Special Announcement

I’ve added a Photography Basics/Introduction To Photography class starting on Saturdays for the April series of classes.

Special Announcement

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When we buy a more complex camera, like a DSLR or mirrorless camera, which are the ones photographers use during my Photography Basics/Introduction To Photography class, we immediately get an upgrade in image quality and image size.
 

On the other hand, we get overwhelmed by the camera's ergonomics.
 

Because with our upgrade to a more complex camera, we get all the menus, settings, buttons, and dials that confuse and overwhelm us.

All we wanna do is make better photographs, and now we feel like we’re in over our heads.

If we don’t understand what we’re doing with the camera, we’ll just put it on automatic exposure mode and let it do the work for us.

And while we’ll get a better picture in terms of image quality and size, just because we’ve got a better camera doesn’t make us better photographers.
 

If we wanna be better photographers, we’ll need to learn to work the camera efficiently and effectively to get the pictures we want.

Fully automatic exposure mode won’t cut it.

If we’re gonna work in an automatic exposure mode, in terms of creativity, we might as well keep using the cameras on our phones

Working in priority exposure modes, like aperture and shutter priority, is a step up, but even those modes aren’t reliable; it still requires us to let the camera do some of our work for us.

If we want complete control over composition and the ability to communicate what we want through our photography, we’ve gotta learn to work in manual exposure mode.
 

In other words, we’ve gotta make the picture ourselves.

That means working in manual exposure mode, where we pick the apertures, shutter speeds, and ISO‘s that we feel produce a picture that best communicates what we wanna say.
 

This means we’ve got to learn the camera's ergonomics so we understand how to use it effectively and efficiently (camera operation).
 

Anyone who enrolls in any of my group classes or private lessons not only learns how to operate their camera effectively and efficiently, but also how camera operation influences our composition and how our observation and description of the light we see drives our camera operation and compositional decisions.

The bottom line is we either make the best pictures we can in manual exposure mode or take whatever picture the camera gives us in automatic exposure modes.

If doing it ourselves and getting the best picture we can that communicates what we wanna say gives us more joy than having the camera do the work for us and getting a picture that’s just OK, then by all means we should learn to do it ourselves.

The next round of Photography Basics/Introduction To Photography classes starts on Sunday, March 29. If none of the schedules work for you, you could learn the same stuff through a series of private lessons.

No matter how you study and practice with me, I’ll help you be a better photographer.
 

About Sam

Sam D'Amico, a professional photographer and photography instructor, helps anyone who wants to be a better photographer. 

He'll work with his students to increase their understanding of camera operation, composition, light, and lighting. 

Sam started working as a professional photographer in the mid-1980s.

Most notably, from 1992 to 1997, while working as a freelance photographer, he photographed over 500 assignments for the New York Times.

Additionally, Sam received awards for his work while exhibiting his photographs in shows. 

Sam began teaching photography professionally in 1998 through the Highland Park, N.J. recreation department. 

In 2002 Sam moved to Washington, D.C., and began teaching at the accredited Washington School of Photography in Bethesda, Md.

It was in 2003 that Sam developed his curriculum and started teaching classes in Washington, D.C. 

In 2018 and 2022, the Sam D'Amico Photography Classes were voted the "Best of DC" art class by the readers of the Washington City Paper. 

Many photography teachers spend a lot of time teaching about DSLRs and rules of composition that create homogenized, rigid photographs.

On the other hand, Sam teaches about camera operation, thought process, and the individual photographer's visual communication intent. 

This approach to teaching allows his students to use ANY camera (yes, even the camera on their phone) and break free of the rules of composition.

Approaching the creative process this way allows for fluid and spontaneous photographs unique to the photographer creating them.

Sam encourages his students to find their ways as photographers. 

He instills the skills in his students that result in creative, engaging, and unique compositions that reflect the photographer's intended one-of-a-kind visual expression.