Spot the Pro!

These days, it's hard to tell who is a real photographer and who has a Wal-Mart SLR and a Facebook page. Here are some questions you can ask a potential photographer to help you determine how "professional" a particular photographer is. If you ARE a photographer, this is a great way to see how you stack up to the real pros, who score in the high teens or 20.

1. How do you make prints for me?

Right Answer: I Edit, Retouch, resize, and use a high-end printer or lab. Then I carefully package and deliver your prints to you.

Wrong Answer: I don't do prints. I give you a disc and you can go to Wal-Mart.

2. What types of artificial lighting do you routinely use?

Right: On camera flash with modifiers, off camera portable flashes, triggers, studio lighting, reflectors.

Wrong: "I'm a Natural Light Photgrapher", I use the pop-up on my camera if it's too dark.

3. How can you stay in business when you only charge $100/session?

Right: I'm super efficient and manage to grow and prosper on minimum wage, OR, I don't charge $100/session. I charge far more, and here is why...

Wrong: I'm doing this as a hobby, I pass the value on to you!

4. How do you manage White Balance and Color Calibration?

Right: I use a white balance card, custom white balance in the camera, RAW exposure, and regular monitor and printer calibration

Wrong: What's white balance?

5. What kind of backup cameras, lenses and storage do you have?

Right:I have a backup body, lenses and flashes in my car (or right here).

Wrong: Ahh, who needs that? I'll just reschedule your wedding, or flee the scene.

6. How do you plan a session with your clients?

Right:I understand their motivations, discuss portrait needs, clothing, setting and other details.

Wrong: We meet at the park and we go from there.

7. Do you pay taxes on your income?

Right:Yes, I reserve 35% of my revenue and pay estimated federal and state taxes.

Wrong: Can we move on to the next question?

8. What types of insurance do you have?

Right:Liability for accidents, Equipment for my gear/studio, and Errors/Omissions insurance in case I have a client that is not completely satisfied.

Wrong: My car is insured!

9. Do you charge Sales Tax on your products and services?

Right:Yes I do, for in-state products and services. I report and pay it regularly.

Wrong: Nobody does this, plus then you would have to pay me $106 for a “shoot”

10. If I want reprints in 10 years, how will you support me?

Right: My images are archived in three places. I will retrieve and print your images, because I intend to be in business for the long haul.

Wrong: Hey, I gave you the CD of the images. That's your problem.

11. Where is your website? Can I see it on my iPhone/iPad/Droid?

Right: Here's the URL. It works on all tablets, phones and browsers.

Wrong: Um, here's my FACEBOOK PAGE. Please LIKE ME!

12. What kind of training do you have? Do you attend seminars?

Right: I went to school for photography, OR I have attended these seminars/classes/workshops.

Wrong:I have a NATURAL TALENT. My friend/mother/cousin told me so!

13. What camera modes do you use most often?

Right: Manual, or Aperture/Shutter for changing conditions. I use a light meter.

Wrong: What's a mode? Oh, It's on P for Professional!

14. What is the fastest lens in your bag?

Right: f/2.8 or 1.8 or 1.4 or 1.2 lenses. And yes, I know what those numbers mean. Primes, and pro-level zoom lenses.

Wrong: Well, the lens that came with my camera lets me zoom REAL FAST!

15. What kinds of model releases and contracts do you use?

Right: My contracts and releases protect the subjects and spell out our mutual obligations.

Wrong:We don't need that stuff!

16. Where is your studio or indoor working space? How do you deal with bad weather?

Right: Here is where we go, and what we do for indoor or inclement weather.

Wrong: We reschedule, because Mom said I can't use her basement anymore.

17. How do you support your community through photography?

Right: I offer classes, donate sessions and prints, and network with vendors and my peers.

Wrong: I take pictures in the community, does that count?

18. What is your image processing work flow after your session?

Right: First I back up the images, then I select, global edit, final edit and provide proofing or review sessions for you.

Wrong: I take the chip and put the files on a CD. Then I give the CD to you.

19. What products do you offer in addition to prints and/or digital files?

Right: Canvas prints, mugs, totes, posters, collages, tiles, clothing, you name it!

Wrong: You can do that your self on MPIX or at the grocery store.

20. Do you belong to any professional organizations? Certifications or merits?

Right: I'm a PPA/WPPI member. I have CPP certification. I have these awards/merits, which indicate that I care about my craft and that I create work that my peers respect.

