So I Took A Class

My Photography class is officially over.  Overall I enjoyed the class, but of course there was good and bad.

The good.

The community.

There were about 30+ people in the class, most of whom were professional photographers looking for refinement.  So the discussions were good.  Someone would post a picture or a question, and there was lots of interesting feedback.  Once we were finished, I realized there were a few questions I had been sitting on thinking that we might get to them in the lessons, and we hadn't, so I posted them to the class.  Each time I got the opinions of 20+ photographers which was awesome.  It was a really open community, which can be rare as some people want to keep their secrets to themselves.  But for the most part everyone was more than willing to share information on their gear, settings, editing, etc.  I don't have anywhere else where I can go for such a wealth of that kind of knowledge and I loved that.

Learning.

 I realized pretty quickly that I have been doing a pretty specific type of photography largely based on my needs when I first learned about my camera.  For example, when I was learning to shoot in manual, I was doing Lemon Tree and Etsy, both of which required bright and detailed product photos.  So I'm pretty good at getting a well lit, brightly colored, fine detailed picture of a pillow I made or something like that.  But I had never really taken the time to learn how to master photos in a lower light situation, where the goal was not to make the image brighter, but to take a beautiful shadowy, darker sort of image.  So it was interesting to hold my camera intending to get a completely different effect than usual, and I was happy to have some guidance with metering and settings because I felt like a fumbling idiot.  

Some feedback.

As I said before the class really got rolling, I was happy to get some feedback, but also a bit nervous.  It turns out that I had no reason to be nervous.  This is not because I did so well, but because it was an encouraging community.  All of the feedback, to and from each individual, was presented in a positive way.  

The bad.

I don't like to be told what to do and when.

  I know, I know, this seems dumb.  But I needed to take photos on certain days when I didn't have time, didn't have a good subject, or I just wasn't feeling it.  Then I attempted to focus on my assignments while Chris tried to keep the kids distracted long enough for me to do so.  Perhaps I just didn't manage my time well in those weeks.  Jayce was sick the first week, Hannah the second, and I struggled through the lesson the second week so it seemed to drag on as I read it slowly, re-read it, and practiced.  I imagine that I am just used to grabbing my camera when I feel inspired and have something I want to catch, or sitting down at the computer when I have time, space to breathe, and a little peace.

I would have liked a little more.

I imagine this could be said of any elected class.  Do you ever feel like you completely got your time and money's worth?  For this in particular, I would have liked some more feedback and critique.  It was only a month long class, so there is only so much that can be covered in that time, I get that.  Also one of the lessons didn't really apply to me, and I was disappointed about that.  And there were a few topics I thought would have been covered that weren't.  (Again, I know that whole limited time thing.)  But still.

Now I have no pictures.

Not really, I have pictures.  But I just glanced through my January folder and realized that I have pretty much only edited stuff for the class, because by the time I was finished with those, I was sick of editing.  

And that's about it.  Not really, there is plenty more to say, but I think that's all I'l say for now, or this might never be published.  More later though.  Maybe.