You just got a new digital camera, now what?
You know you enjoy taking pictures and sometimes (most of the time) they don’t come out the way you envisioned. There’s that moment, when you put the camera up to your eye and become emersed in your own photographic world. It’s your design, your vision and now you need to learn to create that image and bring it on home.
There’s lots of benefits to learning digital photography.
Photography can enrich your life in many ways as a vehicle to document the special moments, allow you to be creative, and bring you together in a community with other like minded individuals.
And one of the best parts about it is it only costs you the initial investment of the camera and any lenses, tripods or accessories you might want. There’s no film expense and very little output for printing because most images are viewed in digital format.
What about the benefit of the instant previews? Isn’t that great, so you see exactly what your are getting right away? You can take 500 images of the same subject, and it doesn’t cost you a thing and you have a pretty good idea of what you have created.
I’m not encouraging you to take the “spray and pray” photographic technique, that’s why we teach workshops. After taking one of our workshops, you learn to get the shot you envisioned with a minimal amount of wasted pixels (which equals less time editing in front of the computer.)
But that saying, it does allow you to easily experiment with your images. Maybe you want to test out a different depth of field, or perhaps change your perspective. You can expand your creative vision easily and “get into the zone” without running out of film or being concerned about the cost of printing.
And of course, it’s easy to share. There are thousands of ways to share on the internet, I focus on just a couple and work those exclusively. Try to develop a following on your favorite photography social media outlets by interacting with other like minded photographers. See below for my social connections.
What I love about photography is that it gets you outside, and puts you in another place where you learn to see differently. Many times we have been out on a drive or in a new location, and have been inspired to turn down a deserted highway or stop on the side of the road, just to see what kind of photographic opportunity might be there. You are more apt to notice little details in your life that you didn’t see before once you have caught the photography bug and have a camera in hand.
But the biggest benefit of learning and using digital photography is what it does for your memory and your cognitive development.
Yes, it’s true.
A study was done at the University of Texas, testing elderly in what activities would help them keep their memory and their cognitive development intact.
Guess what came out on top? Digital photography! Here is a link to that study so you can learn more for yourself.
What makes this article so interesting is that the combination of skills required to be a good digital photographer are what keeps your brain active and your memory fresh. In order to be a good photographer, you need to learn mentally challenging skills like memorizing different steps to operate the camera, using creativity to visualize a shot, as well as learn new skills required for post processing. Continuing to use these skills throughout your life and as you age, will help maintain a healthy mind (and of course offer you a new skill and passion). So get out there and shoot!
BPSOP Instructor – Holly Higbee-Jansen
Holly Higbee-Jansen is a passionate photographer and photo workshop leader, and has been exploring her fascination with light since she was a young child. As a co-owner and guide for JansenPhotoExpeditions.com, she loves taking small groups of clients to beautiful places to help them explore their photographic creativity. Join them on one of their photographic workshops in iconic locations in California, the American West, Iceland and Costa Rica. Live life creatively!
Reach Holly by email at: [email protected] and read her blog at: JansenPhotoExpeditions.com/Blog
Holly Teaches:
iPhone Photography
In this class, we will introduce you to the magic of iPhone photography using several shooting and editing apps that will give you the ability to make your pictures sing in a fun and easy way.You will learn how to crop, change saturation, brightness and affect the overall look of your pictures with HDR, drama and grunge filters and other techniques. You will be amazed at the simple and effective methods.
Do you want to learn to create images that show the beauty of the scene you saw when you took the photograph? Do you want to learn the other essential side of digital photography, photo editing and get up to speed quickly?
This course is designed to get you up and running FAST in this incredibly powerful program. In this two week information packed class, you will learn how to import, organize and perform simple and effective editing processes that will let you produce beautiful adjustments to your pictures.
Lightroom Presets: Taking Your Photos from Good to Great
In this two week class, we will show you how to create your own presets to use over and over and create your own signature style. You will also learn to use third party presets to help with your creativity and enhance your editing power. You will receive detailed information on the website page each week, as well as tutorial videos to help you understand the course material.
For a complete list of Holly’s current workshops go to:
Jansen Photo Expeditions – JansenPhotoExpeditions.com
Holly’s Blog: http://jansenphotoexpeditions.com/blog
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Jansenphotoexpeditions
Instagram – http://instagram.com/photographyexplorations
YouTube – youtube.com/c/Jansenphotoexpeditions
Google+ – https://plus.google.com/+jansenphotoexpeditions
500px – https://500px.com/hhjphoto
