A Year With My Camera

   In my Facebook group CaptureYour365 someone posted about a year long class called A Year with My Camera. Wait, I thought, what is that? This sounds really interesting. So of course, onto Google I go to find out more about this class. And what did I find? I found an opportunity for Free Online Photography Lessons that will help me to take photos I'll be proud of. Well alright then. I'm in!!

   The class instructor sends out an email every Thursday with all the instructions for each week. There are Workbooks and a Planner that goes along with the course but you don't need these books. The emails will have everything in them. I like to have something I can review and write in so I decided that I wanted the books, so I ordered them from Amazon. The books and planner are well written and definitely worth getting if you're looking to step up your game with your photography, I'm really excited to give this a try. The fun part is that A Year with My Camera will build my skills for the Capture Your 365 project. Capture Your 365 is geared towards promoting more creativity and daily routine for photography while A Year with My Camera deals with the technical aspects of photography.

 

   The class doesn't officially start until January 4th but to get me in practice there's a pre-class assignment of Make 30 Photos. This is not a take a photo a day challenge and I don't have to complete it in 30 days. There is a list of 30 different prompts to help me to think about my photos before I take them. To get me out of the habit of just taking a photo and to start making my photos.  Many times I'll just grab my camera, point it at the subject and click the button. I don't think about what I'm doing before I do it. Yea, I'll check composition and try to stay with the rule of thirds but I don't always look at the background. What's going to show up behind my subject? I really hate when I have a great subject, take a photo then when I look at it I'm distracted by stuff in the background. That is so aggravating!! If it's not too bad I might be able to fix the picture in Adobe PhotoShop Elements. But that takes time and patience, two things I don't always have an abundance of.

    So far I only have about six of the thirty photos completed. But the exciting thing is I'm now looking for ideas. I'm looking around trying to find subjects that will fulfill a prompt. I always carry my camera with me but I don't always take it out of the camera bag and use it. It's not going to take too many pictures like that. The only way I'm going to become a better photographer is to get my camera out of the bag, in my hands and in front of my face. With that said, my goal for the rest of 2017 is to finish taking the photos for the prompts listed. I got this!!

 

4 - Taken at Midday

 10 - Food

 

30 - Texture

 

21 - Just Two Colors

 

19 - Wildlife (I may be stretching this prompt a bit!)

 

9 - Older Than Me (Established in 1880)

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures I've taken. Please feel free to let me know what you think. I would love to have feedback on my "work". I can't really call this work because it's just so much fun!!

Thanks for visiting with me at

Down Home at Dee's