Photography Workshop

A while back, a co-worker who I often go to for camera & photography advice, sent me a link to a company offering photography workshops (Southeast Photo Adventures).  The company is run by a friend of his, and he thought I might be interested in taking one of the workshops.  They sounded interesting, and a few days later there was a Living Social deal, so I bought one.  Even though I've been shooting in all-manual mode for a while now, I decided to start with Basics of Digital Photography.  The class took place on Sunday at Old Mill Park in Roswell.  If you are into photography & haven't been there, I would recommend it.  There is a stream with cool rocks, a waterfall, a covered bridge, and a really cool old brick building that would make a great backdrop for portraits.

Thanks to people like Melissa & Carrie (and my co-worker mentioned above), I already knew about a lot of what he talked about (shutter speed, aperture, and ISO), but what was great was that he provided examples of combinations of settings that are good go-tos for specific situations (like taking a portrait where you want the background blurry, or taking a picture of something moving where you want to stop the motion vs. keep the movement in the photo).  He also showed us all some tricks with our cameras that we didn't know, as well as told us about several inexpensive accessories that are good additions to our camera bag.  So that was very helpful.  We spent the last hour or so of the class walking around & practicing what we had learned.  Here are a couple that I particularly liked.  Too bad the guy in them isn't anyone I know (he was helping with the class, and was our model for a lot of the practicing).

When I got home, Josh had the boys put on their bathing suits, and we all headed to the back yard for bath time for Herschel.  I decided to practice some of what I had just learned, but I also wanted to practice more with my 85mm 1.8 lens.  I bought it several months ago but just haven't used it too much.  So I snapped away as they bathed Herschel, and then snapped some more as Josh turned the slide into a water slide.  I found that my pictures required less editing afterwards than before - so I'd say the workshop was worth it!

I am by no means a professional, and realize that my photos are far from professional quality, but I think the tips I learned will help me start to take better photos.