Intro to Digital Photography in Christchurch

The first exercises are about looking, then about the few settings that change a picture. Christchurch's Botanic Gardens are the ideal beginner location: paths that are flat and accessible, water for reflections, flowers for close-ups, the punts on the Avon as a slow-moving subject, and the Peacock Fountain for practising where to stand. The seasons do half the teaching: daffodils and blossom in September, roses in summer, colour in autumn.

New Regent Street is the second stop, a short pedestrian street of pastel façades with trams passing through it every few minutes. It is where most Christchurch beginners take their first "moving subject" picture and their first colour study. Riverside Market on a weekend gives you people, food and indoor light to practise with; ask stallholders before close shots. The Terrace and the Bridge of Remembrance at dusk are safe, lit and central for a first evening picture.

You do not need a car or a dramatic location. The assignments reward ordinary places seen carefully: a rebuilt façade beside an old one, fog on the river in winter, the light on a Sumner morning. Upload what you make and your tutor will tell you what is working.