I tried to blog every day in May but missed one. It was last Wednesday - and the reason I missed it was because I drank too much to blog after my first photography class. I am attending a six week digital photographic course with Chaz.
The class itself was good - I learned that the little 'L' switch on the back of my camera was for locking the settings. This was a revelation to make after owning the camera for over five years - but it also solved the problem I had with the focus markings in the viewfinder - so two birds, one lesson and the course had already paid for itself!
But Wednesday was a busy day and while I was looking forward to class, work conspired to keep me long and make me late.
Excuses, excuses
We'd (work) had been hosting a conference and I was designated photographer - mostly because I was the only spare pair of hands with a camera. But the first day session went long and so by the time I left the conference, I was already half an hour late.
I hate being late to class.
Besides my lateness, I was loaded up like a pack horse. Purse and bag with shoes, camera bag and tripod - add to this the bulk of me and my coat and I swear I was clearing a swath of pedestrians as I huffed and puffed my way to my first night of photography class.
Chaz was on time and had texted me the room number and the fact he'd saved me a seat up on the fifth floor. I arrived outside the double opaque classroom doors, right hand grabbing at the handle of an unrelenting door. I pushed - it shook. I pulled - it shook some more. I tried the left hand door - it shook but failed to open. I pulled a pull born of failed previous attempts to a compliant, completely unlocked door and flung it wide and loudly open to revel an entire photography class staring at the crazed over-burdened intruder at their door.
I pushed my way into the room with a breathless apology, and proceded to scrape my belongings along the wall of the room trying to get around to where Chaz had saved my seat. It was funny to me, and funny to Chaz - but everyone else was stoney faced and (possibly) not terribly amused.
We celebrated completion of our first class by walking up to Cumulus - an always busy, always fully seated Spanish-style tapas place (again with all my baggage) for a bite to eat and a few glasses of wine to wash it all down with. The food didn't take as much 'washing down' as we gave it but it's better to be safe than sorry, I say. So by the time we left for Collingwood and home, it was a bit late to blog.
Second class
Tonight was the second class of the course, and I arrived less laden and early. We went out into the world with our cameras and played with our settings, coming to grips with the controls to shoot in the dark evening of Melbourne.
I took a few shots - adjusting this setting, twisting that knob - trying to see the difference between one photo and another in a tiny digital camera screen from yesteryear - and then just gave up and started shooting and hoping for the best (my usual MO).
We had a good and productive evening - despite the fact I'm a grumpy mole (because of work and a cold). It's so rewarding to be able to set the camera to keep the shutter speed up, and the light pouring into the lens to take shots in such low light conditions without having to use a flash.
