Anyway, my current vacation busy work is that I am learning to take awesome travel photographs. At least that is what I thought would happen when I signed up for the course. What I discovered is that I have no idea how my camera works or really how to take a decent picture. The course description did mention that I should have taken an introductory photography class but I figured - how hard can it be to take a picture. Well, let me tell you, I will never again look at photos in a gallery and say 'I can do that'. Everything is F stop or ISO or shutter speed. I'm not even going to get into lighting and shadowing and extra lenses and filters and who knows what all else. I pretty much stop paying attention when the instructor starts talking about anything that isn't already stuffed into the camera itself. (Cause there is no way I am spending any more money on anything else that might get nicked). But that still leaves those shutters, ISOs (don't ask me what that stands for) and aperture. APERTURE for the love of god!! First day - he starts up with the depth of field and motion and light etc and I have no idea what he is saying about all of the above mentioned mysteries. But I am smart (I think to myself) so I can figure this out. So I nod wisely for two hours and go home and crack open my camera manual. I know, I know, who goes to a photography class without reading the manual... Anyway, my little book tells me how to adjust my shutter speed and aperture and what not but it doesn't tell me why. I need to know WHY!!
One exciting thing I learned about my camera while reading my manual in bed was how to take Macro (close up) shots. Gingy Puss was the unhappy model for that revelation. Like a haughty supermodel, she didn't enjoy her shoot but she looks gorgeous.
Saturdays are our field trips. So the first Saturday we met at Beacon Hill. Our mission, composition. Armed with my new knowledge of how to speed up and show down my shutter speed and adjust my aperture (when I say knowledge, I mean at midnight, the night before, I skimmed the manual, said 'holy cow, who knew my cheap camera had so many functions' and fell asleep), I tried to adjust everything wilynily. Every time I adjusted something, I ended up with a black screen. It seems that shutter speed and aperture effect each other (in some unknown way). Plus, everything is backwards, the bigger the number, the smaller the aperture, the smaller the fraction, the faster the shutter speed. Too many variables! Too many variables!! Plus, if it wasn't bad enough, I added my tripod that I could barely figure out.
Did I mention it was pouring rain too. So I was trying to do all of this with an umbrella and my camera encased in a ziplock baggie with a hole cut out for the lens.HaveI mentioned the plethora of variables. The PLETHORA! But for all that I did take a couple of half decent pictures. At the beginning of the next class, we critiqued some of each other's work. I submitted two for comments.
Here is the photo that I took that the class liked.
And this one - not so much. At least it had stopped raining by then.
The next field trip was to Goldstream but I must admit, it was raining again on that Saturday so I didn't go. Tomorrow, the next trip, is to Witty's Lagoon. And guess what. It is supposed to rain. I will cut the hole in my baggie tonight to save time in the morning.
But, despite the rain, the class is interesting and gives some good tips on taking better pictures (I would get in trouble for saying 'taking pictures' we are 'creating images' cough cough). So today I bought a Digital Photography for Dummies book - in colour, no less. That way I might be able to catch up on what the heck an ISO is and how it affects my aperturittude. Let's all see if I actually read it or just skim it and fall asleep. Of course, I could be reading it now but you will notice that I am updating my blog instead. The sacrifices I make for you people...
Pictures from Witty`s Lagoon