Wrong:Who needs that stuff? Let's go do a shoot!

Art Auction - call for images

Photographers: I'm helping to organize an art auction to raise funds for a young mom with stage 4 brain cancer. I'm asking for you to donate some of your best work - either as prints, framed prints or even digital images which I'll have printed. 8x10, 11x14 or larger if you can spare it.

Donate your best scenic, still life or other interesting images. All funds will go to offset medical expenses. Send to John Huegel - 537 Boyer Road - Erie PA 16511.

Please repost to other photographers. I'd like to have physical prints by October 21, digital files a week earlier so I can send to my lab. Message me for email to send digital files. Thanks!

Going Pro Boot Camp #2: October 15-16 in Erie, PA

Once again, we are offering our Going Pro boot camp. This is an intense, 2-day seminar designed to give you the camera, lighting and shooting skills, as well as editing and business skills to succeed in the lucrative the business of photography.

If you are a new pro, or someone considering the world of professional photography, you owe it to yourself to actually learn the fundamental skills needed by real photographers. We focus on camera competency, lenses, lighting, depth of field, posing, composition, editing, and a whole lot of business issues including web design and pricing.

If you are on the fence about photography, or just want to step up a notch, contact me to reserve a spot in this session. It's not easy, but you will definitely improve as a photographer and business person from this class.

Dates: October 15-16, 2011

Location: 2615 Peach, Erie PA

Times: 9-5 on both days

Cost: $299 per person.  Lunch is included.

Prep: You should know your camera, lenses and accessories pretty well. If you have never taken your camera out of "P" or auto mode, spend some time on that before this session. Bring your camera's manual (especially if it's a Nikon).

Contact me with any questions. You won't regret this seminar!

More info: Click here.

Shooting on Glass

I received a DVD in the mail several months ago, by Karl Taylor. Called the Ultimate Photo Guide, I previewed it and decided to bite. It's a very well made video guide to specific skills such as macro photography, HDR and light painting. 

One activity he showed was that of photographing sliced fruit on glass for interesting "kitchen" art. As I had some glass available, some fruit handy and an hour to play, I decided to reproduce his setup.

The glass is supported above the ground, and a white background is placed on the ground underneath it. Using a speedlight on a cord, you light the white card with flash, and the reflected light passes through thinly sliced fruit on the glass. You photograph from above.

Here is my first attempt with lemons:

I liked it but it was not crispy enough for me. So I tried slicing a Granny Smith apple through the center. Here's a single apple slice:

I liked that, and decided to make a special effect. I shifted the color of the fruit using the Hue/Sat tool, and then negative-ized the image, to create something that looks like the full moon:

I think that's kind of neat. Then I took a bunch of slices and colorized them differently:

That's a little strange, but it would make an interesting conversation piece. It reminds me of Easter eggs after being dyed.

My last shot is a Red Delicious, sectioned vertically:

I tweaked the levels and colors a bit. Overall, I'm happy with the first exercise. I may do some kiwi and star fruit next!

Are you a bad poet?

Seth Godin is one of my idols. He is one of the most relevant observers of marketing, selling and online communities. I encourage you to join his blog.

Here's a recent post by Seth Godin which I think is relevant to this industry and us:

Quotes Seth:

Bad poetry

There's a lot of it.

One reason: it's easy to become a poet. Easy to announce you're a poet, easy to get a pencil and a paper, easy to publish your work online.

There's a lot of bad tweeting, bad marketing, bad facebooking, bad emailing and bad music now as well.

No barrier certainly leads to a lack of selectivity.
Surprisingly, though, amid the bad art, we actually find more good art.

A barrier to entry isn't the only thing that improves quality. Sometimes it's sufficient to let artists do their work without a gatekeeper.

As photographers, our barrier to entry is very low. Anyone with a camera can call themselves a photographer. 

Are you making good art or bad art?

New Lens - Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II

It took me 7 years of work to afford this on my debt-free approach. Now I finally have one of my dream lenses! This is the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II lens, the workhorse of Canon wedding and portrait photographers worldwide.

For years I shot with a Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 lens for my telephoto needs. It's a nice lens and produces really sweet images, but with no stabilization, I am glued to a monopod at speeds under 1/200 sec, which is pretty much always at a wedding.

