Digital Photography Basics

I have spent the last couple of weeks attending classes to learn more about photography.  Twice a week I travel to Algonquin with hopes of having a positively wonderful experience learning about a form of art that I have come to love very much.  Photography truly does make my heart happy.  It pulls me in.  It calls my name.  It screams "be creative and capture life's moments."  It makes me want to freeze frame that special time in someone's life so that they can look back and feel the emotion of the day several years later.  I want to take photos that make the people looking into the lense feeling as fulfilled as the person behind the lense.

As the class begins to move past the dry, technical necessities of learning about ones camera, we are now beginning to learn about techniques like 'depth of field' and 'motion.'  We are being encouraged to leave the auto mode and shoot in Av as much as possible ... something I am fortunate enough to have been doing from (almost) the beginning, thanks to many outings with Marlene - who is a phenominal photographer.  While I have many shots that have captured Depth of Field, they were not all done so by technique alone.  Some were just lucky shots.  It's time to stop partially relying on luck and focus on making it happen when I want it to.

We started getting our assignments this week.  We don't have a bunch of little projects but one big one due at the beginning of the last class (June 23rd).  My mind is racing and spinning and full of ideas.  I am going to have so much fun reaching these goals and trying different things to create a final product that I am happy with all while boosting my confidence.

I do have an ultimate goal.  I know where I want to go with all the knowledge I will obtain as I pass through each course.  Sometimes I feel really silly for thinking that this is something I can do.  I mean, who does this at 36?  Most photographers are established by now.  But then I remind myself that it's never too late to learn and that reassures me.  Now all I need to do is convince myself that someone would actually want to pay me to take photos of them - especially with the form of photography that I would like to create a small side business with.  (can you imaging having two jobs you love?  *sigh*)  Ahhh confidence .... wish me luck.

On the creative front, I finally finished the canvas I started a while back.  K doesn't like it.  "It's not your best work," he says.  Hmmph.  Well then ...   For the amount of time I spent making those flowers, I am hanging it somewhere! 

Enjoy the rest of your week.

** happy **

It's been a few good days - starting with Sunday, of course, when I saw Tim Holtz.  Sorry.  Did I not say that loud enough?  TIM HOLTZ!!!!  Nothing short of *wow.*  It all started when I was waiting to go into the back of the store.  I had my iPhone out and was talking to Tanya about an app (or something) and then, all of a sudden, this guy starts chiming in about these must have apps.  holy hell, batman.  IT WAS HIM.  I did it though.  I played it calm, cool and collected.  He was just an average Joe who puts his pants on one leg at a time.  Inside though, I as screaming and twitching and mentally catching my breath.  I mean ... IT WAS HIM!  *sigh*

His classes were awesome.  He is an amazing teacher.  Always happy.  Never annoyed.  Eternally patient.  I have always loved T!m products (and Tim himself) but now I love (and him) them even more - in part because I have lost alot of that intimidation factor.  I am itching to get in their and do some grungey goodness getting my hards dirty.  What a great feeling of satisfaction.  Not to mention that large amounts of alcohol ink and acrylic nails are still allowing me to enjoy that dirty process right at this very moment.  I do have some pictures to share but they are still on my camera so I will post at a later date.  In the meantime, I will continue to bask in my creative world until I can create again.  I am truly inspired.

Monday found me heading off to my first photography class at Algonquin College.  Basic Digital Photography.  I am complete excited and in love and know I am in the right place.  What a great feeling.  Of course, the evening was full of that dry and technical but necessary stuff.  Aperture, shutter speed, what the icons on the dials mean, etc.  Alot of it I knew a little about but now have a bit of a deeper understanding about it although still not 100%.  I learned how photographers get those wonderful Canada Day shots and now I am impatiently counting the days for July 1st.  I may not even be able to wait.  I think I am going to have to run out and buy my own fireoworks to try this new technique.  We touched very lightly on our assignment.  There is only one throughout these next 7 weeks but it seems like it is a doozy - alot of components handed in through multiple photos.  I have a million ideas in my head ... now I just have to hope that I can capture it through the lense.  My mind was going so crazy last night that I couldn't sleep and I am very eager for tomorrow night's class.  Even as I type this I am full of giddy-ness waiting to see what tomorrow has to offer.

On a software note, I got some fabulous news.  When K and I talked about this, we both knew that there was a bunch of I was either going to have to upgrade (or buy) if I was going to do photography as a side job.  One of those things being software.  I cringed at the thought of spending an upwards of $1000.00 for new Photoshop goodies however, we were enlightened yesterday with some very exciting news.  Because we are photography students, we will get to purchase Photoshop CS 5 Suite(have you seen it?  I saw it a few weeks ago via Jeni Boisvert's blog and let me just say WOW) for a fraction of the price.  Very cool.

So, as you can hopefully feel by reading this, it has been a very excited couple of days.  Things are about to get mega busy at work.  Between field trips, Jump Rope for Heart (I run it), Floor Hockey Tournament (I run the canteen),  our CPS track and field meet.  (i do this too) and our County meet (me again) and whatever else pops up, this photography thing may be a great way to regroup and enjoy myself.

Enjoy the day.  I know I will.