These emails come with the intent of helping you be a better photographer. 

And if you want more photography stuff to read, there's a place on the interwebs where past emails I wrote are stored. You'll find 'em in the "Newsletter Hub." 

Remember, I'd like to know what you want to know about photography. So, If you have any questions, ask by sending an email to me at sam@samdamico.com. And for what it's worth. When you send me an email, unless someone's lookin' over my shoulder, I'm the only one that sees it.

Hello ,

Today, I met with a photographer for a one-hour private lesson. 

The photographer was working in automatic exposure mode, and not surprisingly, her photographs were not coming out as she intended. 

The photographer wanted to learn to work in manual exposure mode. 

But, given the time restraint, I suggested learning to work in aperture and shutter priority modes because that approach would yield a more effective lesson and help her be a better photographer. 

She agreed. 

We switched the exposure mode dial from fully automatic to start working in aperture and shutter priority modes. 

That movement of the exposure mode dial opened up a lot of camera functionality that was not available to her in fully automatic exposure mode. 

We could access focusing modes and areas, exposure compensation to control tonality, picking and shutter speed, and aperture to influence blur caused by motion and depth of field, metering modes, and a bunch of other camera functions. 

She got an abbreviated version of my Getting To Know Your Camera class in that one hour.  

Although working in aperture and shutter priority modes is a huge step in getting control of our compositions, working in fully manual exposure mode is how we get the most control of our compositions.

And that'd be covered in the Introduction to Photography class. 

The next series of the Introduction to Photography class starts in February.

And there are other scheduled group classes below. 

Smaller classes mean better learning, so no more than five participants and me are in each class. 

But smaller classes also mean spots fill up quicker. 

And remember, we learn and improve by doing, so practice making at least one picture daily. 

That's all for now; thanks for reading! 
Sam

I'll help you be a better photographer—study and practice photography with me. 

And what if the timing doesn't work for you in any of my scheduled group classes? If that's the case, let's schedule a one-time lesson or a series of in-person or online private instruction that covers the same things as my group classes. 

Ways to work with me are listed below.