I took the Basic DSLR class with Peter Phun, if you haven't seen his website before, this is a link with an unbelievable photo on it animal lovers. The class was so complete for a one day workshop! And we worked. We received so much good information, presented in an understandable way, complete with monitor illustration on his power mac (or whatever he calls his giant laptop-sorry, not an apple girl, me) and additional large monitor. We all were able to familiarize ourselves with our own cameras, with his assistance. Who knew what a histogram was, or "where" it is (my Nikon's) is a little trickier to set to find, but now we do. And we learned it is a tool not necessarily an absolute! We practiced and learned about using available light and how we can adjust our settings for either certain effects or lighting problems...without having to spend $$$$ for "accessories".
Then after a lunch break we went to a motocross track nearby (didn't know these things existed right near downtown) to take some action photos, which in turn gave us lots LOTS of practice in setting to PAN as well as STOP ACTION! and the beauty of it all, with digital and a long life battery in the camera, we could take plenty of shots until we got it right! or close enough.
We returned to our original "classroom" and reviewed what we did and Peter explained the advantages of Lightroom for organizing and/or sorting our images in preparation for photo editing!
LOVED IT! If you are in the Riverside area, [one of our students came from Indio (well she is in Riverside County...though it is a bit of a drive)]..and are interested in learning about your camera or some aspect of photography, check out his site, and email him - He always answers, even technical questions. Read his bio if you don't know about his professional career of photojournalist.... He is Riverside's best of the best in photography and photo educator!
and no I didn't get paid to post this! read more