Photography Class Day 2

My photography class today was so awesome!  I had kinda been dreading going back because I felt SO out of my league last week.  But I got up this morning and decided I was going to just walk in there with what I knew, contribute where I could, and hopefully walk out with more than I started with.  And guess what!  It totally worked.  

There's a cute little guy in this class who has elected himself my official helper.  He's an engineer...you know those types who just know so much stuff, they can't help but impart their knowledge on the rest of the world?  Well, I decided not to be annoyed by him today and just let him teach me stuff.  We had to be in small groups for part of our class to work on... 

Aperture and Shutter Speed (impressive, huh?)

...and, of course, Hector immediately made a beeline for me and assigned me to his group.  I must still look like I felt last week.  

But, it turns out, Hector was pretty helpful.  After scolding me about not doing my homework very well last week and not reading the manual like I was supposed to, he showed me how to adjust the aperture on my camera.  

Our group had to take pictures in the classroom in a low light setting.  Since I didn't have a tripod, Hector suggested that I just set my camera on the table and shoot something at that level.  You have to have a tripod to shoot with a slow shutter speed because your hands are too shaky to hold the camera still for as long as the lens takes to get the picture.  

Here's the whole exercise play by play...

The funky, artsy, amazing teacher (her name is Vernetta) turned off the lights in the classroom and closed the blinds.  It wasn't completely dark, but it was definitely too dark to shoot anything on AUTO like I have only ever done in the past.

Here's my first shot with the shutter speed at 1/160 and the lens fully opened to 4.

...totally dark, huh?  But it gives you a good idea of what the classroom actually looked like.

Then...I slowed the shutter speed to 1/100 and it looked like this...

...better, but still too dark.

I experimented with about 10 other shutter speeds (I'll spare you the progression) until I found the perfect one which gave me the perfect shot...

it really is perfect...

are you ready?

don't ruin the anticipation by scrolling down too fast...

really, you're gonna be amazed...

you may want to just go ahead and sit down...

Are there heavenly voices singing right now for you, too?  Cuz I can hear them at my house.  

I showed my final shot to Hector who was only moderately impressed.  (whatever...)  But then when I showed it to Vernetta, she was thrilled.  Let me just write it down verbatim, so you can get the full effect...

Me:  How's this? V:  Girl, you rocked it!  Look at that!  It's perfect.  I love the composition.  Perfect light.  And LOOK AT THE BLUR!!  (then to the class...)  This girl has rocked this photo shoot.  Look at this Sonic cup!(then back to me...)  Girl, we're gonna just call you Sonic Girl in here from now on cuz this rocks!  You rocked this!  Good job!! 

(and then she fist bumped me...which, I think, in the fine arts photographers' world is the equivalent of an ultra coolness award!)

It's nice to have someone gush over your "rocking-ness" every now and then.  And I have to admit, it's a pretty dang good picture considering that the room was dark, I've only been using the MANUAL function on my camera for...um...24 hours, and it's a Sonic cup, for heaven's sake!  

I think I will call this shot Ode to a Sonic Cup and frame it and hang it somewhere in the house.  Who knew, a styrofoam cup full of ice could be so artistic and could LAUNCH me into photography awesomeness.  :)