Love your camera

I have always felt a bit limited by words, which might be one of the reasons why I love art so much. That's not to say that I don't love words too - I read a lot, but sometimes you can say a lot more with an image. You know...

1 picture > 1000 words.

However many words a picture may be worth, learning how to take nice photos has always been on my list of things to do.
Reading other peoples blogs and seeing how awesome their photos are has only served to remind me almost daily how badly I wish I knew how to do more than just take an 'auto' photo.

So on Monday morning Analiese sat down with me and schooled me on how to use a DSLR - it's my mums, but after this she'll be lucky if she gets it back... (don't worry mum, I know that you're very very lucky)

For anyone who is interested in learning more about using your camera then I would absolutely recommend going to one of Analiese's classes. I have spoken about her before on this blog, so if you have a good memory you will know that she is a relative of mine, but asides from this and her being generally awesome - I really enjoyed learning how to take a decent photo.

The benefit of her 'Love your camera' course was in the absolute personal application of it. It wasn't just about learning how to use a tool for sake of being able to use a tool, but the whole conversation (it was one on one so it was informal and relaxed) applied to how I would be using a camera after I left the class. So while I haven't taken any other photography classes (ever) I still think that it is a great reminder even for people who have.

She went through all the auto and semi-auto settings on the camera and then we took a bunch of photos fully manual, which was around the time that my boys all came back from wandering around the park and so I was able to take some photos of them.

Analiese is predominantly a family photographer, but this class is about learning how to use and love your camera so that you can use it to tell the stories that you want to tell in the way that you want to tell it. There was no pretentious 'only shoot manual because everything else is cheating' or anything like that, but I am excited that I can apply the things that she taught me (and use the little cheat sheet of notes she gave me) to my point and shoot camera - which also has a manual setting.

I'm totally putting pressure on myself to produce good photos on this blog now, but with a shop opening in the works and life as hectic as ever, it is really nice to have some more skills in my arsenal and great as well to have been able to spend some time doing getting something from my bucket list ticked off.

Analiese has a class coming up later this month (on the 20th)  so check out her website and send her an email if you are interested in a spot there - or if you would like to have a class like me just one on one, email her for more info.

ps. Obviously Analiese took the photos of me taking photos - she sent them to me (because I'm vain and I asked for them) and they had a number for the file number. I totally renamed it 'eleanorisaphotographer' hahahaha. One class and already I'm all like 'woo check me out' Hi-larious.