Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Leisure section.
To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Steve Long
Steve Long is CEO of InterSoccer, which offers football courses and holiday camps for two to 13-year-olds in Geneva, Vaud, Basel, Zug and Zurich. Steve first came to Switzerland in 2001 as an event and grassroots manager for UEFA, before co-founding InterSoccer in 2007. He loves all sports, especially football, snowboarding, tennis, golf and mountain biking. Originally from Nottingham, UK, he still supports The Mighty Reds - Nottingham Forest.
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Oguzhan (Osan) Altun
Oguzhan (Osan) Altun is a freelance photographer based in Geneva, and one of the founder members of the Geneva Photo Club. He specializes in landscapes, portraits and event photography. His teaching style combines 10 years of training experience in corporate life with contagious passion for photography and the best training materials available online on the net. He is crisp, to the point, and focused on getting the participant practice what she/he learned.
- Yvette Evers
As the founder of "fraiche air", a local club providing opportunities for outdoor recreation and tourism in English, Yvette has hundreds of ideas for exploring the region including activities such as hiking, showshoeing, powerwalks, ski-touring and family days.
By Oguzhan (Osan) Altun, Swiss Photo Club
Happy new year to all our followers, from me and our team: Joan, Quim & Jean-Baptiste (JB)! We wish you a great 2023 with lots of beautiful memories and their beautiful photos captured by you.
With this blog article, I wanted to share with you some big changes that we did in 2022 and our plans for 2023.
It’s the first time we do this. Let me know if you find it interesting (or not!) and of course if you have any recommendations / ideas.
New Website
We are finally on swissphotoclub.com: a single website for all the regions and countries where we exist. I will spare you a description of the administrative changes, but here are the advantages for you:
- See all classes in all cities at one place, especially a great advantage for members or if you are looking for a specific course in any city.
- Practice workshops listing with photos: Easier to find your workshop.
- Early bird discounts for courses: You will see that future classes are slightly cheaper.
- Much faster load times
- Immediate delivery of gift voucher orders (we used to prepare each manually).
- Photo Awards: Upload your photos directly instead of having to send us later by email.
- See your registrations and orders in your account.
There are still some bugs here and there, plus a few server issues that we are working on. Please keep on reporting if you see anything, we will keep on fixing them and adding new features in 2023.
By Oguzhan (Osan) Altun, Swiss Photo Club
You’ve started to take some nice photos with your phone, and you get compliments from your friends and family… Now you feel like you would like to take the next step and learn how to use a proper camera to take even better pictures. As a photography school that educates more than 2000 students every year, we put together this guide of how to learn photography for you.
Many people give up after a while because they make choose wrong classes, too many “free” online guides and videos. Don’t repeat their mistakes! Read this article now to discover the best way how to learn photography.
Decide on your goal
Do you want to start a new hobby? Become a pro? Exhibit your photos? Take better photos of your newborn?
It will be much easier to make choices if you’re already clear on what you want. In many cases, it’s a good idea to start with a beginners workshop, even if you know some basics from past experience. This can help avoid one common trap, where people stall later in their photography journey because they skipped ahead, without ever mastering the technical skills that are taught in the beginner level.
Choose the correct sequence of courses
Once you decide which photography school is right for you, you must then select which course(s) to sign up for. First, you must consider two factors:
- Determine your level
We recommend our online test to get an idea. In our observation, many people who think they are intermediate level still benefit a lot from a comprehensive beginners course. If you already know what you want, you can skip this step. - Determine your availability and budget
Half / full day workshops usually take place on a weekend, in a very concentrated form. Choose this format if you’re already very busy and just want to check your interest level before committing more hours. You will learn a lot from a good one-day course, but they require you to practice regularly afterwards to retain what you learn.
By Steve Long, InterSoccer, and Olivia Higgs, Intern
Covid-19 has made life a little hectic for all families the past few months, to say the least. Sports and Leisure Camps have finally been given the green light to go forward and InterSoccer Fun Football Camps are now up and running for the summer as well as many quality camps in the area. Our excitement for outdoor sports remained, we have never been happier to be back!
Being a parent is difficult as it is, but all camp organizers have ensured that health and safety measures are meeting the community guidelines. Following directives from the Swiss government, your children’s safety will be paramount this summer as everyone looks to get back to normal life.
Lockdown pushed families to the limits. Nonetheless, times are changing and slowly progressing to get everyone back to our normal routines. It’s important for this summer to make sure that your children are staying fit, healthy and most importantly of all, happy and having fun.
For children, after such a long period of time without social interaction and seeing their best friends, a perfect way is to pass some of the holiday is to join some of the fantastic summer camps on offer in the region.
By Oguzhan (Osan) Altun, Swiss Photo Club
You decided to make the first serious step to improve your photography, now wondering how to choose the best school.
Consider these questions to find the best program for your goals.
There are several options available in almost all cities:
- Online video courses and articles
- A single independent photographer
- A non-certified school in your area
- A certified school in your area
Here is a quick comparison of each option:
Photo: www.luisfaustino.com
By Steve Long, InterSoccer
Can you put your hand on your heart and say that your child does a whole hour of sport or physical activity, every single day of the week?
If he or she attends school in Switzerland, whether public or private, it is likely that he or she takes part in gym, swimming, walking and other activities on most weekdays during term time. However, on weekends and in the school holidays, the responsibility falls to us parents to make sure that our children are active enough. Suddenly we have to factor entertaining our children into our daily lives, alongside other responsibilities such as work, shopping, cooking and housework. Is it always possible to provide them with the time and circumstances to do this amount of exercise?
Last week the government in my home country of England announced plans to give all children greater opportunities to be active in school, after school, and during weekends and holidays. Research has shown that less than one in five children in England do the recommended daily amount of 60 minutes of physical activity a day, and one third do less than 30 minutes a day.
There are, as yet, no such national figures for children under the age of 10 in Switzerland. But the 2007 Swiss Health Survey revealed that 35% of the population over the age of 15 are insufficiently active, and 16% are entirely inactive. If trends in Switzerland are following those in other European countries, those figures have probably risen in the past 12 years.
