Do you love your camera but hesitate to move beyond auto or program mode? Have you switched to Manual mode, seeing professionals use it, yet your photos remain poorly exposed? Do the designations "A," "S," "M," "ASM," "Av," and "Tv" leave you feeling confused and intimidated?
Professional photographers achieve results that seem magical: sharp subject faces with beautifully blurred backgrounds, moving cars and pedestrians that appear frozen or dissolve into motion blur, waterfalls transformed into ethereal mist. This photography safari held in Washington, DC, focuses on understanding when and why to select shutter priority, aperture priority, or even program mode, regardless of whether you use an SLR, a point-and-shoot, or a prosumer camera. You will learn how to control your final image through informed decisions rather than relying on camera automation. The course covers white balance and ISO settings, and demystifies the manual mode entirely. We provide a therapeutic intervention to move you away from your camera's automatic settings and toward intentional creative control. In essence, you become the boss of your camera.
This workshop is held at the historic Smithsonian Castle and the adjacent Enid Haupt Gardens, among the nation's capital's most beautiful settings. The gardens' trees and statuary provide excellent opportunities to practice depth of field techniques and create outdoor portraits with controlled focus. In March, blooming Magnolia trees add special visual interest. The traffic along Independence Avenue offers moving subjects for practicing variable shutter speeds to create frozen, blurred, or disappearing motion effects. The Castle's interior visitor center provides low-light environments for practicing high ISO photography, determining appropriate white balance settings, and learning the compelling history of the Smithsonian Institution.
What to bring:
Meeting location:
Meet at the Smithsonian Castle, Enid Haupt Gardens main entrance gate, 1001 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC. Inside Pain Quotidien, 2001 P Street, NW. Free Sunday street parking is available nearby; the closest Metro station is Dupont Circle on the Red Line, approximately three blocks away.
