I set the table with photo books and magazines, ready for us to dig in and get inspired as we warmed up to getting out our cameras.

This was last night, at the gorgeous Luminous Elephant Studio run by my friend Madelyn Mulvaney.

On the other gorgeous table I’d gathered creative props from around the studio for us to photograph, inspiration galore and behind each item fairy lights adorned the walls adding a sparkle to our shots.

Everywhere you look in this space there is something that catches your eye and is just asking to be photographed. It is really a wildly inspirational place to get playful with our cameras.

As I awaited their arrival, I did what I do to get grounded and set the timer on my own camera and got playful with the props we’d soon by using in class.

Then they arrived, such incredible women with exciting reasons that brought them to want to learn more about their camera. We swooned over images in those books, the potential of what we could capture with our cameras growing by the minute.

Then we got our cameras out and played. While this is a Learn to Use Your Camera class, it is grounded in learning experientially which means getting playful with our cameras, experimenting and learning by doing. So we got started getting acquainted with the feeling of the camera in our hands, where all the buttons were and the flow of how learning to shoot feels.  I know for me, intellecutally learning about photography is one thing, but it doesn’t always mean we get (and retain) how to make it happen, camera in hand outside of class. So that is what we began.

In the coming 4 weeks we’ll experience and learn so much more, camera in hand. We’ll dig more into learning about light next week, then get acquainted with aperture, shutter speed, ISO, shooting manually and more.

You can register for the full session here and if you’d like to jump in and join us for the whole package, next week I’ll be arriving early for an optional catch-up session with those who are joining in late and missed the first week.

You are also most welcome to come for 1 night if you’re craving a refresher on an element of photography and your camera. Here’s what our focus of each week is:

Week 2: Light

Week 3: Aperture

Week 4: Shutter Speed

Week 5: Shooting Manually

Though of course, the best deal is the whole program but if you’d like to drop in each class is $55.

I love this last photo that was the only one I captured that got a little slice of life of the class with our tea cups at rest (cause our cameras were in our hands), lenses and iPhones waiting for their turn and the rest of us standing on chairs shooting from above or playfully arranging items in our own way to experiment taking photos of.

Seriously, it felt luminous in there. Luminous and lovely and you are welcome too. I’ll have tea (and even champagne) awaiting you!

I once followed it without knowing

Letting its ever-changing beauty become habitual

Then it was gone.  Or at least I was too caught up

in shadows to see it.

Now it is always visible to my eyes, even when absent

it stays subtle for many months and then bursts out

falling between tree branches

leaving its patterns, impermenant art on building walls

that always stop me in my tracks

I walk down my tree lined street

the light and shadow

pulse between hot and cold

singing to me

you are alive

you are alive

you are alive

I listen.

(from this post in the archives written June 10th, 2011 over at my old blog…and still very much true)