Mentoring: JJ Casas - Day 3

"Photography 101"

Date of Mentoring: 4/13/11
- Number of Hours: 2 hours
- Total Hours: 6 hours

Action:
- Showed my 35 mm color/B&W pictures to JJ & critiqued them
- Discussion & explanation of symbols on my point & shoot camera
- Discussion of indoor shooting, depth of field, recomposing images, & use of lines
- Practice "elevator pitch" again

How Am I Doing?:
For this session, I finally learned what all the symbols on my camera signified. Looking through a camera's manual tells you what each symbol represents, but it is more effective to go through them with actual hands-on examples. JJ and I went through exposure symbols on my camera, and I learned that "18% gray" is what cameras try to achieve when exposing a picture because that is considered the "perfect" balance. Then, we went over "weighting", which is basically how the camera chooses what it is focusing on. I wish I had known a long time ago that the "center weighted" setting on my camera is best for concerts, because I could have taken better pictures then. JJ also explained the importance of trying to keep lines straight when capturing a subject in order to avoid "barrel distortion" (lines bulge out) or "pincushion" (lines turn inward). One subject we spoke about really set off light bulbs in my head: recomposing a picture. I had always known that when you press the shutter button halfway down on a camera, the camera focuses on the subject and flash lag is prevented. However, I didn't know that you "lock" the settings, such as the aperture and shutter speed. So, if I were to take a picture that seemed dark, I could "lock" my camera on somewhere even darker (which would cause the aperture to become larger and/or shutter speed to slow), and then recompose the original subject, which would become brighter because now more light is allowed into the camera. By recomposing pictures, I can make silhouettes or brighten up a shot.


Next Action:
JJ invited me to tag along with him to a photo shoot this Friday, April 15, in San Francisco. He will be assisting, so I will just be there to observe how the photographer and her photo shoot "crew" interact with each other.