I have been wanting to write this blog post for some time. I am very excited to share the work of my students from my first beginner photography class! The idea came about when my friend Anita mentioned that there were so many photography classes but she really wanted something in person. She said that she learned better when someone explained it to her. So I thought long and hard about it. I’ve taken many classes over the years and felt like I had enough knowledge to teach people how to use their cameras. How many times have I heard “I bought this fancy camera and I have no idea how to use it?” or “I bought this fancy camera and my pictures don’t look any different?” So then it became, do I do this for free (no!) or do I charge (that’s kind of weird to charge your friends!)? At the time, I was raising money for Team in Training which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I decided that I would do it but I would  require a donation to Team in Training. I got great feedback for this idea and thus the class began. We did a 4 week in-person class that covered all of the camera settings, creative use of aperture, shutter speed, and touched on full manual. We finished our class with a field trip down to this really cool community south of Atlanta called Serenbe for a photo field trip to put our skills to the test. We had a great time. We also had a contest for an Amazon gift card to see who could come up with a name for the class. We had some GREAT ideas but ultimately, we chose “Shooting for a Cure” which my friend Jennifer Parsons came up with. I also gave a “consolation” prize to my friend Mallory for coming up with the whole charity tie in to the name. I felt like the name was generic enough that it could be used for any charity and it was also generic enough that it could be used for classes or photo shoots or any photography related fundraiser. It was perfect! Jeanine Linder who made my Andrea Linn logo, also made the Shooting for a Cure logo. She is so amazingly creative and so nice to work with…I absolutely love her ideas! I am hoping to do another class in the January timeframe (details to come soon) as well as some Fall photo shoots to raise money for the Spring season of Team in Training. I have been blessed with a full time job and I feel like this is a great way to combine my love of photography with my desire to raise money for great causes. I hope that this is something that can be ongoing and can grow in the future.

Now I am happy to feature my student’s great photos from class. I was so proud of them. Everyone eagerly participated, did the assignments, and shared their work. We are looking forward to more field trips in the future where we can continue to practice and grow our skills as well as just have a great time!

In Anita’s words: ” The first one (flower), I chose because I took this picture in manual mode. A month ago, I wouldn’t have been able to choose my own settings. I would have relied on the automatic ones to do it for me. My purpose in taking his class….beyond the fact that it was for a great cause, was to be able to achieve this!  My second one I love because it was such a fun day and we got to use everything we learned leading up to that day. One of the things that I have taken away from this class is that there are “snapshots” and then there are “photographs”….and this one is a photograph, that tells a little bit about what kind of day we were having….FUN!”

Here are some more great images from Jennifer…

And my friend Mallory:

Finally, I wanted to share my favorite photo from our trip to Serenbe. If you want to see the rest, you can check out My Flickr:

Next week I will be sharing more pictures from class, details on my next photography class as well as opportunities to get your family pictures taken for a great cause! Stay tuned…