Fourteen hours of class without a single photo assignment.
A local college has evening photography classes. The first prerequisite is Know your Nikon/Canon. Seven weeks of going over buttons and menus. Apparently, people would show up for Intro Photo, the instructor would tell them to put their camera on X setting, and people would look blank. Hence this class.
Sometimes I feel frustrated, particularly as class involves hauling myself off the farm and into town. Two glazed and a medium hibiscus tea from Dunkin’ Donuts eases my pain.
Photographer Meg McKinney [list of posts] had already done an excellent job setting up my camera and getting me off auto. Therefore, much of this is review. Still, a) I learn something new about my camera in each class and b) I appreciate the professor explaining what settings are important, telling stories to make a technical class entertaining, and helping when my camera ends up in a weird place because I have pushed too many buttons.
Meg teaches classes here, so one reason to take these pre-reqs is to sign up for her classes later.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
Learning is a good thing. It keeps you receptive and flexible, Your father would be proud.
He valued education highly and was an excellent photographer. Photography classes are a two-for-one on that scale.
Thanks so much for the mentions. I’ve enjoyed being a part of Rodney’s Saga. And, I’m glad the Know Your Nikon/Canon class worked out. Does anyone remember when cameras didn’t have a menu? I about flipped the first time my Canon said “Busy” after I quickly took a few frames. This is ancient history, but still — a camera telling me “Busy”? Doing what? shopping? lunch? a meeting? Actually, it was still recording the images, and I had to wait until it was finished before taking more photos. The learning curve in photography never ends.
🙂