These emails come with the intent of helping you be a better photographer. But if you're tired of hearing from me, unsubscribe.

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, 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, .

I went grocery shopping recently, and given how my mind works, I thought of how photography is like cooking. 

If someone else cooks for us, we take what we get.

If we do the cooking, we get what we want. 

Althiugh I do apprecite a good meal cooked by someone else,

nothung beats when I do the cooking and get exactly what I want.

The main ingredients, the spices, how the food's prepared prepared etc.

It's a meal created exactly the way I want, because I have the most creative control of the meal.

The same goes for our photography.

We get the pictures we want if we understand light, camera operation and composition.

If we work in an automatic exposure mode, the camera makes the picture, and we take what we get. 

And often when the camera makes the picture for use, we don't like what we get.

The only way to like what we get is to do the work ourselves. 

Our work as photographers involves observing, describing, and recording the light we see to intentionally communicate fact or opinion through a picture. 

In other words, instead of taking pictures of what we see, we should take pictures of how we think about what we see.

Here's the thing: a camera doesn't think and certainly doesn't know what we want the outcome of our picture to be.

When working in fully automatic exposure mode, we have the least creative control because the camera does all the work we could be doing except for framing and content.

The aperture and shutter priority exposure modes give us more creative control, but they're limited, especially when it comes to tonality control.

Manual exposure mode is the way to go for the most creative control.

Because we get to cointrol every elemnt of composition.

Aerture, shutter speed, ISO, focusing, metering, tonality, color, etc.

It's a photograph created exactly the way I want, because I have the most creative control of the camera and what goes into the picture.  

That's what the Introduction to Photography class is for. 

You can also do the Introduction to Photography class as a series of private lessons.

One last thing.

Did you see this weekend's weather forecast?  

According to the weather prognosticators, It'll be a good weekend for making fall foliage pictures.

Not only weather-wise but also because it's supposedly the peak color for the plant—and human-sustaining photosynthesis factories that give us oxygen.

Coincidentally, I've got my Washington DC Fall Foliage, Architecture, and Street Photography Excursions scheduled.

Bring whatever camera you use, and let's make unique pictures of the vibrantly colored foliage before it falls from the branches and becomes ground cover.  

I hope you've been studying and practicing your photography.

The ways to study and practice photography with me are below.

Call me if you need help determining the best course for you.

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

Currently scheduled classes are below.

Smaller classes mean better learning, so class sizes are limited to 5 participants plus me.

But smaller classes also mean spots fill up quicker, so sign up soon. 

And what if the timing doesn't work for you in any of my scheduled group classes? Private in-person or online lessons suited to your schedule are always an option. 

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