A year with my Camera - free photo course for beginners #AYearWithMyCamera

Raven,
If it wasn't for coloring outside the lines, I wouldn't be able to color at all.

This weeks homework (the last week of the really technical stuff): use a histogram to create a correctly exposed image of a white-ish thing on a white background that looks actually white.

Please forgive the bad editing when I tried to add the historgram.

Last week was catchup.  I did the extra homework but incorporated it into my daily photography so nothing special to share with you.

Now we move away from the technical stuff to composition.  any of you frustrated with the first section, come on back.  This is much easier again and doesn't need a fancy camera for most of it.

Foreground, background, subject.  This week gives an awareness of the three.  The optional book was a big help for me here.  It's neat the way the book and the emails don't quite cover the same thing, but work together to increase learning.

Henny Penny was my 'subject'.  She had some fun with old man's beard and we got to work on the homework.

Having something familiar in pictures like this gives a nice way to add "scale" without having something like a coin or a ruler *shouting* scale!  Nicely done.

Awesome Picture!!!

Here's some of the homework from Week 8.

I love this class - but now that we're into the really hard stuff that I need the most practice with, I find I'm reluctant to practice.  But this week is a catchup week, so I'm trying to work my way through the homework.

I still have three weeks catchup for composition, but I've decided to not stress about it and move on with this weeks homework which involves light and direction.

Poor quality photos, but I learned something new which is the point.  If I do this again, I will try to choose something a little less shiny.

r ranson wrote:I bought the first book from the A Year With My Camera series.  This is an optional companion to the free course and covers the first four months.  The book is clear, encouraging and well written.  I'm going to really enjoy this method of learning photography.  

I signed up for A Year With My Camera, and my class begins on Thursday. Now, I'm eyeing the book. R, you've used the workbook in conjunction with the course, and I'm curious how helpful you found the book to be. Did you find it a useful tool? Did it help you get more out of it? How necessary do you think the book is?

Yesterday, I finished lesson 5 (exposure triangle). I have to say, I'm learning a lot from this course! The explanations are clear and the examples are helpful. Here are some samples of my homework.

Lesson 2: Aperture - take 2 photos using largest and smallest aperture

photo 1. largest aperture

photo 2. smallest aperture

Lesson 3: Shutter Speed - take 2 photos, one at a fast shutter speed, one at a slow shutter speed

photo 1. short shutter speed

photo 2. long shutter speed

Lesson 5: Exposure Triangle - take 2 photos, one where you choose aperture or shutter speed and the camera chooses the rest. Record these, switch to manual mode, and adjust the settings using the exposure triangle to keep the same exposure.

photo 1. I chose shutter speed, 1/100th sec. Camera chose aperture f/16 and ISO 100

photo 2. adjustments on manual mode - shutter speed 160th, aperture f/18, and ISO 200

None of this intuitive yet, so I very much like that the instructor frequently reassures us that we don't have to remember everything yet and is why the course is called "A Year With My Camera."

Looks wonderful.
Those were my favourite photos to take during the lesson.  Something about that helped give me permission to use my manual settings - like I suddenly understood that I wasn't going to break my camera if I took control.  

I'm hanging in there with AYWMC and just finished part 4, creativity. This unit was a challenge for me, because I don't think of photography as a creative outlet. For creativity, I think of knitting, weaving, and writing, but photography is utilitarian, i.e. for documenting and record keeping. Still, I want to take the best photos I can, and I'm learning a lot. These are from the lesson, "Nothing is Original." It is freeing to realize I don't need to be original, I just need to be me. Lots of introspection in the lesson. These photos are the result.

I've just signed up for this course and gotten my introductory email, so it seems to still be working if others are interested in participating!

I used to do a lot of photography but my old camera finally bit the dust and rather than investing in replacing it, I got into more hands-on art and expression. But I recently received a new-to-me camera and needed to brush up on my skills, so this is perfect.

I went for a walk and captured a "mid-day" photo to start the 30 photos challenge, although it was taken around 2pm, still during the solar maximum hours rather than at noon. The shadows lined up well with the geometric angles of this irrigation equipment at that hour. I already wish I knew more about focal length adjustments but the auto-feature served me well enough for now.

Thank you for sharing this link and the photos you all have taken so far, that helped encourage me to sign up.