I apologize in advance for talking so much about photography lately. It’s just what I am into at the moment, and let’s face it, my blog features my photography more and more. I used to just take pictures. Now I want to become better. I want to make them; not take them.

I enrolled in a four-course photography class given at Unique Photo, the same place I went for my Canon Discovery class. This week was my first class: The Basics. I’ll be going every Tuesday morning and the class is two hours long.

It was pretty much the basics. Most of the things I already knew except for a few small things in regard to how my camera works (and hey, what I was doing wrong in my panning attempt!). I took the Basics course because you never know what kind of things they are going to teach, so I didn’t want any surprises by starting with the second course.

He did say one thing-—and it was huge—-that made me think differently about taking photos. He said it’s really all about capturing the light in a particular circumstance, not about the subject. It’s all about the light. Here is a quote from our instruction booklet: “Photography is the art or science of recording light. Specifically, you are capturing the light’s direction, color and intensity. A camera is a light recorder. It doesn’t matter what’s in front of your lens because the subject is always in the light. The subject is the direction, color, and intensity of the light.” I have never thought about photography in that way.

Some people in my class I think had never had a camera in their hands before. One poor girl thought that the shutter speed was determined by how long you held your finger down on the shutter button. Bless her heart, but good grief! Maybe she should start with a point-and-shoot camera! But, that’s why she’s there—to learn. Still, she is taking up valuable time for people who at least know how to use a camera. After all, this is a Basic class for people who should know at least that much “basic” stuff.

The second course is all about exposure and metering, which I really need. The third is all about white balance and composition. The fourth and final class is called The Art of Seeing and is about seeing more creatively.

The instructor is great and he certainly has a lot of patience. I’m looking forward to it!

They are offering some great workshops too, such as The Bronx Zoo. Maybe I’ll sign up for a couple of them when my classes are finished.

Hand-held long exposure (f5 at 20 seconds) of the cabana patio lights, doing a figure-8.