This new lens is known for the ability to stabilize hand-held images at 4 or so stops below normal. For a 200mm lens, the recommended minimum hand-held speed would be 1/200 sec (basically the max focal length expressed as a fraction of a second). Four stops slower is: 1/100 (1 stop), 1/50 (2 stops), 1/25 (3 stops) and finally 1/12th for four stops. So does this mean I may be able to get good sharp hand held images at 1/25 sec or slower with a 70-200 lens? Today I tried to answer that question.

I did a bit of playing this evening in a darkish house. Here are some test images:

My faithful mutt indoors under "daylight florescent". This is at 1/20 second, ISO 1600, f/2.8 exposure parameters about what I might expect in a church or reception hall. I'm happy with the sharpness around the eyes, and the autofocus was very fast.

My fake apple still life was 1/30 second at ISO1600 and f/2.8. The depth of field is nice and shallow here - note the sharpness at the front of the basket and the focus falloff as you move to the back.

Once again, Emma is zoning and I caught her close eye in sharp focus. 1/50th at f/2.8 and ISO1600. 

I'm quite happy with the low-light capabilities of this lens. At higher ISO and wide open aperture, I have acceptable sharpness at speeds as low as 1/20th of a second!

I had to wander around outdoors for a couple of images as well:

Philosophical dog under shady skies. 1/800 at f/2.8 and ISO200. Great sharpness on the canine, and good blur of the garage about 15 feet behind her.

The obligatory summer flower shot. This is a "macro" shot taken with a 70-200 lens! This lens can focus as close as 1.25 meters (about 4 feet). This was taken at 1/60 at f/10 and ISO200. Not super sharp, but nice background blur and decent detail on the flower guts.

I'll be doing some more experimentation with this lens over the holiday weekend (with real people), but I know that I'll be getting some great shots this year with this lens!

Experimenting with Stacks of UV Filters

Experimenting with Stacks of UV Filters

an interesting test of multiple filters used on a lens. bottom line is that the type of lens filter will impact your image quality.

Focus-free cameras coming?

Today on New York Times, a new camera, Lytro, was introduced. Its claim to fame is the ability to capture images and select the focus point after the image is taken. It uses new optics to capture distance-related information which it can use to process your desired focal point. One advantage is no shutter delay for autofocus.

It's a breakthrough in image processing. Take a look at the article. Just as we think that there is no further to go in image technology, we see a new breakthrough. 

Since the inventor, Ren Ng, chose to develop his own camera product, don't expect this on the major brands soon. It will take some time for them to reverse engineer or license the technology. But by the time Canon releases the 5D Mark 7, I predict it will be a standard feature!

Last call for Super Monday! Erie Photography Seminar

Last call for the Super Monday seminar offered by PPA. From 9-5, I'll open my studio for other photographers to come and learn together. This spring's seminar is entitled "Exploring Light: Natural, Studio and Portable Lighting."

The walk-up price is $120, which includes the full day seminar, lunch (I'm buying), and many great specials offered by PPA and their partners.

Questions - you can call 814-881-2840.  We'll have models and lots of toys to play with!

Making a Box Collage

I have been working on a new collage idea, brought to me by my colleagues at Pro4Um. One of them created this neat box, and others since have adopted it and used it in their senior and family portraiture as a unique offering.

I had the good fortune of several great models, and have built several collages from this pattern. Here's a brief tutorial on how I did it. This assumes you are familiar with either Photoshop or Paintshop Pro.

The box was constructed of 2x12 lumber on edge, with a flat black front (facing) edge and high-gloss white inside. I built it in early April. It took about 4 hours to make, and cost around $100 with lumber and paint.

Step 1, I photographed the subjects using high-key lighting. A key light to the upper right of the camera, a lower fill to left of camera, and two background lights behind the subject. With the camera on a tripod to keep the angle consistent, and steady indoor settings (for this, 1/250 sec, f/5.6 or so, and ISO 100), I captured several images of my subject from the same vantage point.  See the first image.

From the first image, I use the transform function to select the corners of the box to make the box into a perfect rectangle.  That will correct for any difference in angle or presentation of the box. I also do a quick Levels process to blow the top of the box to pure white, and crop to rough size. You can see Step 2 as the finish of this.

 Once complete, I'll save several of these images in my "edits" folder, and choose from them for my collage layout. In this case, I'm using five images for a tie-dye "hippie" collage. I chose four others and did the same edits to each.

