Ria & Bill show good form as they prepare to photograph me as I walk down a sidewalk during our Nikon photography lesson.Last Saturday I ended my day with a DSLR Photography Lesson with husband and wife Bill & Ria and this Saturday I began my day with our second lesson together, this time in the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot.  They both did some studying and practice since our last lesson which I highly recommend so that at the start of the next lesson they will have questions to ask and photographs to show me.  

For our second lesson we continued with the 4-steps to setting up a well exposed and in focus shot.  We started with making sure we were aware of the position of the sun relevant to our subject, which whenever possible we want our backs to the sun and our shadows pointed at the subject.  This is of course useful when photographing still and moving subjects.  The latter we practiced much more this time on passing cyclists and also yours truly as you can see Ria & Bill preparing to do in the photo above.  They are both using my suggested hand holding technique for portrait orientation, with the DSLR grip up in the right hand which allows the left elbow to become a point of stability against your body.  They lined up side-by-side like that on their own, it is a candid image!

I look forward to seeing what shots they make with a second round of photography knowledge.

Ria & Bill with their Nikons during our first DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOnce again due to the Honda Grand Prix going on in downtown St. Petersburg, I used the small park at the end of Coffee Part Bayou as the location for a DSLR Photography Lesson with husband and wife Bill & Ria and their pair of Nikons.  It was my first time to see a vivid red Nikon D3100 body!  It looked pretty cool.  That was the DSLR Ria used during the lesson and Bill wielded the Nikon D90.  Though I market my photography lessons as 1-on-1, they are available to pairs as well.  It is actually nice teaching two people because that means I do not have to be the model for practice shots!

Being very familiar with Nikon menu settings it was no problem to get both their D90 and D3100 setup and ready to start making shots in the manner I do with my own Nikon D300.  During the lesson we practiced how to frame a portrait shot to make best use of space and put the person in a flattering composition (i.e. not having the horizon bisecting their head).  Many people's instinct is to center the subject, but putting the subject just off center even, like in the photo above, adds more interest and better use of negative space.  

It was a real fun time introducing Bill and Ria to the manual DSLR world, where before they were just using the D90 in auto-mode.  We already have our next lesson scheduled!

Kyle with his Nikon D3100 in Straub Park with Proline tripod product placementI had been in e-mail contact with Kyle for awhile, giving him tripod buying advice, etc.  This morning I met him for a DSLR Photography Lesson in the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot.  Even though the calendar said December 22nd, it felt more like May 22nd as the Florida sun continued to shine on full force.  

As usual during a first lesson, we covered a wide range of photography topics starting out with my 4-step process for getting the settings right for any given type of shot followed by simply how to best hold a DSLR for maximum stability and efficiency.  Kyle kept his Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G lens on his D3100 as we went from making shots with bokeh, to controling DoF for group shots, to how to compose and take shots using a tripod, before ending with some flash portrait practice.  

I hope Kyle can put all we covered today to use to produce his best holiday photographs ever.  He already had two of his photographs published in a local credit union's calendar, maybe next year he can go national!

• More information about 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons with Jason
• Browse past lessons with Jason's hundreds of photo students
• Read Jason's photography tips

Jeff with his Nikon D3100 in Vinoy Park; The Pier of St. Petersburg in the background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm lens @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/250th natural lightNew DSLR Photography Lesson student Jeff was a referral from old high school friend and one-time photo lesson student himself, Mark.  Jeff has an impressive traveling resume and wants to be able to make better photographs on future trips, like one soon to Sydney, Australia.  Thus, he upgraded from a point & shoot camera to a new Nikon D3100.  

As I went through my four step process of setting a DSLR for any type of shot, Jeff seemed to be catching on quick and soon we were leaving aperture priority behind during the lesson and moving onto manual mode.  Having the lesson late in the evening helped hasten our transition to manual mode as the fading light did not allow aperture priority mode to produce acceptable exposures for very long, especially when we practiced photographing moving objects.  

Jeff also took a lot of handwritten notes during the lesson, which is something I recommend unless one has a photographic memory!

I look forward to introducing more advanced photography topics in our future lessons.

--Professional Model DSLR Photography Lessons now available!

Vinoy Park St. Petersburg - Lisa with her Nikon D3100 & Tampa Bay in the backgroundI found out during our first DSLR Photography Lesson that Lisa is a very interesting person with many unique interests.  One interest she wanted to increase her knowledge on was photography and specifically how to better use her Nikon D3100 to photograph all the details and textures that catch her eye.  We met at the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot on a great Florida spring afternoon.

Living in Ybor City Lisa is never short of interesting places and things to go out and photograph.  I told her that my default settings for just heading out the door in usual Florida weather and walking around are:  f/5.6 ISO 200 (lowest for my DSLR) WB-sunny AF-S.  After going shooting in any type of situation it is a good practice to return your DSLR to these settings before storing it in your camera bag.  

Lisa was a fast learner and my pop quizzes asking her to tell me from memory what her D3100 was currently set to were all passes.  Knowing without looking what your camera is set to is key for catching a shot that has only a few seconds of opportunity.  Then of course being able to change the necessary settings in under five seconds is also key.  

Linda and I ended up in Vinoy Park where its seawall offers a chance to use S-curve composition.  Having an S-shaped line composed in your frame gives the viewer's eye something to follow throughout your image.  Most often you see roads used as S-curves.  

I look forward to seeing what photographs Lisa produces in Ybor City and later on her trip to Costa Rica!