School Daze

Although I work at a college (& can be reimbursed for taking classes), the classes I am interested in taking are always slated for the hours I am working.  I would love to get the next degree on my list, but the college I work at doesn't offer that, either.  So I decided to branch outside the college realm.



I am taking a class for my own benefit.  For photography, which, as you may know, is my love.  I wanted to learn how to achieve better photographic lighting.  I have the most trouble with artificial light, & honestly, as I am no longer dealing with portraiture as a business, I have no desire to master strobist stuff.  I wanted to learn how to better capture the natural light around me, manually adjust my white balance in degrees Kelvin, & use basic lighting tools (like clamp lights I already own) to mimic natural daylight.  Enter Arrow & Apple's photographic lighting class.

At first, I was wary of paying for a work-at-your-own-pace online photography class.  I realized, though, that the cost of the class was far less than the cost of another college photography course.  So I went out on a limb.  And I jumped right in & tried.  Thus far, I think it's been totally worth it.



First I read through the whole course.  Why?  I don't know, it's what I do.  Initially I thought, well, a lot of it is common sense.  Granted, I have taken 3 college level photography classes & spent 5 years learning online & on the job.  This class is set up for people who have no or very little knowledge about lighting & camera functions.  When I finished my initial read-through, I began to pay more attention to what settings I use on a daily basis.  I critiqued where the light is coming from.  I literally began to dream in photographs (everything was like a flip book, & it was very, very awesome).  Soon I realized that every snap I took on my vacation was of a higher quality than the ones before my cursory read-through.





The thing is, the course (which I haven't actively worked through yet) reignited my love of photography from the first.  And that is worth more than $60 to me.  I love my hobby again, & the fun factor is back in.  It's more than photography again.  It's funtography.  I missed that.





I am excited to continue through this class & show my work here!  You can see my Flickr album for the class here, & my Pinterest homework is posted here!