The short version of this post would be: not enough.

If you’ve seen any of my other blog posts (if not, why not? Go and take a look now…) you’ll have seen I am far from the most proficient photographer. I was asking my other half what he thought of my blog photos just last night and he said “I love the fact you can tell they’re not marketing shots…” Which, a little passive-aggressive questioning later, led to him confessing that, as I feared, my photos all look a bit amateur.

I got my lovely Canon DSLR about a year ago now and I’m still mastering all of its functions. I’m definitely better but I still spend huge chunks of time getting frustrated that I can see a lovely photo in front of me, but when I shoot it the scene turns a different colour, or looks washed out, or I failed to notice a huge wire trailing across the foreground.

I took a short camera course back in Hong Kong which helped me master the basics, but I’m really keen to do another one soon, ideally in macro photography, so I can take better product and food photos to share with you lovely readers. The London School of Photography has a really appealing selection.

So, once I have actually learnt something useful about photography I promise I’ll come back and share it with you. In the meantime, I thought I’d just show you some of my best shots from my Hong Kong photo course. These are the ones I’m quite proud of. I show some promise, right?!

By the way, to see what I aspire to, check out the gorgeous photos on the blog of my real life friends at Nimble Fingers & Steady Eyebrows and my in-no-way-real-life-friend-but-someone-I-think-looks-super-cool-from-reading-her-blog-all-the-time Delia Creates.

And if you too are a frustrated budding photographer like me, check out my Photography board on Pinterest for loads of hints and tips from people who know what they’re doing.

Things I’ve learnt is an occasional series, where I talk about stuff I’ve picked up while trying to set up a new business of printed fabrics. I’m hoping that the information in these posts might be informative / interesting / amusing to anyone else setting up their own business. If you’ve any suggestions for other topics for this series, or any thoughts on what I’ve written about, please do post a comment at the end of the piece…