Photography Class

After finishing the greenhouse EIFS  we began the EIFS on the barn. But, I have decided to make you wait to see pics until it is completed rather than give you bits and pieces at a time!

So, in the meantime, I thought I would share my newest project – photography classes!

After last year’s grape harvest, my splurge was a camera. Not just any camera – a nice one! I bought a refurbished Nikon D90. I knew this camera was way more camera than I knew what to do with but I wanted to learn.

Now, I am not a techie by any stretch of the imagination! If it weren’t for John and the children teaching and helping me, I would be lost! So, as I read through the camera manual, all I could think was, “I can’t do this” or “I can’t figure it out!”

But, 4 weeks ago I started an online photography class through Institute in Photographic Studies. I am not only learning about all the different buttons and menus on my camera (and how to use them) but also about composition, lighting, shutter speed, aperture ….

I actually know and understand what those words mean – I am so excited!!

IPS is a privately owned Christian photography school founded for the express purpose of training Christian men and women to communicate effectively using visual media.

I am currently in the Digital Photography 1 class. There are online videos for each of the 8 weeks along with assignments to put into practice what I am learning. If you desire, you can obtain college credit for the IPS courses but since I am not interested in that, I chose not to write the research papers to go along with it. In fact, to make it easier for people with busy lives (and who doesn’t have a busy life, right?), they offer a variety of ways to learn photography. You can now take the full class (and potentially receive college credit), audit, correspondence, solo and even live classes. Each one has varying degrees of requirements and instructor involvement.

I won’t bore you with what assignment each photo  represents, but here are some examples of what I am doing:

The picture at the beginning of the post is one of our beautiful sunsets here in west Texas. While our scenery may be lacking, the sunsets do not!

As you can see from the next couple of pictures, my subject is whoever is not working at the appointed time of picture taking. In this case, it is our 8 year old.

It is him again and although 1 leg is hidden, he does actually still have 2!

The train bell was inherited from John’s parents and it is a great dinner bell – it is so loud that it can be heard at the vineyard on most of our windy days.

Since our scenery and landscape is not too exciting (being flat and brown), I am enjoying photographing flowers -we do have pretty wildflowers.

A couple of weeks ago, John and I went to El Paso for the weekend to visit our second oldest son and his wife. I love the depth you can see in this photo.

I am definitely gaining new perspective and having fun seeing everyday life through the lens of a camera!