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Remember, I'd like to know what you want to know about photography. So, if you have any questions, email 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, .

During today's first of four meetings of the Introduction To Photography class, we worked in manual exposure mode. 

One thing we did was achieve a standard exposure to achieve a standard tonality.

We also covered effectively focusing and changing tonality in one-stop increments by bracketing using aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

The intent of doing what we did today is to understand how camera operation affects the composition, primarily focusing and tonality.

But another important lesson of all this is that by changing tonality, we see that the things we photograph can be represented as something other than an accurate representation of what we see.

As a photojournalist, I'd call an accurate representation of what we see a "truthful" or "factual" photograph.

For example, when we were studying and practicing changing tonality with bracketing, what we saw as a dark green with our eyes also looked interesting when represented as a light green or even a darker green in the pictures that showed the changes in tonality during the bracketing.

Seeing this opens our minds to many compositional possibilities and breaks the idea that pictures must look like what we see or are truthful.

A truthful photograph is required of photojournalists, but if we're going for personal expression, it's a visual free-for-all.

Today was just the start.

The cherry on top was being introduced to metering patterns/modes.

Homework was given to reinforce what we covered in today's class, and we called it a day.

Next week, meeting two of four, we'll start metering and using aperture and shutter speed to control depth of field and blur.

Today's class was the last Introduction to Photography class to start in February. But before I wrote this email, I added the next round of classes, which will begin in March. 

Besides the Introduction To Photography classes slated for March, other scheduled group classes are 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.