Shaw Nature Reserve Photo Shoot

Over the weekend Jim and I attended a photography class at Shaw Nature Reserve. The class was Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7-11 a.m. Getting up at 5:30 both days so that we could arrive on time was a bummer, but the class made up for it. There were 9 students in our group, plus the instructor. Saturday morning was quite foggy, which made for some interesting photos. In retrospect, I wish the instructor would have deviated from his lesson plan and taken us down to the lake for tips on how to shoot in fog. I definitely could have used some advice, but I think I got a couple of nice shots.

park shelter in the fog

fog on the lake

Instead, he started with a short overview, and then we went to the planting beds near our classroom. I tend to shoot mostly on automatic exposure, but for the class I brought my tripod and tried working with different f-stops. Quite frankly, my camera does such a great job on automatic that often the pictures I shot on auto ended up being better than the ones I played around with both days. But I can see that there are situations when you want to have more control over the look of the photo, so it is helpful to learn some tricks of the trade. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.

I am glad that we took the class, and that photography is something that we both enjoy so that we have a shared hobby. Added benefit? The couple that shoots together doesn't shoot each other!