Would You Like a Nikon D60 DSLR?

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Well you could win one on the Digital Photography School Forums this month. One lucky forum member will win the Nikon D60 at the end of the month for just participating (but NOT SPAMMING) in the forum this month, April 2008.

Find out more about winning a Nikon D60 DSLR camera

The Main rules are that you are a Digital Photography School Forum member and that you participate in the forums by adding value, asking or answering questions in April. Then a winner will be picked from random. The more posts you make the better chance you’ll have of winning.

I joined the forum a couple of months ago after reading the Digital Photography School blog. There is loads of information and sections to look at so I have been getting to grips with it recently, but this competition has given me a much needed boost to visit regularly this month.

Seeing as I am looking to buy a DSLR soon then this competition is extremely appealing to me. I know the chances are slim but if I don’t try then I will never be in the running! Even if I don’t win I bet I’ll know more about digital photography at the end of the month than I do now, after hanging around the forum for a full month…

Mandy

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Photography 101 - 2nd Lesson

This week the second lesson of the Photography 101 course that I’m following is looking at lenses and focus.

Looking at the theoretical side to bending light, lenses and focusing. Some people haven’t liked the fact that the two lessons have been based around theory, and want to get down to the nitty gritty of taking photos. But I can see where Neil Creek who is writing the course is coming from.

It’s a long time since I was in a physics lesson, which I did used to enjoy. But at the time I didn’t see the relevance for physics in everyday life outside of a lab, yes I liked the cool experiments that we did, but I was only young and more interested in the latest rock and pop bands of the day!

But now I can see how physics is a fundamental and very important part of photography and me being able to do it better. If I can understand the basics of how light behaves and how my equipment deals with that, then I am in a better position for making the right choices in settings and lenses when taking photographs. I always find I am better at understanding something if I know how it works rather than just being told it works.

I’ve found these lessons really interesting and I’m learning a lot, or should I say remembering a lot (of physics anyway)!
Looking forward to lesson 3…

Mandy

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Photography 101 - First Lesson?

Did anyone else go over to the Digital Photography School blog on Monday and read Neil Creek’s first lesson of the Photography 101 course, Light and the Pinhole camera?

I did and I found it really interesting. He is starting with the basics of how photography works which I like, because the better the foundation and knowledge of how photography works the better understanding I will have to take photographs.

Light

He starts off with a basic introduction to light and how it behaves, which takes me back to my physics lessons in school. Seeing as you capture differing levels of light to make an image it’s good to understand a little about light.

Pinhole Camera

Next he looks at how you can capture that light, by explaining about Camera Obscura’s which have been used for 1,000’s of years and are the forerunners to the modern camera. The idea is you have a box (which can be room sized) with a pinhole in one end, the light will then travel through the hole and hit the opposite side or wall to form an image (upside down). Obviously the box has to be light proof except for the hole. Camera Obscura’s were used by artists who would use paper or canvas on the opposite wall of the camera obscura to trace the image produced by the hole.

Pinhole camera’s work the same as camera obscura’s and are usually made out of some sort of box with photographic film or paper attached to the back side to capture the image. You can see how camera’s developed from this, the hole being the aperture of the camera.

Homework assignments

At the end of each lesson there are a list of homework assignments that you can do if you would like, this week I have chosen to make my own camera obscura - hopefully!

The idea being that you choose a room with one window and completely cover the window with card or foil blocking out all the light, and then put a pinhole in the covering, you should then see an image appear on the opposite wall (hopefully) of the outside, but upside down. I’ll let you know how it goes!

There are several room size camera obscura’s around that you can go and visit instead of making one, here’s a few:

Royal Observatory Greenwich, London
Dumfries Museum & Camera Obscura
Griffith Observatory, California
Havana, Cuba Camera Obscura
North Carolina Museum of Art

Mandy

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