Sunday, February 27, 2011

Photography school

I started a photography class today. We'll be meeting every Sunday for two hours for a total of nine weeks. And at the end of the nine-week period we'll have a photo exhibition! Very exciting.

My teacher kinda looks like Tim Lincecum (a pitcher for the Giants). He acts pretty goofy, but is also very knowledgeable, so it works.  His name is Laccone'. He's cool.

Laccone taught us about the "iso" and "shutter speed" and "F-stop." We're only allowed to shoot pics in black and white and not allowed to use the automatic mode EVER. Every picture from now on has to be taken in "Manual Mode." No more snap and shoot for me. Now I gotta actually calculate and do math and shit every time I take a pic. It's actually really fun. It feels great to be much more involved in the picture-taking process. He says, "When you're in automatic mode, you're telling your camera that you don't know what the hell you're doing and asking it to take over." Oh and, we're also not allowed to use a flash. He said, "The flash is for losers. Photography is all about manipulating the light that already exists." He's no joke, Yo.  We'll have weekly assignments (pics) to hand in to make sure we understood the lecture, but we don't get graded or anything, it's all for fun. But I'm still taking it very seriously.

After I left the class, I started playing around with the different settings.

Here are a few of my amateur pics:





Manhattan looks gorgeous in black and white, yes?

I still haven't learned about composition or anything. I'm just learning to manipulate light right now. Can't wait to see what my pics look like at the end of the nine-week period!

That's what's up.

5 comments:

  1. sounds like fun. and F-stops are my fave. especially when you can make the background fuzzy. wish I could do that on my (point and shoot) camera. arg.

    great pics! they may be in b&w, but it's definitely sunny.

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  2. Hey, Catherine! You should definitely invest in an SLR camera. How do you even know about F-stops? Have you studied photography?

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  3. took a class in high school, but didn't appreciate f-stops then (senioritis). maybe when my 5 (5!) megapixel camera goes, I'll get a new camera. :D

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  4. I took a class my last semester of undergrad studies. I really enjoyed it! F stops, shutter speeds, ISOs, panning... and then developing the film in the darkroom?? FUN!!.. I got an A... pat on my back. Enjoy it Jona. It can be headache at times, but getting a nice shot makes it all worthwhile.

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  5. Hi, Damaris! Thanks so much for commenting! It IS fun learning about photography. It's so funny, it seems like EVERYone I know has studied photography in school and I'm the only one that hasn't. WTF!

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