First Lesson

At the ripe old age of 50 (okay .... 51) I have decided to start a new hobby by signing up for a photography course. I hope to follow my progress (or lack of it) through this blog. As I have never written a blog either, this is also a new adventure. Wish me luck .....

The course started on October 1st and so, armed with my recently purchased Sony Alpha 250 digital SLR, I joined the other dozen or so budding photographers for our first class. They seemed a friendly bunch and appeared to have a complete mix of ability and/or experience which immediately put me at my ease. We introduced ourselves to the group, had a look at a few different types of cameras that the tutor had brought in with him, filled out some introductory paperwork and had a brief introductory session on focusing and focal points.

At the end of this first session, we were given our first assignment (that didn't take long!). We have to provide three pictures that we had taken prior to our starting this course, together with three pictures under the heading of "urban landscape".

The pictures I have chosen for my initial pre-course shots are the following:


These three pictures are from a set that I took along Brighton beach shortly after buying the camera which was this camera's first outing. This picture shows the remains of the old West Pier. I like the idea of the image, but would have preferred it to be a little more central and the background to have been darker. maybe this course will show me how to achieve that.





This picture was an attempt to show how odd this merry-go-round looked, stood in isolation on the beach. There were no other rides or attractions anywhere near it, and it all seemed a little sad, despite the beauty of the ride itself.

Again the image didn't quite work because I could not get far enough back to show quite how isolated it was (there was an unsightly wheelie bin just off to the left), and also I think the remains of the pier in the background are distracting.


My final image is of a lifeguard being extremely vigilant on a completely deserted beach. Not only was there not a single person in the sea, there wasn't even anyone sat on the pebbles.

My main criticism of this picture is that I would like to get rid of the slightly distracting yellow buoy out in the sea.




These images will now form part of my workbook and show my starting point for this course. It will be interesting to see the initial efforts of my fellow classmates.