You won’t be disappointed!

Joining a long list of glowing recommendations here to say thank you so much James, not only for your incredibly insightful historical walking tour of Edinburgh, but also for all your patience and photographic pearls of wisdom (and your lunch recommendations too!). Already in such a short period of time, I’m positive the quality of my compositions have improved (there’s now a voice in my head that keeps reminding me not to take the path of least resistance and to look more actively for the better shot) and you’ve given me so more confidence to shoot in manual mode. Highly recommended!

I highly recommend taking his tour

I saw the city I live in through new eyes thanks to the fantastic photography tour I did with James. His passion for photography and Edinburgh shines through and he certainly over delivers every step of the way. He makes the tour entertaining and fun and it’s clear he enjoys passing on historical facts about the places you’re photographing, in addition to sharing great stories about his fascinating career. I highly recommend taking his tour (it’s amazing value for money) whether you live in Edinburgh or you’re visiting. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

NOT “just a dumb photographer”!

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to take a photo tour of Edinburgh led by James Christie, who modestly (but disingenuously) describes himself as “just a dumb photographer.” He’s not just a dumb photographer! He’s actually an accomplished professional photographer, a gifted teacher, and a wonderful story-teller and humorist (he calls selfie-sticks “wands of narcissism”). His passion for photography is contagious.

With his guidance, I may finally have the courage to use the manual setting on my Canon 5DSR camera, rather than the “dreaded” automatic setting, which effectively transforms my camera into an expensive “point and shoot.” The tour with James will, no doubt, be the highlight of our vacation to Scotland and Ireland. James has earned my highest, unqualified recommendation. Don’t hesitate; don’t think about it; just book him. Book him now.

Best walking photography tour

Our family of 4 had a wonderful time on the walking photography tour. Great insight into Edinburgh, and where to get the best photographs, and how to take the best professional quality photographs using manual settings on the camera. James was a very knowledgeable local, with great stories, both about photography and about Edinburgh.

The experience was simply amazing

I took a photography course with James at the end of July. The experience was simply amazing. He finally helped me to get rid of the semi-automatic function of my camera and start shooting manually. He made the whole course more enjoyable with information about the city, camera settings, personal experiences, photography stories and recommendations about things to do in Edinburgh. At the end of the course, he gave us what he called “the penny drop”. That was the best moment of the whole tour.

During the tour, he was giving us hints about photography and at the end of it he summed up everything and gave us some additional valuable information so we could take better pictures. It was a great course. I would strongly recommend it to those who want to enjoy discovering Edinburg in the company of a great photographer and story teller.

Look no further!

My son and I really thoroughly enjoyable our tour. Learned new things about Edinburgh, walked about in the sunshine and totally left with a much better understanding of aperture and shutter speed which I’m really pleased about as I’ve been struggling to understand these things for ages, Highly recommended

If you are looking for a photographer with skill, vision, enthusiasm and the ability to deliver the required end result, look no further!

Absolutely wonderful – more than just a photography tour

The photography tour of Edinburgh was by far my favorite day of my 8 day trip around Scotland. James has created and honed the perfect tour for people who want to learn about the history of Edinburgh while getting to spend a couple of hours picking the brain and learning from a world-class photographer.

From the get-go it was clear that James would be a great tour guide. His upbeat personality and genuine interest in the people taking the tour helped create a fun, easy-going atmosphere. It was also clear that he is passionate about Edinburgh – something that I was pleasantly surprised about as I was not expecting such a detailed history lesson throughout the day.

James clearly taught us what goes into capturing a great shot. He gave the group ample opportunities to practice by both setting up some shots for us and giving us time to explore some of the areas on our own. His advice and guidance helped me get amazing shots of the city as well as grow as a photographer. I am just an amateur hobbyist but I arrived home today with a newly lit passion for photography.

I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who is interested in photography. I am 100% going to take another tour of his the next time I am in Scotland. For those wondering – the tour took us about 5 hours. We were on our feet most of the time and we did a lot of walking. It’s completely worth it, though, as the time flew by.

Fantastic Choice for Our Day in Edinburgh!

Wonderful, personalized tour and photography lessons! The day started out rainy, so wasn’t expecting to get the greatest of pictures, but with James’ lessons, even the pictures in dreary weather were special. I’ve been taking SLR pictures for over 35 years, starting the old fashioned way, with film. But when I got my DSLR, I got lazy and let the camera do all the work.

None of that on this tour! Went back to the basics. And have a dozen very special, and very good looking photos to show for it. And very personalized…just four of us, with 4 completely different cameras…and he spent plenty of time with each of us, to get it just right. But, it was also a very informative tour, with lots of information on Edinburgh, and pictures from special, off-the-beaten path perspectives. Not to mention, James was very entertaining. This was truly a day well spent!

Sign up for the tour!

We are home from our trip to the UK and one of our highlights was James Christie’s photo tour. We would strongly recommend this tour. We chose to do the tour at the beginning of our trip and were able to use what we learned for the rest of the vacation. We especially liked the approach James took when helping us with our photography; it was very practical and made a lot of sense to us. James was very easy to talk with and related well to all generations; I was traveling with my daughter and we both equally enjoyed our time with him. James was very informed about the city and we enjoyed learning about the city and its history as we walked with him.

Absolutely Fabulous!

My husband (he’s the family photographer), and I were in Edinburgh on a cruise. I decided to do this tour as a treat for him. I am not a photographer but enjoyed this tour everything bit as much as him. James does a great job of mixing history, sightseeing, and photography instruction. Non-photographers in your group should not hesitate to do this tour. My husband picked up some very helpful information – post Edinburgh pics were even better than his usual pictures. James taught us how to look for the “better view”, determining which fstops, etc to use, and so much more.

He is a funny, smart guy. It was a pleasure to spend 3+ hours with him. Ask him to tell you about photographing David Bowie. I would do this tour again in a heartbeat! One of our favorite tours during our 5 weeks in Europe.

Excellent training and experience on the Jame Christie Edinburgh Photography Tour

My 2nd outing with James, the 1st being on the “Borders Tour”, and again I recommend James to all people who wish to learn the art of good photography. James takes the mystery out of the “black art” of taking good pictures, and explains the process in a easy to understand way. The tour itself is excellent as you are shown locations that are interesting and/or hard-to-find. Last of all, James gives a comprehensive history of each location visited.

An absolute gem

I am referring to both James and the guided photography tour in my title to this review. I was very fortunate to be the only person booked onto the Edinburgh walking tour today, an experience I will truly never forget. James was the perfect tour guide and companion, and (needless to say) a clearly very talented photographer with many useful tips and tricks to share.

The 4 hour tour was great – I explored parts of the city I hadn’t seen before and, to be honest, never would have seen had it not been for this tour. James has a gift of discovering where the perfect picture can be created and the detail of historical knowledge coupled with James’ observant nature was compelling. I found myself desperately taking mental notes so that I could report back to my friends and share all the details about the city that I had learnt. I gained confidence using my digital SLR and composing interesting and pleasing shots. I have no doubt that when they hear about my day this evening they will be unable to hide their envy. My advice to anyone booking this tour: book now and take your travelling companions with you. It is an absolute gem.

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