Photography Lessons

1-on-1 Nikon D5100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Rasha in St. Petersburg Florida

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Rasha with her Nikon D5100 during our 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a way hotter than it should have been October morning, I met Rasha with her Nikon D5100 for our first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg.  She has had the Nikon for a little while, but was only using it in auto-mode.  She inquired about my lessons because she wanted to be able to get more out of her DSLR, which is exactly what my photography lessons are designed to help people do!

She has a pair of lenses covering the standard focal lengths of 18-200mm.  I began the lesson by showing her how to safely and properly change lenses, something that may not sound so important, but actually is for keeping the inside of your DSLR clean and the sensor spot free.  We started out shooting in aperture priority mode, but once we switched to shooting moving subjects in constant light, I showed Rasha how using manual mode is much more advantageous for locking in the exposure and allowing the photographer to just focus on getting the best framing.  We practiced on cars driving down 5th Ave N in front of the Vinoy Hotel.  

We concluded the first lesson in the shade of North Straub Park where I demonstrated how it is actually much, much better to make a portrait of someone in shade rather than in harsh mid-day sunlight.  Her portrait of me in the shade produced natural skin tones and light in the eyes.  Moving into direct sun made my skin look reflectively pale and my eyes were dark pools hidden by shadow from the overhead sun.  

I look forward to continuing to help Rasha improve her manual photography skills in our next lesson!

St. Petersburg Florida Night Photography Lessons for tripod & 50mm lens

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WANT TO LEARN HOW TO USE YOUR DSLR AT NIGHT?
  • 1-on-1 photo lessons help you learn quickly
  • Every lesson is designed for your exact level
  • Learn to shoot at night in real conditions
  • Free social media sized digital portrait made of you by Jason
  • Lesson locations in St. Petersburg (others may require a fee)
  • 2-hour lessons available on weeknights starting at 6pm
CALL: 813-240-5357 E-mail: CONTACT FORM FACEBOOK

 

2-HOUR LESSONS on NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

As the sun starts to set earlier, weekday evenings offer a fantastic opportunity to learn how to make photographs at night. 

Jason offers two types of night photography lessons:  using a tripod for long exposures & using a 50mm lens for low light. 

The 2-hour lessons are offered in the downtown St. Petersburg area on weeknights beginning from 6pm~ and feature 1-on-1 night photography instruction with Jason.  A DSLR is required along with either a tripod or a 50mm f/1.8 lens. 

Tripod rental is available. 

The lessons are open to any skill level, even total beginners!

TRIPOD LESSONS

Tripod night photography lessons will focus on how to make long exposures of the beautiful downtown St. Petersburg waterfront.  Using manual settings and bulb mode you will learn how to pull light out of the sky that the human eye cannot see.  Also, you can learn how to make light trail shots as cars streak past to create cool, urban shots.

50MM LENS LESSONS

You can use a 50mm f/1.8 (or f/1.4) lens at night without a flash to produce cool images featuring light bokeh, motion blur from passing cars and even night portraits!

  

 Lessons start at: 

 

Jason has taught over 300 one-on-one DSLR lessons!  - see blog

 

Jason has taught lessons to students with these DSLRs and more!

Nikon D4 Nikon D600 Nikon D700 Nikon D300s Nikon D7000 Nikon D90 Nikon D5100 Nikon D5000 Nikon D3000 Nikon D3100 Nikon D40

Canon 5D Mark III Canon 5D Mark II Canon 7D Canon 60D  Canon 50D Canon T4i Canon T3i Canon XSi Canon XTi Canon XT

Pentax K-R Pentax K-7

Sony A230 Sony A33

Olympus E-510

Jason also teaches how to edit digital photos on your own laptop - reserve now!

 

Daytime DSLR Photography Lessons also available on any subject more info

Nikon D7000 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Mari

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Mari photographing the famous banyan trees in downtown St. Petersburg during our photography lesson.Since our first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson from just a week ago, Mari has done some significant investing in her photography gear.  Gone is her Canon G10 replaced with a brand new Nikon D7000 and lens I use myself, a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8.  Right away it was apparent to Mari how much easier using a true DSLR is.  I contend myself that point and shoot cameras are by far more complicated to use than an advanced DSLR (i.e. top LCD screen, two finger dials, all major settings have dedicated button).  Now instead of hunting through menus and having to "game" her old camera just to change aperture, on her Nikon D7000 it requires a mere flick of the forefinger.  It is likewise for all the other four major settings.

