MY APPROACH TO TEACHING
Whether you take an afternoon class or a week-long workshop I strive to take the mystery out of photography by breaking down, in simple to understand terms, these six pillars of photography.
Whether you take an afternoon class or a week-long workshop I strive to take the mystery out of photography by breaking down, in simple to understand terms, these six pillars of photography.
- The mechanics of how your camera works
- Principles of the Triangle of Exposure - ISO, f-stop and shutter speed
- What lens to choose for the shot, and why
- Characteristics of available and strobe light, and balancing the two when needed
- Composition, the art of seeing
- Capturing exciting wildlife images
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Working with students at Dave's Falls Park on the Pike River. Photo by Sherry Kruszka |
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY HAS DEEP ROOTS
Not that much has changed about the very basics of taking photographs since Matthew Brady used a large view camera to photograph the Civil War. Sure, he developed glass plates in a tent and washed them in the nearby river. Today electronic sensors record images without the fuss and mess, by converting light energy into electric current. But aside from that, (other than auto-focus, and automatic exposure, and a whole bunch of other bells and whistles) modern cameras work exactly the same way Brady's field camera did, so very long ago.
Regardless of what media the image is recorded on - electronic sensor, slide film, negative film, Polaroid, glass plate, Daguerreotype - all cameras are light-tight boxes, in which light is focused on the exposure plane with a lens of a specific focal length. The light's intensity at the exposure plane is determined by the brightness of the scene, design factors of the lens, and most importantly, by your choice of f-stop.. This focused light is allowed to expose the media for a determined length of time through the shutter speed setting. The fourth factor of exposure, along with light intensity, f-stop and shutter speed, is ISO.
ISO is a number that rates the recording media's sensitivity to light, and here is where digital photography has one of its greatest advantage over film-based photography. You get to change your camera's ISO as needed, to achieve your desired results, even after each exposure. Film has one given ISO value, and if you need a higher or lower ISO for the next shot, you have to change film.
In my teaching I constantly make references to my film photography roots. This is very helpful for students with experience shooting film, but it also broadens understanding for those who started taking pictures in the digital age, and have never dunked a roll of Tri-X in the darkroom. "Back in the day" is a refrain I recite often, as I connect today's photography methods to their film origins. Film and digital photography have more in common than they have distinctions. I do this because digital's biggest disadvantage is that it is too easy to make a decent photograph, even the very first time you pick up a camera. They even make digital cameras for babies! To move on from snapping mediocre pictures to creating beautiful photographic art, you have to become completely comfortable with your camera and its settings. If you can appreciate the history and simplicity of film photography, you will better grasp the complexities of modern digital cameras. After all, wisdom is about progressing from knowing to understanding.
Not that much has changed about the very basics of taking photographs since Matthew Brady used a large view camera to photograph the Civil War. Sure, he developed glass plates in a tent and washed them in the nearby river. Today electronic sensors record images without the fuss and mess, by converting light energy into electric current. But aside from that, (other than auto-focus, and automatic exposure, and a whole bunch of other bells and whistles) modern cameras work exactly the same way Brady's field camera did, so very long ago.
Regardless of what media the image is recorded on - electronic sensor, slide film, negative film, Polaroid, glass plate, Daguerreotype - all cameras are light-tight boxes, in which light is focused on the exposure plane with a lens of a specific focal length. The light's intensity at the exposure plane is determined by the brightness of the scene, design factors of the lens, and most importantly, by your choice of f-stop.. This focused light is allowed to expose the media for a determined length of time through the shutter speed setting. The fourth factor of exposure, along with light intensity, f-stop and shutter speed, is ISO.
ISO is a number that rates the recording media's sensitivity to light, and here is where digital photography has one of its greatest advantage over film-based photography. You get to change your camera's ISO as needed, to achieve your desired results, even after each exposure. Film has one given ISO value, and if you need a higher or lower ISO for the next shot, you have to change film.
In my teaching I constantly make references to my film photography roots. This is very helpful for students with experience shooting film, but it also broadens understanding for those who started taking pictures in the digital age, and have never dunked a roll of Tri-X in the darkroom. "Back in the day" is a refrain I recite often, as I connect today's photography methods to their film origins. Film and digital photography have more in common than they have distinctions. I do this because digital's biggest disadvantage is that it is too easy to make a decent photograph, even the very first time you pick up a camera. They even make digital cameras for babies! To move on from snapping mediocre pictures to creating beautiful photographic art, you have to become completely comfortable with your camera and its settings. If you can appreciate the history and simplicity of film photography, you will better grasp the complexities of modern digital cameras. After all, wisdom is about progressing from knowing to understanding.