Deep breath.WHEW! A few of you are about to embark on a really cool, really crazy adventure with me. My. First. Class.Woo hoo! This kind of class is just perfect for me. I got an A in speech class, but I'm not {I repeat NOT} born and bred for public speaking, and I'm not afraid to admit it! When I try to think on my feet, somehow the only way my feet end up being involved is that one of them lands squarely in my mouth. I am a thinker, I am sarcastic, I am optimistic but realistic, and I only APPEAR to be spontaneous (I've usually thought about the act of craziness for at LEAST five minutes). When I started to receive requests to share my photographic knowledge, I was more than willing to do so, but the thought of presenting in person brought visions of utter catastrophe. My amazing bff, Rebecca (affectionately, Bex) who has known me since I was SIX had this perfect idea for me…a BLOG class. Now THIS I could do!I was immediately excited!And I was even MORE excited when I found out all of you were excited too!My plan is to blog twice a week with a new lesson and a series of assignments for you to complete. I want this to be an open class, where everyone shares their ideas and their pictures and learns from each other. We all have different perspectives and that's what picture taking is all about…documenting and communicating your perspective to someone else. I will, however, review the images privately so that no one is spotlighted in either a positive or negative way. If you'd like to share your critique with the group, that will be up to you.
I want you to know that this is a kind of specialized class in the sense that I'm focusing on teaching what I do, not all of what can be done. I'm a portrait and wedding photographer. I do like to take landscape pictures every once in awhile, but it's not my greatest photographic passion, therefore it will never be my specialty. I'm only going to teach the stuff you NEED to know to take better pictures, primarily portraits, not what you'd want to know to master every possible scenario. I am specifically teaching my own techniques and methods, my own means of rationalizing a scene and my own approach to posing and subject interaction as I have picked it up over the years. There are so many other opinions; it would be more confusing than helpful for me to try to cover the variations.
This class is for beginners! For this reason, I'm going to list the topics we're covering so you can judge for yourself how much this class will help you. If you have a good handle on most of these topics, this class is not for you and you probably just need more hands on experience with what you already know.
Right off the bat, we're going to cover the hardest topic…metering. It's a beast. But you'll need this foundation to apply along side other techniques throughout the month.It needs to become second nature. We'll spend two lessons talking about metering.
Next we'll talk about the essential camera settings (ISO, shutter speed, f/stop, and white balance), what they do, how to use them. Two lessons on that too because they're foundational.
I'll spend one lesson talking about composition, the elements that make a good strong picture, and common techniques used to give pictures a different "feel."
We'll move on to finding the light. I don't use flash often, and when I do, I use it in a specific way. We may briefly touch on using flash, but we'll mostly deal with natural light.
You'll want to read my lesson on utilizing your surroundings and personalizing your pictures to your subject. This is the element that will make your pictures different and unique! Also, I very rarely hear other photographers talk about interacting with your subjects and getting in the zone, so I'm going to try my hand at including that topic in this lesson. I'm no expert, but I'll tell you what I always wished someone would have told me!
I'll spend one lesson talking about post processing. While there is a whole WORLD of information I could give you, this class is for beginners and I'm not sure everyone has the software or computer equipment to take advantage of all that information. I will recommend software to you, one of which is free, the other is reasonably priced if you're serious about photography, both are user-friendly! I'll briefly cover how to use each of them to take your pictures to that next level.
I'm going to have a bonus lesson at the end of the month to talk about what YOU want to talk about.Questions, or maybe a topic you've always wondered about, something geared specifically to the interests of my ten students. I'm going to be an open book. There's no taboo topics here, no questions will be left unanswered.
So there you have it: The syllabus, the plan, the overview. And here's the part you've all been waiting to hear: it will only cost you $99! That's $11 per lesson, which includes personal review of each of your assignments. I'm keeping it really reasonable this first time because you're all guinea pigs and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from you on how to do better next time. Future students may pay a little more, but they'll get the improved lesson plan and a slightly more experienced teacher. ;) And don't forget…one lucky bloke gets a free spot in the class by entering my contest in a few weeks. Watch the blog!
Here's a sneak peek from my photo shoot over the weekend...more to come on that later!