In Step 3, I crop even tighter, and use the "magic wand" to select the gray supports to my box and delete them. My background color is white, so the deletion function fills them with white, which suits me just fine. You can see the edges are pure white, and I've touched up the box corners with the clone tool. I'll also push the exposure a bit with levels and saturation to get a nice "pop". In some cases, I'll also select the box border and change the color of it, but in this case, I kept it black.

The image is nice and clean now. I create a "new" image on a canvas of pure white, in this case 14" wide by 11" tall by 300 ppi. I resize each of the five images to about 9.8" tall by 300ppi. Then I copy the image and paste as a new layer in the white canvas image. I move each one until there are five in close arrangement to the final. I save that as a "native" Paint Shop or Photoshop image with the layers intact, in case I want to play later.

The sizes are close, but not perfect. I use the guides/ruler tool to create top and bottom guides, and resize each layer until the top and bottoms are the same level. Once at the same level, I'll save the native image, and then save a copy as a flattened JPG image (no layers).

Once flattened, I copy the image, paste as a new later, flip it with the "mirror" function, move it to be underneath the base of the boxes, and reduce the opacity of the flipped layer. I'm getting more sophisticated with using a gradient fill on the bottom layer as a mask to let the reflection fade to light as it moves down to the bottom. Layer masks are great tools. If you are not ready for that, just reduce the opacity of the reflected layer to about 70%.

Once complete, I'll save that as a full size image, and resize for web display with some fancy titling. Here's my finished web display:

I sampled the shirt colors to use in the font fill, and used a stock picture frame for a sample display. I also resized for my main website: http://jhphotomusic.com. It shows up in my main image rotation.

Overall, this edit takes me about 1-2 hours per collage, depending on size (number of images) and finish (frame colors, etc.) . With practice, I should be able to shorten that time. It's one more option I have for seniors and families that set me apart from shoot and burn photographers!

Photography Classes in Erie

Super Monday is coming up - May 16th, from 9AM until 5PM. I'm hosting a class at my studio entitled "Exploring Light: Natural, Studio & Portable Lighting". Early bird $99 discount closes tonight, but you can register up to the start date for $120 after that date.  You can register here. Here's the class agenda.

I'm also offering a new "Intro to Photography" class on Tuesday July 5th, from 5PM until 9PM at my studio. You can learn more about that at this link.

Private Forum Membership

I have at times, been a member of PPA, SEP, DWF, Pro4UM, SPI and some other private membership groups. Each of these communities has their own activity level and talent and creativity levels, and caters to specific groups of the photographic industry.

I remain a PPA member for the indemnity insurance and several other benefits, including their focus on education and certification. I'll probably always be a PPA member. But I'll be honest - their online forum is very weak. 

For a vibrant private professional photography forum I have used Digital Wedding Forum (DWF), which incidentally now supports portraits and other types, and Pro4Um, which was started as a senior portrait group and has since also broadened its scope. Pro4um is Kirk Voclain's baby. He is a nut, and a top-notch senior portrait photographer, and has attracted top talent to his forum. It's definitely my favorite at the moment.

Why do I write this?  For a few reasons:

- Casual blogging, public forums and open subscription sites are OK. They teach you some good stuff. But they are also teaching every other wannabe photographer the same basic stuff.

- To really grow, you need to rub elbows with working pros, as peers.  Real pros, who have shot 10x to 100x what you have. You need to hear what the real world of professional photography is all about, from people who have done it for 20 years or more.

- These paid forums have posters with thousands of messages to their credit. They are the ones that will set you straight and will blow your mind. They post everyday about something. They are avid, I might say rabid, posters about the life and world of professional photography.

- Truly creative ideas come from those private, pay sites. People open up and share with their peers. They trade secrets, from pricing, to special offers and favorite poses. Their "shots of the week" will make you cry - either from their emotional impact, or from your own sense of insignificance as you compare your work to these amazing artists.

I have learned many things from these forums: How to shoot beach photos at sunset. How to use RadioPopper triggers. How to use modifiers on my hot-shoe flashes. Specific approaches to posing male and female subjects. Certain wedding poses and approaches. And many more topics and impressions that I have since absorbed into my skill set without even knowing where they came from.

So, I'm NOT telling you to abandon my blog or other free sites. I still hit free as well as paid forums on a regular basis. But consider including DWF, PPA or Pro4um or other paid sites for some of your photographic learning.  You still need to go to seminars and get hands-on experience. But you also need to talk to people in Australia, England and somewhere else in your country or state who have gone through what you are doing right now.  Search the archives and spend a weekend soaking up their knowledge.  There has never been a time such as now, when you can benefit so heavily from others' experiences, without ever seeing them face-to-face. You will get $1000 of benefit in the first 2 days, I guarantee.

