Final Class

Well this Thursday is my final class. It's sad. I really enjoyed the projects that were assigned and learning to look at photography differently. I find that I now concentrate on many more things when setting up a shot, more then I have in the past. I look at the entire scene, and I try to visualize lines, and colors, and angles... and the most important FOCUS. I still am having a issue that focus. I'm not sure if it is because I rely on auto focus, if my auto focus is set to the wrong setting (which is a good chance) or if I just don't concentrate enough on it at the moment I click the shutter. But I digress....

I found that I am actually using the manual settings on the camera more, and surprisingly prefer them to "auto". The manual settings allow you to have more control over the outcome of the shot, and I am actually learning what is used and not used to get the shot I'm looking for.

Framing, color, lights, darks, ideas, persuasions, feelings, angles, details, aperture, ISO, space.... These are all things that I have become more aware of as I shoot.

I am very pleased with my progress, and I am very happy that I was fortunate enough to be able to take this class. I truly wish it was not over, just a few more weeks would have been perfect. Even my classmates were great. A real mix of characters. I have to admit that I had more fun in this class then... well... 90% of the classes I took when I was in college. It wasn't because of the lack of an over load of written assignments, or massive amounts of research for homework that made it better, because I did do a lot of writing and have been doing lots of research on photography and experimenting with new techniques (even if they were not assignments by the professor). This time I enjoyed myself and the information I was learning, to the point where I was pushing myself to learn more out side of the class syllabus. And yes my classmates pushed me. Some of the images they would take would challenge me, they were so good and so not "me". I'm so used to looking at "my" work, but not looking at or thinking what someone else would interpret the same idea as. I learned a lot from them.

Now, lets hope all things go well and I will be able to take the next class which concentrates on learning Illustrator and Photoshop to more depths. (Cross your fingers, its a day time class)

On that note I say... good bye to my class and hello to my future of digital photography. I have big plans for myself and hope that I do follow through on them. I will be keeping this blog going although it will probably have a new name, maybe even a new address.... But I will keep you posted...