1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Canon XTi with Veronica

Veronica with her Canon XTi in front of downtown St. Petersburg's banyan treesFor our 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson Veronica came all the way down from Spring Hill, quite a journey down the most unpleasant road in the area, U.S. 19.  Perhaps in reward for that effort we were treated to a beautiful morning in downtown St. Petersburg that was not too hot, with a nice breeze.  

Like many of my photography students, Veronica has had her DSLR for a bit of a long time, but had only ever been using it on auto-mode.  She was familiar with some photography terms from a bit of self-study, but she was hoping our lesson would help her make much better portraits of her children and improve her photography overall in general.  Well, that is exactly what I design the 1-on-1 lessons to do so it was a perfect match in that regard.  

I taught Veronica my (yet to be patented) 4-step process for setting up any given shot, and upon realizing the meter in her Canon XTi was either somehow suffering from some internal problem or just not that good, we almost immediately went into manual mode which produced much better looking exposures.  

We concluded the lesson under the famous banyan trees of downtown St. Petersburg with a little flash portrait practice.  Also, since she only has one lens (18-55mm) at this time and really wanted to be able to make better portraits and get closer to her subjects, I suggested she next invest in a 55-200mm lens or similar to be able to make the shots she needs.  We will meet again later this summer after she practices some more on her own (highly recommended) and perhaps invests in some new gear as well.