Then, after you have soaked it up, pick up your camera and show us what you have learned.

Find The Light!

On and around May 16th, nearly 100 of your colleagues across the country are opening their studio doors to host photography workshops and share their knowledge with fellow photographers. 

This year, I'll be hosting a workshop in Erie, entitled "Exploring Light: Natural, Studio & Portable Lighting". In this all-day seminar, held on May 16th from 9AM until 5PM, we'll work with natural light indoors and outdoors (weather permitting), use multiple studio strobes and a variety of modifiers, as well as experiment with off-camera portable flashes.

Super Monday Spring 2011 pre-registration will remain open until May 2, 2011, for the discounted price of $99 for a full-day program. After that date, registration is $120 and must be completed on-site, space permitting. 

These programs are brought to you by PPA - the Professional Photographers of America.  You do not have to be a PPA member to attend!

If you would like to expand your horizons in lighting, consider this very affordable seminar.  There are also many great discounts in the Super Monday package.

You can register here.  Hope to see you there!

Certified Professional Photographer

This week I started the process of applying for the Certified Professional Photographer program. This involves declaring your intention, submitting a portfolio of 20 of your best images for evaluation, and passing a 2-hour exam on the principles of photography. The CPP certification is a mark of excellence in the photographic industry, and a key milestone that all professional photographers should consider on their journey to excellence.

I have been teaching photography classes for some time, and I felt pretty good about the material for the exam.  However I knew I had some weak areas, particularly in the understanding of the color wheel, traditional lighting ratios, and filter nomenclature. I had recently been working with Jaime Rowe, who had taken the CPP exam earlier and lamented at the lack of good study guides and resources available. She has produced some excellent study materials that support the CPP exam effort on her website, www.certifiedphotographer.net. There, she offers videos, tutorials, sample questions, and most important, a CPP exam study eBook at a very reasonable price.

I recently read the book and took the practice exam at the end. It was very helpful to me, both as a refresher and as a tool to help me identify my weak areas and study to improve.

Based on her exam and book, I know where I need to focus for my study activities. I'm planning to take the CPP exam in May of this year, and expect to do well based on Jaime's excellent study materials.

I'll keep you all posted on my progress, both on the image judging and the exam!

Building a mobile website

My customer website is flash-based, which is fine for most computers, but does not work on iPads, iPhones, and is very difficult to read on smart phones.  I suspect that many of you may be in the same situation.

I looked around and ended up trying iFolios, (http://www.getifolios.com/) which is a Word Press-powered smartphone website template. After a bit of self-inflicted difficulty, I got the site installed and configured and running very well.

Here's a snapshot of my regular website. Note the look and feel with the background:

I was able to reuse the background, and all of my website images in the companion website, which is stored on my same domain and accessed through my normal URL, http://jhphotomusic.com. There's logic in my main index.html page that detects a smartphone or iDevice and automatically redirects to the mobile sub-folder. That means that your search engine optimization will direct mobile viewers to their special view without creating two different domains. Additionally, the body text and key words in your images and pages will create additional internal strength as rich content.

Here's the top-level image for my mobile web:

I rearranged the images and topics to be product focused. For example, under Wedding Photography, there are image galleries, price lists, and a "how to book your wedding" link.  All are short, clear and very readable on a smartphone.  There's even a custom contact link, so I'll know if someone emails me from my main web or a smartphone.

I encourage anyone with a traditional website to consider a companion mobile site.  There are several providers that can help you, but I'll continue to recommend the iFolios product. It's very flexible and the instructions are very clear to support installation.  They do offer a reasonably-priced assisted-installation option as well.

Erie Photography Classes: Going Pro Boot Camp

We're in the final planning stages for our first "Going Pro" boot camp.  This intense 2-day session will cover the Science, Art and Business of portrait photography.  If you are interested in the business and want to work on your skills, this may be the seminar for you.

  

The seminar will be held from 9AM until 5PM on both Saturday March 26th and Sunday March 27th. This intermediate class will challenge your skills and broaden your knowledge and capabilities as a photographer, artist and business person!

For more information, the PDF flyer is here.

