Photography Class

For Christmas Rob gave me a beginning photography class from Gallery Photography and it was tonight from 5:00-9:00. It was awesome. I have a nice DSLR, and have loved the quality of photos I've been getting even on auto mode, but I didn't even know how to manually focus. I'd just keep pushing the shutter half-way down until it gave me the focus I wanted. I also learned how to set the aperture so that I can get great depth of field—it might be kind of hard to see in this small size, but the focus is just on that one line, "Milk Chocolate with Toffee & Almonds."

We covered shutter priority, and I'm excited to try some action shots now that I understand that. Also ISO, white balance, metering, exposure compensation, composition and lighting.

The last half-hour of class we went outside to shoot. Our model was the photographer's 9 year-old son. And my kids think they get tortured! This poor kid had four of us taking pictures of him, in the freezing cold. He did make $10 though, and I'm not willing to pay my kids for taking their photos. :) I did NOT expect to get any good shots at almost 9:00 p.m., but was pleasantly surprised that my new-found knowledge led to some decent photos. Sort of dramatic and edgy. My daily photo is going to be fun again while I play with what seems like a brand-new camera!