Photo school

One of the things I brought home from our holidays was a shiny new camera.
I did love the one I had, it was a hybrid Sony camera (hybrid means that is has the body of a compact camera, but it allows the use of interchangeable, better quality lenses).
This camera was awesome, I took the photographs of all my patterns for the last 2 years with it, and the automatic mode was just perfect.

But, I kept reading "You should learn to use your camera", and "your pictures could be so much better with a Reflex"... And especially I kept hearing "Why would you buy a big camera and use it in auto-mode?".

Well, I did get my new camera, I brought it home un-touched and... What do I do with this beast now?  No idea.
So it seemed reasonable to take some photography lessons, and I signed for photo-school.  I'll be studying a semestre in which I am supposed to learn not only how to use this beast, but also to take "photos with a meaning".  Well, I tell you: I had never been so scared of learning something since I finished university!

Suddenly I feel that all the pictures I have been taking all this time are just rubbish.  But why do they have to be perfect?  I don't know, and certainly my teachers don't tell me so, but now that I know how pictures are "supposed" to be taken, I feel bad about how spontaneous mine were all this time.

Anyway, I guess in the end, I will feel a lot more happy about this new tool, and my pictures should be improving.  In the meantime, I have learnt to take those pretty "stash" pictures that I've been drooling over for years:

Stash pic for Ravelry: Malabrigo Arroyo in colorway "Sand Bank"

Stash pic for Ravelry: Northbound Knitting BFL/Silk in "Nocturne"

I have been trying to reorganize my stash and photograph everything there, so that I know what to work with.  I find my stash feature really helpful!  If only I could keep it updated...

So it seems like through yarn, the camera and I are starting to get to know each other.  I haven't felt the confidence yet to take the pictures for a pattern, but it will happen, eventually.

This week our teacher gave us a new assignment.  We are studying different kinds of portraits, and we need to take "environmental portraits" and "close-up portraits".
I felt like taking a portrait of myself at work (which I had never done before), so I set up my tripod and gave use to that remote control at last.  So here I give you my workspace and in my first "Environmental Portrait".

My wall (I'd call it my studio, or office, but it's just a wall actually)

Mind you, I did organize it a little bit before this pic.  Do not be fooled by the perfectly arranged yarn inside the basket.  It is normally all spread out in the floor!
I'll save the close-up portrait for someone who is not so camera shy at the moment ;)

So I hope that in a short time I can fill this blog with more appealing pictures, and I hope you keep coming back, even with so little update over here...

~Joji