So with this new gear I began showing Mari how to manually adjust all settings for shooting in shade, bright sunlight, backlit subject and some tips on how to creatively compose common scenes and landmarks.  As always, I advised her to not put the horizon in the center, as that is how we see it with our own eyes.  Putting the horizon in the upper or lower third of the frame is almost always more appealing looking to a viewer and makes for a much more interesting photograph.  

Mari invested in a 4-pack of lessons (thanks Mari!) to help her get started in the DSLR world so I will be seeing her again soon to continue introducing her to new shooting techniques.  

Tripod Nikon D7000 DSLR Photography Lesson with Tim in St. Petersburg Florida

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Tim using his Manfrotto tripod to make a shot of downtown St. Petersburg during our third photography lesson.For our third of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons Tim brought his Manfrotto tripod along for a lesson based on slowing down one's photography and not taking so many shots that make the thought of going through them all rather daunting in the editing process.  Using a tripod naturally slows you down as a photographer, thereby reducing the number of shots you take, while simultaneously improving the shots you take as each shot on a tripod needs to be carefully framed and crafted.  Free of the weight of holding the camera, using a tripod allows you to really feel at ease when shooting.  I know it is how I feel.

Long exposure shots are only possible with a tripod, and one of the best spots to make such shots are from The Pier, which is where Tim and I headed out to.  Along the way we noted how completely gray and blah the sky was and that we would not be able to make any keepers tonight from an artistic standpoint, but learning the skill of making long exposure dusk & night shots would not be affected.  I commented that is such conditions I just get in the mindset of knowing I will probably convert the images to black & white later.

Then all of a sudden a touch or orange reflected off the low clouds and soon thereafter the sky exploded with color and Tim was able to make some fantastic long exposure shots of the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront (see my shots here).  We were very lucky in the end!  For our next lesson, we will move on to flash portraits.

Nikon D300s 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson St. Petersburg Florida with Lisa

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Lisa with her new Nikon D300s and Nikkor 70-300mm lens during our first photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaMy first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson of the fall was this morning with Lisa and her newly acquired Nikon D300s.  The leaves may not be changing color or anything like that in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, but things were definitely not as hot and a bit less humid, which is what early fall amounts to here!  Like a majority of my photography students, Lisa had only experience with small or point and shoot digital cameras so I started basically from the very beginning introducing her to the DSLR world.  It may seem like a big leap going from a point and shoot to a pro level DSLR like the Nikon D300s, but in another way it is a great simplifying of photography as each shot becomes about five tangible settings, not like on a point and shoot choosing the right scene mode or trusting auto mode to make what you want.

In that way, within minutes I had Lisa using her D300s in full manual mode switching between photographing still and moving subjects, changes lenses and learning how to read the histogram as a way of confirming exposure in the field.  It is easier to do this in fact with a more advanced camera like the D300s because every setting has its own dedicated button, no need to ever venture into menus.  

This was our first of four photography lessons, with the second already booked for next Monday.  I look forward to helping Lisa continue to build her DSLR photography skills!

1-on-1 Canon G10 Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Mari

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Mari using her Canon G10 in manual mode creating a patterned floral shot in St. Petersburg FloridaThis morning I met long-time dog park friend Mari for a 1-on-1 Photography Lesson using her Canon G10, an advanced point and shoot style camera.  It was my first time to get hands on with this category of camera, which I had long been curious about, but I found the controls to be too cryptic to compete with a full DSLR in terms of usability.

Mari often is up early walking around the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront with her dog Sport and usually only uses her iPhone camera to photograph all the sunrises she sees.  Now she can bring her G10 along and use the power of manual controls to get the exposure how she wants it to make creative and sharp shots.  I taught her the shutter speed and aperture threshold settings from which she would then need to start to increase ISO, and how purposefully overexposing or underexposing a shot can lead to great results in the right circumstances.  

It was nice to see Mari outside of the dog park and start to help her improve her photography.  I will look forward to seeing her sunrise photos!

1-on-1 Canon T4i DSLR Photography Lesson on pelicans with Nicole

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This morning I met Nicole for our second 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg.  The topics for our lessons continue to be based on assignments she gets for her photojournalism class.  Today's topic was wildlife, so we went out to The Pier to photograph pelicans and anything else we could find along the way.

It was a very sleeping morning out at The Pier, hardly any creatures were stirring.  The sky was mostly overcast, but the humidity was heavy, putting a general malaise on all, but this meant the pelicans were extra approachable allowing for some very closeup shots of the large birds.  There were a number of males and females in various sitting, standing and preening positions allowing Nicole to get a good range of shots to submit for her class.

We concluded by photographing a few semi-curious squirrels in North Straub Park.  Barring any of her classmates making a quick trip to Africa, I am sure Nicole will end up with the best shots once again!