Lots of photography related events in the month of October!
First, I took an after hours digital photography class at Auburn University through their Continuing Education program. Not a bad way to spend $70. Basically it condensed everything I've taught myself through trial and error and reading on the internet over the past 2 years into 5 weekly, 2 hour sessions. Although I was pretty familiar with the concepts of aperture and exposure already, the class did fill in many gaps.
The instructor was knowledgeable but definitely wasn't a "teacher." His Powerpoint bullet points were a couple paragraphs long each, making it hard to follow since he wasn't really reading along. It was like reading on a crowded bus with someone talking in your ear about something else.
My last gripe of the class is that many just pulled their cameras out of the box recently and it was painfully clear that many of the technical aspects of the class were flying over their heads. I'm not complaining about the classmates, but rather that the instructor didn't tailor the class for those folks expecting a "basic digital photography" class (coincidentally that is the name of the class)
Overall, I give the class a "B-" It served my purposes and gave me tips on being a better photographer. I am taking points away for the way the class was structured and the "stream of consciousness" manner in which it was presented. The main purpose of the class was to make us better photographers with Manual mode, so that mission was accomplished.
Second news is I sold my 18-55mm kit lens and purchased a new lens for my camera. It is a Nikon Prime 85mm 1.8g. It is gradually becoming my favorite lens for many reasons:
1. Portrait shots are beautiful! The shallow depth of field on this lens is fantastic.
2. The size of the lens with the hood makes me feel like a confident man in a community shower. I'm very proud to let it hang out there for all to see. In my mind's eye, everyone else is keeping their backs to me to hide their kit lenses in embarrassment. But seriously, its a good looking lens and although its the 1.8g and not the professional 1.4, to the normal person's eye it looks impressive and it really has great DoF and is sharp in low light. Below are some photos that came out really well as far as composition is concerned. My favorite below is of the two children on the hill. The line of barriers creates a leading line into the scene. I admit I got lucky because I definitely wasn't concentrating on background composition at the time.
One subject that was discussed often during my photography class was my instructor's new found love of HDR photography. Some of the images he displayed of his own work were impressive but many lost a bit of the natural realistic feel and definitely felt very post production heavy. If you're new to HDR, it is basically taking the same photograph in a series of exposures and merging them together. You usually start off with one photo metered correctly and then you take 2 or 3 photos a couple of steps over and under exposed. When merging very bright and very dark exposures together, you gain the best parts of the highlights and shadows. Below are my first attempts at HDR photography. My personal taste is to keep the scene as natural as possible so you many not see much to oooh and ahhh about.
For examples of what HDR can look like, check out this Flickr group for good examples.
Next Month I should have some shots of the National Peanut Festival in Dothan, AL. I'll be the Chinese guy with big camera and tripod. (I'm a self loathing stereotype)
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