Photo 101: Introduction

Welcome to Photography 101!

This course is designed to take you to the next level, whether you’re brand new to photography or have been taking pictures for awhile, but have only gotten lucky with that great shot from time to time.

We’re going to dive into concepts, lighting, and techniques with the goal of getting those great shots on purpose by the end of the course!

The course requirements are: a DSLR, memory card, and either a computer or mobile device you can upload your images to as well as signing up for the free service Slack, which will allow you to upload and send the descriptions of your photo assignments. If you don’t have gear yet that you’re looking for, I’ll provide links throughout all of the courses to help guide you in the right direction. For starters though, if you don’t have one you’ll need to choose a camera.

Canon and Nikon are by far the most popular brands, with Canon being my favourite and the camera’s software I’m most familiar with. My Canon was a T3i which I bought new, and have loved it so much I’ve bought 7 others used since then for my students and interns to use. In fact, all of my equipment was Sony until then, but after using this camera I sold all of my Sony gear and re-purchased the Canon versions! Canon has updated their models since then, so if you’re still needing to buy a camera and are interested in Canon, let me give you this PRO TIP:

BUY THE “i” SERIES. For every T model that comes out (i.e.: T2, T3, T4, etc…) there is also an “i” model (i.e.: T2i, T3i, T4i, etc…). Usually the price is just slightly less on the standard (non-i) version, and although it may come with a couple extra features, what we want is quality image, which will be through how you learn to control the camera intentionally. The “i” series will give you that. The standard version is geared more towards people who aren’t going to dive into the manual settings, but instead will be using the Auto most of the time. Here are a couple of links for some of the newer options:

One last thing…You’re going to have questions, assignments, ideas, etc… My goal is to be available to you to help you on this journey! Feel free to ask questions here, and make sure to join me on the class Slack channel

Without further ado, let’s get Photographing!