Since our first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson last week Kasia has gotten the excellent Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G lens. For our second lesson she also brought her son who is a cheerful 11-month old fond of taking off his socks and throwing his pacifier (who isn't?). Now that Kasia has had more time with her Nikon D700 and an actual lens to use on it, we began this lesson with a Q&A session where I had to dispel some amateur photography advice (like she needs a UV filter for her lens, ha!). She asked about metering modes (stay in matrix) and the number of focus points (stay with a single one) as well as how to fix a photograph where the highlights are blown out.
After that we headed over to South Straub Park to practice how to compose by either setting the focus and recomposing or by framing the shot then just moving the focus point onto the desired subject. We found some shade and I had Kasia practice her portrait technique on me first to get the ergonomics of moving focus points down before attempting to make portraits of her more active son.
I will see Kasia right again tomorrow afternoon where we will continue to build on her DSLR photography skills.