Kari Campos Photography | Chicago, IL

A few weeks back, after saving money for a couple months, I bought a 50mm f/1.4 lens. It was my new baby! However, it did come with one suprise.

It was a Saturday when it arrived. R had gone to the White Sox game with my brother, so it was just me and our dog Marty at home. Marty has always been my best subject, so I didn’t hesistate to try out my new lens with him while R was away.

He was laying down on the floor of our living room. I snuck up and got down onto the ground. Then pressed the shutter button halfway to autofocus. Marty got up and ran to the other side of the room. So I went over there, tried to get him to lie down or do something cute or interesting. Just when I thought I was going to get the shot, I autofocused and, yet again, Marty ran away. Now, I was getting frustrated. This went on for about five minutes, to the point where I was “raising my voice” at him, telling him to stay. Finally, I got a decent shot off and decided to leave him alone. I figured he just wasn’t feeling photogenic.

But then, the poor dog stood in our kitchen, tail between his legs, head lowered, body shaking. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He stood that way for the next 15 minutes. I took him outside to do his business to see if that was the issue–nope!

To make a long story short, I figured out that it was the ultrasonic autofocusing motor that was causing him to run away and shake uncontrollably. His big beagle ears apparently can’t take the sound. I felt so bad, but also super dissapointed. I conceded that whenever I was taking pictures of Marty or he was in the vicinity when snapping shots, I had to manual focus, something that I hadn’t been very comfortable with. Every now and then I have it set on autofocus and forget to change it. Sure enough, it sends Marty running away to a corner, shaking. The poor thing.

Needless to say, the past couple weeks I’ve manually focused more than I ever have since getting my camera.  I suppose it’s good practice for getting comfortable with manually focusing (or at least I tell myself that).

Has anyone else had this issue with USMs and their dogs running away in fear and pain?

“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
–Thomas A. Edison

Image from http://www.all-things-photography.com/

Once I felt that I had a good basic understanding of what they were all responsible for, I began the search to find a photography class to teach me more. I searched locally for classes around Chicago, but all I could come up with were $300+ classes that met during the evenings. I just didn’t have that kind of money to shell out, nor did I particulary want to spend three hours in a classroom after working all day.

So I searched some more.

And then I found what I was looking for–an online class that I could watch live (or at my convenenience with the recorded classes for a reasonable price). For the following 10 weeks, I spent two to three hours a week with John Gringo through creativeLIVE. His “Introduction to Digital Photography” course was just what I needed.  I walked away from the class  knowing so much more than I could have imagined. He really jumpstarted my understanding of photography last fall, much more so than simply reading a book could do for me. I am definitely a visual learner!

So now, I had some of the basics down. I knew all about ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. I knew about the parts of cameras and lenses. I knew about focusing and exposure. But as any photographer out there knows, one ten week photography course isn’t going to make you a pro. Far from it actually. I was, and to some point still am, very much a beginner.

So I continue to learn. I’ll share some other resources and websites I have found particularly useful so far in future posts.

But for now, if you haven’t checked out creativeLIVE, do so! They have some great free courses coming up, including one on “Vision-Driven Photography” this weekend (which I hope to catch some of), and the course with Jasmine Star in August that I was super excited to learn about last week.

And please, if you know of any great resources or websites with tutorials, be sure to leave a comment and let everyone know.