Maybe you've been given a shiny new camera for the holidays, perhaps you've bought one for yourself, or if it's your new year's resolution to learn more about photography, might we recommend the Photocritic Photography School? We run a year-long email-based learning programme that starts with the very basics and progresses through the technical, creative, and practical elements of photography. You receive one lesson every three weeks together with an assignment. When you submit the fruits of your assignment to the appropriate Flickr thread, you'll be given feedback on it, too. There are no particular demands or requirements for the course, but you will need a Flickr account to make the most of it and we recommend a camera with full manual control. Your camera doesn't have to be of the interchangeable lens variety, but having zoom capability will help. Other than that, a dose of enthusiasm and a willingness to have a go is all that you need.

All of this is offered for free (at least, it is right now), but we do request that you make a donation to help keep the school on its feet. The next class starts on 2 January 2015. What are you waiting for? All you need to do is fill out our nifty form!

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How would you rate yourself as a photographer?

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1 - I'm a complete newbie, and I barely know how to hold a camera
2 - I know a little, but I have a lot to learn
3 - Starting to get the hang of things
4 - I'm pretty good, actually!
5 - I'm awesome. In fact, I don't really know why I'm signing up to this list.

What kind of photo equipment do you use?

Digital compact camera
EVIL / MILC camera
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What would you like to learn more about?

Basics of photography
Photo theory (physics, optics, photo geekery)
New photo techniques
Post-processing and editing
Making money off my photography
Photography equipment and how it works
iPhone / mobile photo photography

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If you've signed-up and can't wait for your first lesson, we've a few tips to help you on your way.

Read the manual - it's boring, but it's much better to know precisely what all the buttons, knobs, and dials on your camera are meant to do, even if you're not quite up to exploiting them to their full potential yet.
Look for stories - photography is about telling stories. Train your eye to spot stories, even if you don't have a camera to hand.
Get to grips with exposure - we don't expect you to be firing off perfectly exposed images in manual mode from minute one, but the better that you understand the principles of exposure, the faster the learning curve will be.
Get closer - the closer that you bring yourself to your subject and the more that it fills your frame, the stronger your image will be.
Hold your elbows in - stability helps to create strong photos. Hold your elbows into your sides, rather than stick them out like a flapping bird, to help prevent camera-shake.