Stacey Vaeth Photography It’s Not About the Gear Photo Classes
Posted on September 29, 2014
IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GEAR
Fall 2014 Photography Classes
WHEN?
Class Series
Wednesdays —
10/15, 10/29 and 11/5: 7-9pm
BONUS “Putting it into Practice” Photography Excursion (25% off)
Saturday —
11/15: 10am-1pm
WHERE?
1390 Kenyon St. NW #525
Washington, DC 20010
HOW MUCH?
$240 (Class series)
$60 (“Putting it into Practice” photography excursion. Series students only. Location TBD.)
I get one question more than any other:
Q. What camera should I buy to take good pictures?
A. It’s not about the camera. Not to say that a high quality camera and lens selection aren’t important. Of course they are. But the fundamentals of photography are housed in the ever-expanding instincts and knowledge of the photographer. Buying the $7,979.99 bike that Lance Armstrong rode to win the Tour de France may make riding a little easier, but I’m not winning the Tour on it.
Join us for our Fall photo class series to learn how to use the camera that you do have to its fullest capacity. The foundation topics we’ll cover can apply to shooting people, landscapes, abstracts or anything else you can dream up.
Part 1: Settings. A focus on moving your camera from program settings to all manual. We’ll discuss camera settings and answer all of your questions. We’ll view some successful and not-so-successful images to illustrate the impact of making different setting choices.
Part 2: Composition. Have you ever taken a picture of something gorgeous and inspirational; only to view it later and say “it looked so much better in person?” The compositional choices you make as a photographer determine the visual impact of the final product. Learn to compose your images to create the image you intended.
Part 3: Lighting. In this class, we’ll discuss lighting techniques.
(BONUS) “Putting it into Practice” Photography Excursion. Apply the technical knowledge you’ve gained throughout the class series in a photography excursion. I will provide hands-on advice while you shoot in an outdoor DC metro location. Note: this option is limited to series students only.
A digital SLR is recommended, but not required for this series. Please bring all lenses that you have, a digital memory card, and a charged battery.
This series is intended for the novice to intermediate photographer.
To register, click on the link below.
http://staceyvaeth.brownbookit.com/schedules/fall2014photographylessons
Hope to see you there!
Stacey
Living in the Now
Posted on September 29, 2014
I just returned from a wedding planning meeting with a new client, and she said something that made me stop and think….how obvious. How absolutely perfect. How much sense that makes. The ceremony is the most important part of my wedding day, she said. It’s the center, the meat, the reason for doing this thing. And she said, I’ve seen those pictures that photographers take of the ceremony. They’re at the back of the aisle, and capturing the whole scene, and it’s a shot of their backs with their iPad’s and iPhones in the air, recording the ceremony. I’ve been at a wedding where I had to move because the person in front of me was recording the entire ceremony on their iPad, she added.
And so, she said, we’re having a technology-free ceremony.
Simple as that. She said, we have you. You’re in charge of documenting the event, and we trust you to do just that. The responsibility of those around us is to be witness. To lend us their hearts for those thirty minutes as we bond ours to each other.
Her clear-eyed wisdom struck me.
The question for you is: how many tabs to you have open on your browser right now?
How many things are on your to-do list?
How much are you getting done right now, in this moment? If you want to be here, right now, reading this and reflecting on your own life, then be here. Turn off the phone, close the door, take five minutes to reflect.
Can we live in the moment without fear? The fear that if we are completely present, that we’ll miss something.
Remember: We cannot live the world in a moment.
Stacey Vaeth Photography 