Photography Class

Ever since I got my DSLR camera last Christmas, I have been intrigued by all the settings and options it has. I have no experience with photography and even though I read the instruction book that came with it, as well as the Canon Rebel T3i book for "Dummies", I still had not an inkling of how to successfully take pictures in any setting other than the 'Auto'.  Seeing that I could still get great pictures even in auto setting, I was content, however, still a little disappointed that I was using this fancy, expensive camera not too differently than my old point-and-shoot!

I had been browsing for awhile for basic DSLR photography classes but was finding that not only were they expensive, most were located in downtown Seattle.  I settled for watching some YouTube videos on photography lingo but still felt clueless.

I stumbled upon a Living Social deal about a month or so ago for a half-day intro to photography class in Woodinville that would take place and include tastings at two wineries.  Really the greatest idea ever.  What makes learning anything fun?? Drinking!  Knowing that my two friends, Maureen and Kylee, also had DSLR cameras and were stuck using the auto setting but wanted to know more, I suggested we buy the deal and sign up!  They were more than willing!

So yesterday we converged at DeLille Tasting room in Woodinville, cameras ready and minds open to learn some basics about photography and how to 'get off auto'.  (The instructor's website is getoffauto.com)  We learned what all the settings on the dials of the camera let you control and what things the camera would adjust for you, and what settings to choose for what type of picture you want to take.  Our first exercise was about aperture.  I'm sure you've seen pictures where the subject in the foreground is in focus but the background is blurry.  This is a result from altering the aperture.

See how the flower is in focus and the leaves/greenery are blurry

The bottles in front are the focus, leaving the bottles in the back, blurry

Almost all of the bottles are clear

More of the picture is clear and in focus

The front planter and flowers are in focus and the background
barrel and flowers are not

Our next exercise was about shutter speed.  I found this one very helpful in that trying to capture clear pictures of an active preschooler can be super difficult!  By adjusting the shutter speed on my camera, I can take action shots of a moving thing but have them appear to be frozen in action.

Fast shutter speed, captures the wine as it is swirled in the glass

Slowing down the shutter speed doesn't capture the action fast enough,
the wine is blurry

Fast shutter speed to capture crow in flight

Again, fast shutter speed to capture the moving water droplets 

Our second stop was at Novelty Hill Januik where we continued our lesson on portraiture and learned about protecting our cameras, different lenses and editing software.  The highlight of this stop was the brick oven pizza we had for lunch!

Just taking pictures of things that looked interesting

I'm so glad we all did this together.  It was a lot more fun having friends to do it with. And like I mentioned before, having wine while we did it, you can't go wrong!  I look forward to lots of practice and making use of my new knowledge.  I can't say I'll never take another photo on the auto setting again, but I will definitely not be afraid to try out the other things my camera can do!

Our first lesson on aperture

Hmm, did it turn out?

Photographer in action

What a beautiful day! *Another tip we learned: when photographing
people, if it's sunny out, place them with their backs to the sun, prevents
squinty eyes and faces!  And gives the nice 'halo' effect!