Last Friday we sat down for our final written exam. This is the ‘before’ photo, when we were all oblivious to how much we were going to be grilled! Our group was one of the first ones to sit the exam. It wasn’t really that bad, but if I hadn’t read up the night before I would have flunked it for sure!
See how happy we were? All the smiles sort of vanished about 5 seconds into the exam.

I didn’t really get any ‘after’ photos but this is one of them. Bernie’s doubting his answers on Part 1 (Identify Parts of a Camera), while classmate Joseph discusses his answers with the other group members. It was a bit unfair since they tested us on parts of a FILM camera, something which I last used back in the late 80’s! After the exam, we sat down with Sir Ramil, who did our evaluation on Exposure, for another round of evaluation. This time on our photos on Composition. Here he is showing off some gorgeous photographs he took on his trip to Swindon last year. Listening, or looking on, were (l to r) Ashley, Pauline, Hilda and Yeyen.Apart from 2 rather dodgy photos, we were finally allowed to eat! I think we were the last group to finish with the evaluation. That was how thorough Ramil was! He was very good about praising good work but also generous in offering tips on how to improve your craft. He is never negative about it and always encourages everyone to think for themselves and always always very adamant about not copying camera or lens settings since you cannot replicate any shot unless the conditions are all identical.

Next Friday, we will be undergoing our final shooting exam while at the same time participating in a fund-raising campaign for the victims of the typhoons back home. We will be at Safa Park, Dubai for the Geothon. Anyone interested in participating, please feel free to come along with your running shoes!