Last night I had my first continuing education photography class at the College of Art. I won't lie, I was a little nervous since it's been a looooong time since I've had to sit through a night class and I wasn't sure I'd be able to stay awake after working eight hours during the day. I arrived a little early, signed in at the front desk, and then was escorted to my "room." I say "room" because this was not your typical class setting of a long hallway with square shaped classrooms on either side where the students sit in rows of desks and the teacher stands at the front. Oh no, this was very different. We winded through corridors, passing openings here and there where a table or two might be tucked away and a student might be working. After making approximately 18 turns, we finally came to a larger opening that had 4 tables shoved together and chairs around it. This, I was told, was my "room." There was a partition on one side and it sounded like there might be people developing film on the other side. This "room" also had two other doors/openings in it and it only took me about 5 minutes to realize it was just another pass through area along the twisty, turny halls. It was about as different as it could get from the accounting classes I sat through during college. Definitely not my comfort zone. There were about five other girls already seated when I arrived. It was painfully quiet on our side of the room. No one said a word; we just looked around awkwardly at each other. The room slowly filled with more students and the teacher finally arrived. I'm not sure why, but as soon as she started talking and the class had officially begun, I started getting anxious. I could feel myself getting worked up. Luckily, after telling myself to just breath for crying out loud I was able to shake it off pretty quickly. We spent about 15 minutes going through introductions - first the teacher to us and then all of us to each other. She asked each student about their level of photography skills and I was very excited to hear that most people were in the same position as me - no experience whatsoever. I decided I was glad I was there.
The next two hours were spent learning, learning, learning. We watched a power point presentation that was projected on the wall/ceiling and discussed things like viewfinders, LCD screens, lenses, pixels, auto-focus (bad!), manual focus (good!), ISO, aperture, shutter speed, shutter release, noise, meter reading, light sensitivity, histo-somethings, manual override...
And then my brain melted.
I managed to scrape most of it off the table and bring it home with me, along with a homework assignment. Homework?!? Who has time for homework?? I have to take 30 pictures of the same object (can't be people) from different angles using different settings. All the settings have to be documented and the pictures have to be taken outdoors during different light - morning, day, night. Looks like my slightly worn out patio furniture will be making its big debut during class tomorrow night.
Update on the camera front: Doc got a call from the place he took the camera to get repaired and they confirmed that the lens is busted. Dunzo. Caput. They were more than happy to accept our $95 for telling us that super news and now we've also purchased a new (better!) lens. You better believe my camera strap will ALWAYS be around my neck from here on out.