You'll be sorry you asked

So, a few of you were gullible kind enough to ask me to post the photos that I've done for the photography class I'm currently taking. The BEGINNER'S photography class. I specifically mention the word BEGINNER so that if you look at these pictures and think they're total crap, you will be kind in your critique.

This week's assignment was to get a few "shots of the season" (meaning summer) and a few basic "composition" shots .... with our cameras set on ISO 400 and auto-everything else. Overall, I was disappointed in my pictures (most of which I will conveniently NOT share with the internet) and felt most of the outdoor portrait shots I took were under exposed. Or maybe I was just bitter because I offered to bribe pay Brayden to pose as a model and I still didn't get any great images.

Luckily for us, we had a new instructor this evening and found out he is taking over the duration of the class. He changed up our assignments a bit, and specifically gave some better suggestions for learning to use our cameras, so I'm hopeful the pictures I take over the next few weeks will get better and better. And then I'm going to sign up to take the next class in the series, and then the next. Then I'm hoping to take another Photoshop Elements class and learn a lot more about photo editing. And at that point, I will probably acknowledge that I am a crap photographer with a bunch of crap snapshots, who could have just gone to this guy's studio and paid to have my kids' portraits done for what I've spent on class fees and textbooks.

I'll let you know when I reach that point.

In the meantime, here are (some of) this week's photos:



He liked the composition of this photo and the way the rider (my friend's son, competing in that triathlon last weekend) is "riding into" the frame. I just thought the sunshine looked pretty.




He complimented the "radial" composition of this picture .... I just liked the look on Kendrie's face. Something tells me *his* criterion for a good shot, concerning elements like lighting and mood and composition, is much different than *MY* criterion, which is more along the lines of, "Oh, look, that picture makes me smile."




This is a photo of the pond near my sister's house. I thought it was a good example of "S" composition ... although I am really not sure that "S" composition is that important. What IS important is that I tried to cross a small arm of the creek and get to the other side to take pictures of my nephew fishing off the dock and I freaking FELL IN the water and it wasn't a little bit of dampness, either, it was a foot and a half of disgusting, slimy, sludge, all the way up to my knees, and I yelled "SHIT!" really loudly in front of my nephew, and my GOD the stench from that stagnant sludge was unbelievable and I had to throw my tennis shoes AWAY they were so disgusting but more importantly was the fact I managed to hang on to my camera and not drop it in the pond. SO! (Deep breath!) considering all I went through to get this photo there is no way I'm not including it, even if the teacher didn't compliment it at all.




I took this picture of the inside of an umbrella at the pool the other day. I was hot and lazy and sitting in a chair, and just looked up and liked the colors so I snapped the picture with little to no thought or effort. Naturally, the teacher said it was my best shot of the night.