I enjoy photography as a hobby and have taught photography classes numbers of times. I am teaching this class because of of my interest in photography and because Mr. O asked if I would.
Equipment
I’ve use two different Google Pixel phones for taking pictures as well as various film and digital cameras. My current camera is a Canon 60D, but when I get to take B/W film pictures, I like to use the all manual Pentax K-1000
Goals
I am hoping that my students will begin to use more than just the default settings on a camera. Through the use of dSLR cameras and learning to use manual settings, I think students will develop more control over their pictures.
6 Sample pictures from my collection
These 3 pictures were take with my Canon 60D during a trip to Washington DC in the Spring of 2025. In the picture of Racquel, I like how the shallow depth of field and overexposed background makes the blossoming trees disappear into a pink brightness. The quinceañera is unaware that I grabbed this shot as she was having her portrait taken by another photographer. The third picture is of Renita also uses a shallow depth of field keeping the background and the bridge in foreground blurry so it doesn’t distract from the subject. All three of these images were taken with a Canon EOS 60D.
This is one of my favorite pictures of my Dad, with my sister Kathy, before he passed away, I took this picture at one fo the last family picnics we had at my parents place. Taking pictures allows us to save memories, but a danger of taking pictures is not being present in the moment. I took this picture with my cellphone (Pixel 6a)
In 1999 I took a trip to London as part of a history class while I was a student at HACC. in 2022 I was got to take my wife and our children to London for a week and Ghana for two weeks. If I were to take this picture again, I would try to get rid of areas in the bottom that don’t add to the picture. I really like the tree on the right and bit of a branch on the top that create a depth to this image. This image was taken with the Canon EOS 60D.
Sometime around 2013 I snapped this picture of my dad with his grandson, looking out the far doorway of my Uncle’s barn. I like how this picture is framed by the darkness of the interior of the barn, while dad looks out into a bright future. There is a certain amount of nostalgia in this picture that is communicated between the light and dark areas of the picture. I believe this was also taken with the 60D.