Photography Class – Franciscan Monastery

A lovely friend of mine gave me as a birthday gift a photography class put on by a company called the School of Creative Photography (www.schoolofcreativephotography.com). We spent several hours at a Franciscan monastery in northeast Washington, DC taking photos of the monastery and the surrounding grounds (who knew there was a Franciscan monastery in DC, let alone in northeast DC?).

I learned more in those few hours than I could have possibly imagined. And I had forgotten how fun this hobby is when you have the time to really think about light and composition and the settings on your camera (as opposed to yelling at people to stay still while you take their photograph and doing it in as much of a hurry as you can because they won’t stand still). Not that my family has any idea of whom I might be talking about.

I’ve put in a few of my favorite photos that I took during this class. I am also including a couple of “before Photoshop” and “after Photoshop” photos. Elliot and Brian, our two instructors, insist that using software is not cheating, but after looking at what our daughter could do with Photoshop, I am not convinced.

Franciscan monastery garden

Franciscan monastery garden

DSC_2979

DSC_2985

before shot:

a "before shot"

a “before ” shot

after Photoshop:

the "after" shot

the “after” shot

another “before” shot:

the "before" shot

the “before” shot

the “after” shot:

the "after" shot

the “after” shot

Anyway, I highly recommend taking a class from these guys—they are super nice and super knowledgeable. They’re really great also because if you want to be left alone, they leave you alone. But if you want help or advice from them, they are full of really helpful hints and instruction.

And thank you, Joanne, for the lovely birthday gift!

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