Out of Canada, Into Kenya - Shawn's Journal

Say Cheese!

I just completed the first day of the photo seminar. It went pretty well. There were about 15 people in attendance and (I think!) they all returned following lunch. The morning was spent covering basics of photography, including subject, light, and composition. I covered each in a way that allowed for anyone of any skill level with any equipment to gain valuable knowledge and tips. We were planning on covering exposure in the afternoon, including aperture, shutter speed, film, etc. [I’ll explain in a minute why we didn’t cover that.]

I found the seminar both easy and difficult. Easy because some tips were completely new to them - who would’ve thought they had never heard of “Say Cheese!” ? I wouldn’t have been surprised if they didn’t know about the rule of thirds, but say cheese? So, the morning went really well. Luckily I had a nice library of 6000 photos from our time in Kenya to choose from for examples. Before our lunch break, I gave them an assignment: take pictures. I gave them some homemade reflectors to play with and learn how reflectors could help them get better photos, especially when they have to shoot during high-noon. I stopped back by a while later and they were all back, sitting around the tables talking and playing with the cameras. I asked them how it was going. Turns out nobody had yet taught them how to use their digital cameras. Some have had them for months. You have to realize that they are using fully manual 35mm cameras for the fieldwork and for taking photos of the sponsored children. They hadn’t figured out the digital cameras yet.

So, change of plans. We’ll cover exposure tomorrow. We spent the remainder of the day learning what all the little icons mean on a digital camera, what all the buttons do, what a megapixel is and the relationship between quality and resolution. The most difficult part was that many of the people don’t use computers regularly. Ah well, it was fun. Now, say cheese!