Best $50 spent in awhile...

Today I work up bright and early (on a weekend) and drove to the Museum of Flight to take a photography course. Found this deal and supposedly this session was suppose to be for $200+, but this deal had it going for $50 - so I figure, why not right? :).

Expecting some super private workshop, I show up 15 minutes early to find that there are literally 100s of people in front of the line. Turns out the guy had booked an auditorium and well, he filled it. $50 a head, easily 300 people, that's $15K. That's pretty awesome (for him).

So back to me... though it was a 3 hour lecture style talk (in which of course I had the customary naps), I learned quite a bit. Particularly, I finally learned what metering was (hahaha), and now understand better how I can get the pictures to have the right exposure and make it like how I see it through my eyes without snapping randomly a bunch of photos with different settings. Still working on finding the right place to meter though. There were other little things that was taught and some parts that was a review of sorts, but overall well worth it.

In the afternoon, there was also a hands on session where we walked around with our cameras just practicing the various techniques that he went over. That was pretty useful too.

So a 3 hour 'useful' lecture, a hands on guided practicing session + free admission to the museum of flight... all for $50! What a great deal!

One thing I learned that I thought was really interesting...
How to shoot 'through' a fence.
Left = notice how close the fencing is. And on the Right = same fence!!! Notice how basically I shot 'through' the fence. (and note, there are actually two fences in between the lens and the object). Thought that was pretty cool. Apparently, if you go to a zoo or safari, you can pull this trick to take pictures through a fence and if done right, not see the fence at all! I thought that was pretty cool.

PS. The course was offered by this place called Capturing True Emotion - worth a look indeed.