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 ,

Saturdays are private lesson days, and I meet students in the Mount Pleasant section of Washington, DC.

I can work with up to four separate photographers on Saturdays.

Although we usually schedule for an hour, I schedule a half hour between meetings just in case we need more than an hour, and we typically do.

And sometimes two or three people will take a private lesson as a group. In that case, we may schedule two hours or more instead of one.

Today, I worked with two separate students.

The first student I worked with was someone I'd worked with weekly for at least a few years.

She's usually the first student I meet with on Saturdays, and she's comfortable with camera operation and composition.

We usually start by talking about the homework assigned from the previous week. Then, weather permitting, we walk around the neighborhood, and she makes pictures of whatever gets her attention.

And as she makes pictures, I question her about her newly created images.

Today, one of the things that got her attention was a car. 

It wasn't your ordinary car, though.

It was a light blue Chevrolet Caprice Classic convertible.

She made a picture of the car, and we looked at the picture, which showed the whole vehicle.

When she critiqued the picture, she was happy with it, but I asked her what it was about the car she liked.

She mentioned several car details, so I prompted her to make a photo essay by photographing the details, so she produced several more pictures showing the details.

It might seem strange to produce a photo essay of a car. Still, this type of study and practice increases our visual awareness.

When we increase our visual awareness, we see things differently. 

And in seeing things differently, we create unique compositions.

Here's the thing: we all see things, but how we think about the things we see is different. This is our unique visual awareness.

We should strive to base our compositions not on what we see but on how we think about what we see- our unique visual awareness. In that case, we create pictures that reflect our unique mind. 

And pictures that reflect our unique minds are one-of-a-kind pictures. 

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.