Photography Class #1 & 2

So my first photography class was last Thursday, January 10th. It was everything I hoped. :) 

The class has about 15 ladies, most of us in our late twenties or early thirties. There are a handful in their fifties and one girl who is maybe 19 or 20. Most are like me - love photography but are not solid in the manual settings. There are 1 or 2 who are at the VERY beginning stages (just got their DSLR this past Christmas) & there are one or two who i think should be in an advanced class haha. But the majority of the class is about where i am. They are all nice, and i look forward to getting to know them more. 

I was SOOO GLAD my friend Mandy agreed to take the class with me! She has a Nikon & hadn't learned to shoot in manual yet. She is learning fast & I personally think she is a natural! :) 

We learned some things I had already knew, but it definitely helped to reinforce some things, and to make me more confident that i actually was doing things right! We learned about aperature, shutter speed & ISO. I have a clear understanding of ISO, and a pretty decent understanding of aperature. My shutter speed has been a struggle for me. I know what it is - just always had a hard time getting it how i wanted it! But some things definitely clicked for me in class, and that was an awesome feeling! He also went over that little meter in your camera. 

This is our teacher, Aaron of Eye Wander Photo, helping Emily to find a setting on her camera. I like that he went around to every camera to make sure we knew where certain settings were, and even showing us things about our camera that we didn't know about! 

At the end, we each took turns getting photos of Aaron's wife, Jency. She is supposed to be taking the class so she is a great sport about being a model for us! I also took this one of her feet. I thought it was a cool shot on the camera but not so much when i uploaded it to the computer. Haha. 

So, homework. This was our homework & the pics I used. In our second class, he brought up each of our pics on the screen & critiqued them in front of the class! I was nervous! HAHA! But it was great feedback. He liked a lot about my photos, but also gave me some great advice to make it a better picture. I am a lot more worried about my homework for next week, though! Will tell you what that is at the end of this post.

So this was our homework & what I turned in! 

1.  Creative Use of Great Depth of Field

{1/2500    F/4.5    ISO: 100}

The clock tower at LSU. He liked this pic. He liked the greenery to the left & bottom left. He said he may have backed up & got in more greenery. He told me some other stuff but it's all a blur. Which is sad. I should have recorded his comments! Haha.

2. Creative Use of Shallow Depth of Field

{1/30   f/1.8   ISO: 1600}

He loved the bokeh, which was purely accidental. :) I like this picture, even though it's just of lenses. Haha! I am just now realizing i could have brought that ISO down! It was up from something Aaron was showing us in class, i think! Oops. :) Or maybe i left it that way on purpose - our living room is kinda dark. Who knows!?

3.  Creative Use of Fast Shutter Speed (to stop motion)

{1/3200    f/4    ISO: 200}

This might have been Aaron's favorite. He liked the composition. The way your eye moves up towards the left (is what he said - but harder to explain that in writing! LOL.). He liked the splash at the bottom. He liked this pic. YAY! Haha.

4. Creative Use of Slow Shutter Speed (to show motion)

{1/5    f/5    ISO: 800}

I had all my pictures done except this one, and i thought it wasn't going to happen. I wanted to go to a fountain outside & it just kept raining & raining. I could have done something with water at home (don't know why i had water stuck in my head!), but i thought it wasn't going to rain Wednesday so i thought i could get a good shot then. Maybe water or maybe cars or someone on a bike. Well, it rained Wednesday. Go figure. Wednesday night we went to dinner with Chris & Ellyn (Brad's cousin & his girlfriend). I brought my camera in & ended up telling them about this last pic i needed for the assignment! Ellyn had a glass of wine, and i thought a cool pic might be of her drinking her wine - her glass blurry to show the movement - but the rest of her in focus. This is what i got. He asked me how many glasses of wine she had to drink. ;) Haha. (For the record, she only used the one glass!!) 

Anyway...it's my least favorite of the four, but i was pressed for time! It's not horrible! But not GREAT at all. LOL. She's cute though. She was a good model for me! :)

It was really so much fun & I am SO excited about this class. Can't wait to go back! Except... this week's homework is more challenging than last. This week, we learned about White Balance & the Rule of Thirds (which i know pretty well!), and some other things. 

So this is our homework:

1 - 2 Images creatively using the Rule of Thirds 

2 - 1 image creatively using repitition (like stairs or columns)

3 - 1 image creatively illustrating reflection (such as a mirror or a puddle)

Then it says: Incorporate these 3 elements into 3 out of 4 of your photos: Texture, Shadows, or complimentary colors (those are three things he discussed in class). 

I don't even know where to begin! Incorporate ALL THREE into three out of four of my photos? Or just ... what? I can do the rule of thirds pictures, but i would like a different model besides my husband and my dog! LOL. I mean... seriously. Maybe a coworker will be my model on a lunch break?!

And i know what he means by repitition - just gotta think of a place that has that - and then use it in a way other than our examples in class - b/c i feel like i'm just going to copy him! 

Once again - comments/feedback/encouragement welcome.