Erie Photography Classes: Photography Basics on March 12, 2011

We still have a few spots left in our "Photography Basics" class to be held Saturday March 12, 2011 from 10AM until 4PM.  If you are interested in learning how to use that digital SLR, this is a perfect opportunity!

Lunch is included, and the cost is $59.  The seminar will be held at our studio at 2617 Peach in the Raven Building.

We also have the following seminars coming up soon:

March 26-27: Going Pro Bootcamp. 9AM-5PM, Peach Street Studio. $299 for 2 days.

April 2: Studio Lighting Workshop. 10AM-4PM, Peach Street Studio. $59 for one day.

Erie Photography Classes

We are pleased to announce the following photography classes, to be held at our downtown studio:

March 12th: Intro to Digital Photography 

Suitable for: People just getting into digital SLR photography. This is a great starter class!

Key skills taught: Camera modes, shooting technique, shooting without flash, ISO, white balance, exposure options, composition.

Time: 10AM - 4PM.  Lunch is included!

Bonus: "Adventures in Photography" alumni are welcome to attend this class for free!

Price: $59. For more information, click here.

March 26-27: Going Pro Boot Camp

Suitable for: New professional photographers, or those considering professional photography. This intense 2-day class will cover the Science, Art and Business of professional photography!

Key skills taught: Camera and lighting, posing, workflow, marketing, pricing, editing.

Time: 9AM - 5PM both days.  Lunch is included!

Price: $299 for the entire session.  For more information, click here.

April 2: Studio Lighting Workshop

Suitable for: Those familiar with photography, and wanting to explore studio lighting.

Key skills taught: Camera setup, triggers, one to four light setups, modifiers, gels, posing and props.

Time: 10AM - 4PM. Lunch is included!

Price: $59. For more information, click here.

Please remember that each class has a size limit and a sign up deadline, so contact me soon if you want to participate in a class!

Winter Photography Adventures

With a very cold winter and a studio that is not insulated, it was a real challenge to warm it up enough for comfortable studies for our Saturday morning classes.  But with all of the heaters blasting, we did manage a comfortable 70 degrees.

We concluded our Winter Adventures in Photography series yesterday.  Our three students were very focused (pun intended) on learning about the art and science of photographing with a digital camera.  

One of our activities was a still life image, to practice using a tripod or monopod, and to exercise the skills in white balance and depth of field.

Here's a shot from our still life activities.  This stuff looks good enough to eat!

We also had a young lady contact us to express an interest in modeling.  Her desire for a starter portfolio and our students' need for a willing subject worked out just fine for everyone!

Here's a sample image of Kristina against a high-key white background.

Thanks again to my students, and best of luck!  I hope to see you in other Adventures classes soon!

Great Tutorials on Photography

I have been collecting great web sites for basic photography skills for my students, especially sites that deal well with the exposure triangle, depth of field, white balance and other basic concepts.

Here's a list of some sites I think you should visit and subscribe to, in the order of my value estimate (though they are all good or they would not be on my list):

Cambridge in Colour - wonderful - clearly described and illustrated tutorials.  You can sign up for this one and get nice notifications.

Photo Tuts+ - Great tutorials.  Including this one on the Exposure Triangle!

   and this one on 100 tutorials! 

Digital Photography School - Great tutorials, nice design, and good forums as well.  Especially this article!

Canon Digital Photography Forums - oriented to the Canon user, but also has great forums on portable and studio lighting.

Stephen Eastwood Photography - A guy with great images who teaches and will show you how they are made.

ShutterMom - Interesting high-energy, lots of links and tools.

There.  You have a lot of exploring, bookmarking, reading and signing-up to do!  Get to it!

Last Call: Winter Photography Classes

This Saturday 1/8/11, we begin "Adventures in Photography: Winter Series".  This set of classes is oriented to the beginning digital photographer, and covers camera skills, lighting, editing and more.

If you or someone you know wants to learn more about photography, this is a great time of year and great setting for learning.  We have wonderful daylight and lots of photographic resources.

Seminars will be on Saturdays: January 8, 15 and 22 from 10AM until 2PM.  Lunch is included.  All you need is your dSLR and lenses and we will explore the world of photography!

Classes will be held at our studio - 2617 Peach Street in Erie, PA.  To reserve your place, contact us through the web or call 814-881-2840.

Cost is $99 for the entire series.   More information is at http://jhphotomusic.com/PhotoClasses.pdf

It's a great way to start the year and spice up your camera skills!