So last week I had the opportunity to teach a couple of women in the area how to use their cameras.
Let me give you a little background
There seems to be quite a trend here of moms armed with expensive cameras and no knowledge of how to use them. I am just doing my part to close the gap and make sure that these cameras are being used to their capabilities instead of staying on automatic their entire lives.
(Like how I act like the camera is alive and is being tortured?)
I feel like it was a class, but in actuality it was only two women. I met one of them at an Airman Family Readiness Center class on base called Heartlink (if any of my readers are new Air Force wives like myself, I highly suggest this class) and after chatting over lunch about camera techniques, she asked me to meet up with her and a friend to further discuss. It was not a social hour though! They asked questions and I answered as well as gave them more information than they knew available for about two hours. We did have a blast though and I always love to share my passion with others.
Learning the basics
We went over all of the basics and I used all the analogies I could come up with to try an explain the overwhelming exposure triangle. I say overwhelming because for a newbie, this is the hardest concept to grasp! I believe that with enough practice, you can learn how to do anything and I just know that eventually these sweet mama’s will get the hang of it!
Shareen, one of the two women, has two boys that play football in the local high schools and her main reason for buying her camera was to get pictures of this upcoming season! She had somewhat of an idea of how to use a couple of the settings on her camera but wanted to know more and was full of questions. So many questions in fact, that she has been calling me ever since we met up! I love it! She is utilizing who she knows and I can always appreciate that! She has also confessed to me that she feels this basic training is much needed in the KMC and that I could be a great asset to the community! I hope that along with the women she knows and brings to me, I can continue to make sure these women feel confident in their big purchases and get some great photos of their kids!
She wants to learn how to take pictures that are both artsy, as well as capture the feel of the game. I tried to explain that she would want to use a high shutter speed in order to get sharp pictures of her boys but Shareen is also looking at getting a new telephoto lens so that she can zoom in and get some close ups from her spot on the sidelines! She was curious about d.o.f. and although she didn’t know how to explain what she wanted, she had a clear vision in her head of what she wanted the pictures to look like.
She was confused about the difference in the aperture being wide open and stopped-down or for those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, decreasing the iris of the lens and thus increasing your field of vision. We went over basic exposure and metering but honestly, it’s a lot of information for two
hours!
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| large d.o.f. |
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| small d.o.f. |
Here you can see the difference in d.o.f. When the aperture is stopped down, like in the image on the left, you can obviously see a farther plane of distance and in this case, a gorgeous sunset! On the image to the right, the aperture is wide open and so the f-stop is a small number and creates a completely different look. Both wonderful in their own way.
…last part of class
I knew that it was going to be tough, but really, the best way to get better at something is to just keep practicing. So after explaining over and over and letting them take some notes we spent some time outside getting pictures of me holding pinecones so the girls could learn some basic d.o.f. and I even jumped and twirled for a little while to let them play with their shutter speeds.
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| bokeh |
Because I was busy being the model, I didn’t get a chance to get any pictures! This is kind of an example of what we were doing with the pinecones I was holding. I gave the girls a chance to take a picture of something pretty close to them but with their aperture set to a low number and therefore wide open so they could get that pretty bokeh in the background.
Bokeh (pronounced several different ways but I say bo-kuh) is the blurry circle effect that is created in the background by the out of focus points of light. Believe it or not, most photographers LIKE this effect and the trend is catching on with these moms as well!
Homework
I know it’s mean, but we have plans to meet up again this week for round two (and another friend, to boot!) so I had to give them something to work on. I told them to go home and find a tree and shoot that tree all day long in different lighting and with different settings. I told them to find a model (much easier for them because they have live in models called children) and have them make some sort of movement so they could practice. Both girls seem excited and I can’t wait to hear all about their adventures at lunch tomorrow!
Hope
It’s really easy for me to get down and depressed here. I am way out of my element. Not only am I in a new place but I am learning all about being a wife and without a job for the first time in ten years. It’s super easy to feel like I am useless to everyone around me. A nuisance, even. So the fact that these women are allowing me to share with them a little bit of the knowledge and talent the Lord has so graciously blessed me with, makes me feel so good. I want to feel needed and it makes me feel special that they believe in me enough to want to help me get started with my business here. I am so thankful.
God is good all the time..and all the time God is Good!!!
This is fantastic. I'm so glad they're so into learning from you! And I'm a little jealous… I want Jen to assign me homework, too ;o)