A few months ago, I begged my parents & Mr. Blue to spring for an early Christmas gift that I’d been salivating over since around August 2011, a DSLR photography course called Snap Shop, taught by the very talented Ashley Ann of Under the Sycamore.  Seriously, check out her pictures.  I die a little of the pretties every time I look at her blog.

 Courtesy of Under the Sycamore

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Back in 2011, I had just gotten my DSLR camera, and I had zero ideas how to use it (seriously, auto was my world).  I didn’t, however, actually learn about Snap Shop because I wanted to improve my photography; that came later.  My sister-in-law, who knew of Ashley Ann from college and followed her blog, knew that I was passionate about wanting to adopt a child someday, and she sent me a link to an incredible story about an adoption miracle.

After initially teaching live courses on using your DSLR to capture the real moments in life in a beautiful way, Ashley Ann wrote an online version, which you can get information about here. While she tells her story more eloquently than I, to summarize, the post was about how the first online Snap Shop registrations led to funding not only their own adoption, but also that of another family. I knew then that if I could ever swing the time and money, I wanted to take a Snap Shop course because I loved her style and I loved her story. I kept checking in on Under the Sycamore, particularly reading the posts about their journey to bring home Little One from China, which you can find here.


Courtesy of Under the Sycamore.  The raw emotion of this moment caught in this picture makes me cry every. single. time. 

Fast forward to last spring when the Baby Dudes arrived.  I was exclusively using the Creative Auto setting which allowed me to have a little more control of my photos without having to have the first clue what f stop & ISO were, much less how they worked together with shutter speed to create beautiful photos.  I loved the photos ever so much more than when I was shooting completely in auto, but I still had lots of pictures that were overexposed or that my camera would slow the shutter speed down to what I swear was like a minute and a half, resulting in an unfixable case of the blurries.  I felt like I was missing many of those precious but fleeting moments, as my little newborns were quickly turning into babies that rolled and wiggled and didn’t want to lay peacefully for a photo in the one tiny corner of my house with good natural lighting.

One of my favorite shots I took during the Snap Shop course.  I love remembering the sound of Finn’s laughter as Mr. Blue kept him entertained at his very first football game.

I signed up for a September Snap Shop course, even though that is my busiest work month, because I wanted to do the course and have a little time to practice before the boys’ first holiday season was upon me.  It has absolutely revolutionized what I can do with my camera.  I have literally not taken it off manual since the end of the class.  I’m by no means a professional, I’m still just a mom with a camera, but now I can capture moments of our lives that I was missing before I shot in manual.

Over Thanksgiving, Elliot heard his aunt practicing her clarinet.  Being obsessed with music, he ignored everything else to crawl over to the door and stare at her in wonder.  

The Snap Shop course starts with basics of your camera and then moves to rules of composition.  I love that each lesson includes pictures of how she effectively or ineffectively used a specific element in a photo.  I’m a visual kind of girl, so seeing examples alongside the material was really helpful.  After the lessons (which are all self-paced), there are some general “homework” suggestions.  As opposed to another photography class I once signed up for but never finished, there are not specific subject assignments for your practice shots.  It’s more general, like “Practice taking photos using the rule of thirds.”  That made it convenient to get in some practice without having to search out a specific set up or subject matter.

For each Snap Shop course, a Flickr group is set up and Ashley Ann and other members of the class can comment on photos you upload to get some tips on your specific photos.  After working through the rules of composition, the course dives into all the nitty gritty fun of shooting in manual, which is where everything really started to click in place for me.  I still have to think about it a lot more than I’d like, but I’m getting faster and faster at making adjustments on the fly and better at guessing the correct settings before I even look at the light meter.

The realities of trying to photograph babies on the move.

Not only am I catching more shots and having to do significantly less editing to them, but I’m also more in tune with what’s wrong with my pictures, so I know where I need to improve.  For instance, cropping is a huge issue with my photos.  I get so busy making sure the settings are right or focused on my adorable subjects that I don’t realize I’ve cut out those sweet baby toes for no reason.

Poor missing baby toes and knees!  

If you’re new to a DSLR or looking to learn more about composition and shooting in manual, I absolutely recommend signing up for a Snap Shop course.  Find specific info about the DSLR course and registration, here.   If you’re already adept in these areas, this isn’t the course for you, but I vote you check out Ashley Ann’s blog if you’re in need of new reading material and love looking at great photography.

In addition to the DSLR course, Ashley Ann also started doing a smart phone photography course, that includes the same type of lessons on composition, but then goes into more specifics on using your smart phone for photography and great apps for phone photography.  You can find specific info about the phone course, here.  The DSLR course is $200 and the phone photography course is $100.  Both are open for registration at the time I am writing this for courses starting in January.

Have you ever taken a photography course?  What are your best tips for getting great shots of your littles?