-time, we were trooped back into the classroom for a final round-up before the lunch-time buzzer went.

I’d say that by now we were all starting to feel quite pleased with ourselves, not only because we’d all blossomed into a new regiment of crack photographers, but also because the lesson was almost at an end. It was at this point that Bob told us that taking better pictures was “the easy bit”.  All those great shots would now require editing before they were truly perfect. And that, we learned, was a whole other set of dark arts, and a different discipline altogether!  Something for another time methinks.

Overall this was an informative and helpful session. My only quibble was that, despite being clearly advertised as suitable for both iPhone and Android devices, the latter (of which there were several in the room) were not really catered for. Bob admitted upfront that he was largely unfamiliar with Android settings, so a few of us had to play quite a lot of catch-up and translation during the session. For the iPhone majority, however, this session got a definite thumbs up.

Anyway, we’re into the final week of the Devizes Arts Festival now. However, there’s still plenty of great stuff still to come over the next few days, both ticketed and free.  There are more “have-a-go” sessions, too, so why not get your sleeves rolled up and get stuck in?

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until the night of Sunday 14th June at various venues around the town.  Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

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