Instagram Workshop at Cath Kidston

If you've never heard of The Indytute before I suggest you check them out, like, right now. They organise the funnest of classes and workshops in London, with plans to go nationwide in the near future. Recently they organised a workshop on how to take better Instagram photos (and get more followers) at Cath Kidston's flagship store in Piccadilly. This is right up my street, especially as I am relatively new to Instagram (username: sairey_bearey), and because I love to learn about photography in general (recently I grappled with my new DSLR at the Nikon Photography School, and, ahem, won a prize for the best photo of the day - which you can read about here). The workshop was led by the amazing Jess Macdonald, whose photographs of the underground are truly stunning - and all taken and edited on an iPhone. 

At the store we were greeted by the lovely style blogger, Jazmine Rocks, who was hosting the soiree in her capacity as Cath Kidston's social media & events overlord. She offered us apple juice, French fancies, and jammy dodgers, and then we kicked off with Jess presenting us with our challenge to take three different types of photo (objects, portrait or selfie, and a window shot). This was beyond exciting as we were allowed to move anything in the shop we wanted in order to style our own shoot. And there is a lot of exciting stuff in Cath Kidston! 

It was like stepping off the manic streets of London and into a lovely, cosy country cottage. 

Although the overriding atmosphere was fun, never underestimate a blogger's determination to do well in a photography challenge, especially when there was a prize at stake for the best photo. Here's awesome fellow London & theatre blogger Abbie Morrow (on the right) getting down to some serious object styling.... 

...and making sure she gets the perfect shot! 

When it came to portraits some people got all over-enthusiastic with the props, whilst Bloomzy blogger Emma kept it simple with her incredibly cute model, travel blogger Alex. 

If you haven't been to a Cath Kidston shop before, where have you been?! It's a not just a brand, but a lifestyle - if you want your lifestyle to be a riot of colour and kitsch that is. Yes please. 

   

Their Piccadilly store is huge, and has gone summer-display mad! The shop and the windows look fantastic! You're instantly transported to British beaches, with sandcastles and sandwiches by the sea, beach towels and straw hats. 

 

Also taking part in the challenge was Cath Kidston sales assistant supreme, Ruben, who flitted effortlessly between being photographer and model. He and Jazmine became my favourite models and responded really well to instructions to "dance and run and jump."

  

  

Jess was fantastic, going round and giving everyone lots of individual support. She told us about the rule of thirds in photography, and how she uses a rule of her own - the three S's - sunsets, silhouettes, and symmetry. She asked me to take a photo of her, reminding me to think of my framing. Sadly, Jess refused the direction to "dance and run and jump", but was still a joy to photograph. 

Jess then helped me edit the photo using an app called VSCOcam, which I'd never heard of. It has filters that are less saturated in colour than Instagram's, and can have a more professional look. You can tell it's a much sharper image than some of the others in this post. This app can also be used to crop photos and reposition subjects - it is going to be an amazing app to work with for blog photos! Jess also made us think about more creative compositions, like our photo-centipede below (eww, sorry).

She also got us to think about working with different backgrounds; the metal wall above looked totally unappealing, but in photos made a stunning shiny, texturised backdrop. 

  

Jazmine, by the way, is modelling one of Cath Kidston's cute-as-a-button summer skirts. They sell clothes too, and have an adorable children's range. I was looking at it for my niece and lost all track of time during the challenge. 

As well as summery stuff, they also have the cutest London range of clothing and homeware. Not just for tourists, it was all very eye-catching for a London blogger...

Have you ever been in a shop where they have a bed set up to showcase bedding sets, and you've just felt like getting right into that cosy-looking bed there and then? We were totally allowed to do that for this challenge! Shopping dream come true! 

When Jazmine and Ruben got in they were laughing about what their Cath Kidston colleagues would make of this. Rumours might start....

   

At the end we all came back together to work on editing our photos and uploading them to Instagram. You can check out the results by using hashtags #180piccadilly and #cathkidstonworkshop

Jess told us about some other apps, and also about some awesome meetups she does with Instagrammers. She advised us on using hashtags (no more than 3 for each photo), and gave us tips on how to get more followers. Then Jess announced the winner of the best photo - and the lucky snapper was Abbie! Those tricky table shots paid off! 

We were given a sweet little gift bag with a cute birdy pocket mirror, an Indytute notebook, and a Cath Kidston voucher - I used mine on the gorgeous rose teacups (the ones in the hedgehog shot above). Thanks to Cath Kidston, Jazmine Rocks, and the Indytute for organising and hosting this amazing event! Lots of love to Jess Macdonald for passing on her Instagram expert knowledge, and for being a damn good laugh. I learnt so much and came away really inspired! And well done to all the bloggers-turned-photographers and models (and Ruben!). Good job!