I Dabbled in Photography

I’ve always loved photography. I took a photojournalism class in college, but I never pursued it beyond that. I’m finally at the place where I am willing and able to devote more time to developing this skill. I’d love to improve the quality of the photos I take, even if my plans don’t include becoming a professional photographer.

I started my journey with a class I found on Dabble. I had heard about Dabble from a friend who has tried classes in all sorts of subjects. The class, called DSLR Fundamentals: How’s This Camera Work, Anyway?, was an introduction to the basics of photography. It was a good refresher course, and the instructor kept the class small, which meant we each got help when we needed it. The class met at the Millennium Park welcome center and walked to a smaller park down the street in order to avoid the crowds.

As we played with shutter speed, we were encouraged to take photos and make mistakes. We played with different settings to see how it affects the photos.

A fountain at a fast shutter speed

 

A longer exposure. As you can see, a do not have a steady hand. A tripod would have made this a lot better (as would moving to a fountain that had more light.)

Then we experimented with changing the aperture setting.

At the end of class, we walked to a street corner to try motion shots in which the subject is clear but the background is blurry. Here’s my best attempt:

As I walked back to the train, I played around with the camera settings and took some shots. Chicago makes for a beautiful model, don’t you think?

The class taught me I have so much to learn about photography. I plan to follow up this class with an intermediate five-week course as well as a sunset photography. I can’t wait to take better photos!