Photography 101

I love learning new passions! Love it! Yesterday I was a student in a class taught at my home by this amazing woman!! Six of us 'newbies' had an afternoon course in the basics of digital photography with our digital slr cameras. Tami is an amazing woman on so many levels and I truly could not do her justice here...but you should wander over to her blog and take a peek at her talent - it will sooth you and renew you! (I told her yesterday that some days after I get home from school, a visit to her blog has my nerves calming out and a sense of peace settling in.)

A digital slr is a wonderful piece of equipment and sadly, I never learned the ropes of my film slr years ago - I used it in 'auto' mode like a point-and-shoot! Shame! So, when I made the purchase of my new slr (um, which I am returning....for a good reason- more about that later!), I also made the commitment to USE it as it was intended - which is NOT as a point-and-shoot. This meant that I had to learn about aperture settings, ISO (which I SO didn't know what it was, but I do now!!), shutter speed, lighting...all the basics. Tami lead the six of us through the basic points of our camera's features...man, you should have seen the excitement that filled the room when she showed us the little thing-a-ma-bob by the view finder that moves up or down to bring the picture closer in focus for us 'I don't see so well' gals - we were downright giddy!!

There was a lot of this going on..... don't we look like we know what we're doing??




It's awesome the way Tami conducts her class because she gave us time to actually practice setting our camera to different settings, comparing shots and experimenting. We went out back to learn about different types of natural lighting and practice taking shots with various settings.

Note: these shots are SOOC (straight out of the camera - no editing)






Well...you know me.


Clouds.




I am totally drawn to clouds. All the time. I never get tired of looking at clouds...








....or flowers.



I can't get enough of flowers.



I see a flower, and I want to get as close to it as I can....




...as if I want to crawl deep down inside of its petals...

I must have been a ladybug in a previous life.

This isn't one of my better shots (sorry Tami!), but it was a sweet one of how fun our class was - isn't that important for any kind of learning?? Learning should be FUN!!! And I'm excited to do my 'homework' with my camera, too!

It was such a great afternoon!

We learned that every picture tells a story.

What story does this one tell...?

Goals. I've always believed in making goals. I think back to all that I've set for myself over the years. Most of them I've made. It feels so good to be achieving another goal!

What are your goals?