Do you live in or near Tokyo and want to learn photography in English? Read here about our lessons, for people of all skill levels.
About The Classes
You may be someone who already knows something about photography, or who has a new digital SLR camera and wants to learn more. Or perhaps you are an absolute beginner and need some advice and a few lessons on how to get the most from the hobby? Whatever your needs, I hope I will be able to help. My students are currently a mixture of beginners and more seasoned hobbyist photographers, each with their own list of things they want to learn more about. With a lesson or two all of them have felt not only more comfortable with their camera and more able to get the best from it, but also slightly more switched on to the world around them. Enough for it to begin to better feed their new-found skills with some extra creativity.
Recent street shots:
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I teach all levels of photographer. For beginners it would be, first, just going over what you grasp about the basics of aperture, speed and ISO [i.e. exposure] and then going through establishing a way of you being able to measure and play with exposure in your photography. Understanding light, shadow, tone, contrast, dynamic range; these things are key to be able to get yourself to a point where you can feel in total control of the camera, rather then feeling like the camera is controlling you. This is the first objective.
Then we try to work on subjects that you like shooting and how you can get better at them. I generally do this through little projects and by us shooting together during the lessons. After that we introduce various other areas of photographic technique: macro, nature, people, still-life, architecture, for example.
We’ll also work a little on how you ‘see’ things. This is not exactly the same for everyone as we all see the world around us differently. The aim here is to, at least, get you seeing some new things about the world around you which you can then feel confident about capturing with your camera.
There are some technical and creative aspects to every lesson and we try to work on projects that combine the creative and technical. You can find some of our projects on this site:
Here’s a rough idea of costs:
- One-to-one tuition: JPY5000 / hour
- Introductory lesson: 90mins for 6000Yen
- Group lessons: between JPY2000 and JPY3500 / hour, each, depending on the number in the group.
Classes take place at a location convenient to you and me. I live in Shinagawa-ku and am happy to travel 30 minutes from there on the train to reach my students. The first lesson is 90-minutes long. The extra half-hour gives me a chance to figure out a little about your level of skill and experience. The lessons can be subject or technique based. For example we can shoot people or we could explore the topic of creative use of depth of field. Sometimes we do both subject and technique based things at the same time.
Some recent shots as part of a class I ran in Tsukishima, Tokyo
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It’s better if you have a DSLR [Digital SLR] camera but it isnt the end of the world if you don’t. I have several cameras you can use. I can teach weekdays or weekends; mornings, afternoons or evenings. Whatever suits you.
So please get in touch. You can drop me an email using our contact page.
Find out about our series of flash and studio classes for the advanced photographer! Click here for details.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Alfie Goodrich
June 7th, 2009 at 2:34 am
I would like to learn techniques, light metering. I used to do photography 5 Years ago in my country(Philippines). I would like to learn more about commercial photography. Sorry but I dont have DSLR now, what I have now are 2 sets of Mamiya 645AFD with a film back but not so much lenses.(Mamiya ZD back is very expensive now, still can’t afford it) I have a pair of studio lights with softbox light diffuser and unbrella. I hope you could help me improve my technical knowledge about photography.
Im open every Sat. and Sun. for a lesson.
How much will it cost? You can call me on my mobile 090-9932-1626 if you need to discuss about FEEs and Sched.
Thank you,
Royce
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Hi!
I’m interested on learning more about photography. I had classes before in college (I did communication in Brazil) and a course I did in USA (not professionally).
Even with those classes my knowledge still beginner. I would like to learn more and maybe be able to become a professional photographer.
Now, my main project is to build a photobook but I have to start from the beginning – buying a professional camera. I have a Nikon 35mm but I want to buy a digital one.
Anyway, can you please let me know if you have classes that will start soon?
Thank you
Karina
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Hi Alfie, I’m interested in taking your photo lessons, I wondered are you doing them in a group ~ as it mentions something about starting photowalks on your website in 2009..? Well, anyway, I’m interested as I’m living in Tokyo; I can’t speak Japanese very well though. By the way, I really admire your work! If I’m feeling fed up, I look at your site and get cheered up and excited about life again!
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:21 pm
We’re doing photowalks now, most weekends in fact. Bit of a break this weekend as two of us are shooting at the Design Festa event. Drop me a line through the contact page or on email and we’ll hook something up. I can also add you to the mailing list if you like, that way you’ll hear about the walks and workshops as and when we annonce them.
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
Alfie,
I’m definitely interested in some photography lessons. Your pictures are amazing and I know that I could use some hands-on lessons to learn how to get better shots. Please add me to your mailing list as well.
Thanks!
April 21st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Hi
Can anyone join the walking workshops i.e. beginners? Is there a fee?
Thanks
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:38 am
Hi. Yeah, anyone can join as we have a very mixed bunch of students of all levels. There usually is a feee, yes.
June 18th, 2010 at 5:14 am
Hi Alfie,
I am very interested in taking some photography classes. I have been traveling the world for the last year and have some great photos and have really developed a pssion for it.
Problem being I dont have a SLR camera just a normal small digital Sony cybershot.
I am keen to buy a new one but dont want to spend TOO much money! And also have no idea what to buy.
If you could help me with some suggestions and further then some lessons that would be great. I would be interested in group lessons too.
Thanks
Ally
June 18th, 2010 at 9:46 am
There’s plenty you can learn with your current camera but if you are keen to investigate a new camera, then we could perhaps include – as I do for people in your position – a little bit of camera-shop-browsing first, then do some shooting afterwards. If you haven’t already, sign up for the mailing list using the form on the front page of the website and that’ll mean you keep abreast of the group workshops etc. Thanks a lot for getting in touch. Best wishes, Alfie.
July 3rd, 2010 at 12:22 am
helo i am a complete beginner, on this stuff. i really love to learn freom you. i havent even taken any classes of photography.AM in Tokyo(not japanese)
i wanna learn please help..
July 5th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Thanks for getting in touch. I’ll send you an email.
July 10th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I want to learn photography. I’ve a Nikon D90 DSLR camera with 18-200mm lens and I don’t speak Japanese. I can only learn on weekends. Please let me know the modalities through my mail id.
Thanks
Manindra
August 7th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Do still have scheduled workshops for this month or next?
August 8th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I will post a complete list of workshops this week, Ivan. But I’ve just sent you details of the one that is on today, just in case you can make it along.
August 16th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
hello
im from brazil but i live in japan and i speack a little beat japanese and english , but i think my english is better hahaha… so i wanna study photography and studio to, but i live in fuji city , im thinking to study like 2 times per month because the distance, its possible to study more lessons in only one day ? for example can i do 2 lessons per day ??? if is possible can i visit your studio someday ???
thank you very much
ps.if is possible give me your telephone number please.
rafa
August 16th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Hi Rafa
I will drop you a line and fill in all the details for you. It&s all possible though. Thanks for leaving a comment here.
Alfie