Please sign up early.  Thanks.  Marsha

Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park DistrictArt for Personal Enrichment

320 Civic Drive Pleasant hill CA 94523

PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED AT LEAST THREE DAYS PRIOR TO CLASS.

PLEASE REGISTER EARLY; CLASSES WITH LOW ENROLLMENT ARE SUBJECT TO CANCELLATION.

Point & Shoot

Your Way to Perfect Photos

(1 workshop) (2 weeks)

Don’t know how you got that fantastic shot that everyone it raving about? Learn simple, easy-to-remember techniques so that you can use your camera more effectively.

Topics include how to: define your subject to tell your story; manage the available light so that it is perfect in the final photograph; use the three basic photographic composition techniques – color, pattern, and action. Bring camera; there will be an easy photo assignment. Fee includes a copy of The Accidental Photographer.

Instructor: Marsha Black

…graduate, New York Institute of Photography; author of The Accidental Photographer; educator, traveler, photographer.

4504.902 Aug. 14

. Sat., 1:30–4:30 pm

4504.903 July 14–July 21

. Wed., 6:30–8 pm

. Fee: $60 / Dist. Res. $50

. Community Ctr.: Upper Club Rm.

Got Email? For the latest District news, please add Cservice@pleasanthillrec.com to your allowed list.

To register: use the internet, at

www.pleasanthillrec.com

or call 925-676-5200 or

by fax 24 hours a day at 676-5630

   My book, The Accidental Photographer:  Enhancing Your Travels With a Camera, is now available for purchase online!  Click on the link above to go directly to the store.  Take advantage of the free download, and while you are there, also click on the green banner on the side and have a look at the photos for sale through a group of talented, aspiring photographers.

            I think just about anyone who takes a camera on a trip wants to travel with it unencumbered and come home with good photos that can be shared with friends and family.  My book illustrates how to use the camera effortlessly and take good pictures that reflect the passion of travel.  The book is aimed at the casual photographer and the techniques described are basic and can be mastered with a little practice and used with any camera. 

 Many thanks to all of the people who have helped me with this project.  Marco Zecchin and JD Savelli of Marketing4Artists helped me define my photographic niche and helped me develop the goal of writing this book.   Linda Watanabe McFerrin and my writing workshop friends helped me think through many approaches to this topic before we came up with one that worked.   They, along with my traveling and photo buddies encouraged me to finish and get it published through many discouraging efforts. Left Coast Writers, sponsored by The Book Passage in Corte Madera,  gave me the social and educational forum to keep going.  Cheryl McLaughlin was instrumental in getting the online strategy going.  Marie Teixeira and Steve Kimbrough, talented webmasters, put all of the creative ideas into my website, blog page and store.  My dear husband, Dale Black, supported me through this effort and never questioned my sanity. 

Here’s what one of my Photography friends says about The Accidental Photographer:

“I have recently reviewed The Accidental Photographer, and find this to be an excellent piece of work. It is well written, contains some very useful information for the non technical photographer, and is well illustrated with the authors’ personal photos. A great many people could benefit from reading this, and in so doing be able to shoot and better organize photos of their trips and vacations.” – Larry R. Van Etten – Owner – Aspiring Photographers of The World – http://goapow.com

Larry R. Van Etten
LVE@GOAPOW.COM

 Here’s what Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author, travel writer, instructor, says about The Accidental Photographer: 

 If you have a camera and haven’t spent plenty of time and money on classes, this is the book for you. The Accidental Photographer: Enhancing Your Travels with a Camera is excellent on-the-fly, hands-on training in how to use the ubiquitous tool. Marsha Black’s eye-opening tips are so simple and clear that even the technically challenged will have no trouble following them. Every  traveler armed with a camera should leave a small space in their bags for this book.

Linda Watanabe McFerrin

 So, check it out, enjoy, and please, help me spread the word.

Chateau at Vaux le Vicomte

My husband, Dale, and I had taken the train from Paris to Vaux le Vicomte for the day. Fortunately, our drizzly Paris day turned to gorgeous sunshine as we arrived at this first-built of the royal palaces from the era of Louis XIV, the predecessor-palace to Versailles. We had spent the day touring the buildings and walking through the first of the European formal gardens built by the original landscape architect, Le Notre, all restored after decades of decay. I had been trying all day to get a good, dynamic shot of the palace and its gardens, to no avail. They weren’t bad, but most were flat, didn’t show off the palace or gardens, or lacked a dynamic quality. As we were walking toward the Visitor’s Entrance, I was watching the scenes unfold. We turned a corner and I spotted this scene, full of angles and light, and shot. I knew I had my memory.

How did I know? Angles created the dynamic action and action is one of the four elements of a Wow! photograph. The other three – color, light and pattern – were inherent in this subject and the weather that day. I stood where the placement of the gardens and the building in the frame of the photograph set the lines so the gardens and the palace are at an angle to each other. The clouds cooperated – they were also at an angle to the building. I tilted the camera up slightly to include the sky. The end-points of the planting areas also created angles leading to the building. I used the zoom lens to frame down tightly on the patters. The building is slightly off center, allowing the lines from the trees and garden on the right of the frame to lead the eye in from that side.

And so you have it! If you are having trouble getting your photograph to come alive, look for the angles!

In fact, take several pictures. And some digital cameras allow you to set “brackets”, capturing several shots with one click, slightly varying the settings with each shot.

And if the image isn’t perfect, there are various applications that let you fix imperfections.  Some adjustments can be even made in-camera.

But take the picture!

Golden Gate Bridge in Fog

Welcome to The Accidental Photographer blog – full of tips and fun ideas to help you take great photos when you are out and about anywhere.

I’m Marsha Black, author of The Accidental Photographer, a book full of tips written for people who carry a point and shoot camera but don’t have a clue about how to get good photographs out of it.

This photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge is one good example. I took this photo when we stopped briefly at the viewpoint. I used two simple concepts, light and lines, to turn this photo from “Yeah, it’s the Golden Gate Bridge” to “WOW, It’s the Golden Gate Bridge!”. Even if you feel like you are a klutz with a camera, you, too, can learn these tips quickly and easily so you can enjoy your photos as much as I do.