First Photography Class!!!

Well, I had my first official photography class last night and again it was better than I was expecting (I must have really low expectations or something). It's a lecture format, but I really think I'm going to learn a lot from it and the teacher (Jane McMichael). We didn't really go into any details about types of cameras for purchase, but I finally understand lenses and what the mm's mean, so at least now I know what kind I'll need.

Also, she told us which stores to price shop at:
Henry's
Downtown Camera
Vistek
Black's
She said most places with price match and even price beat, so it's really important to look around. Curtis and I are going shopping this weekend, so I'll have it in class next week.

We started watching a National Geographic movie called "The Photographers". We've only watched about the first 15 minutes, but so far it's been good. She also suggested another film to watch "Manufactured Landscapes", which I'll probably watch at some point.

Again, the class is diverse. There is one guy who has been taking pictures for years using a film camera and wants to learn more about digital (I'm sure he'll have some great shots) and there is one woman who just bought her camera and doesn't know how to "put it together" and doesn't know how to burn a CD. We'll see how it goes.

Probably the most exciting part for me was the following:
Earlier yesterday while at work, I was showing some of my new colleagues a picture of Dimi, which happened to the the window shot of her, where her reflection is looking right at the camera. One colleague said "Wow, that's such a great picture, you should enter it into a contest" I dismissed it and thanked her for the compliment. So then I'm in class and the teacher is showing us some Photolife magazines and explains how they have contests, "for example the contest ending May 16th's theme is Reflections" I did that head thing dog's do when you call their name. Afterwards I asked the teacher about it, and asked her to take a look at my photo, which strangely enough, I decided to bring last minute. She told me that she thought it was good enough to get into the magazine (maybe not win, but maybe an honourable mention). So I'm going to enter it in the contest. The biggest problem is that they want it to be JPEG compressed, like I know what that means!!! So I'll just make sure that it's under 3MB (requirement) and go ahead. I don't expect to win or be published, but the events leading up to it were so crazy, that well... I have to try. Results will be in the Sept 2008 issue, so I have a while to wait.

Until next time!

:) Roon-bop