Out of Focus

Dorothy had it easy - follow the yellow brick road and watch out for the witch. Now, I don't envy Dorothy her journey in the dark woods with three men/creatures she had just met (what was she thinking), but in the end they all had their heart desires met by looking into themselves. Easy peasy.

My journey is similar - follow the instructions, trust the instructor, learn the equipment. I'm talking photography class with its special words, that at the moment, mean nothing to me except that my brain has to work hard. ISO speed, exposure, light and white balance, F-stops, shutter speed, aperture, DSLR and SLR camera, manual vs. automatic focusing - oh my.

To explain, I am a new un-young student at a local college enrolled in photography class. It has been years since I've attended school, and will admit that it was "far out" standing in the hallway with other students, me being the oldest, waiting for the previous class to exit. I had my cameras, book "A Short Course in Photography, Digital", four pens, marker, notebook, and a breath mint. I had been at the school for a couple hours as I wanted a good seat and didn't want to be late for my first class. I breathed excitement - even engaged a cute young man standing next to me, or more honestly, he engaged me!

Class was seated and the teacher walked in handing out packets of material while talking about his policy of no cell phones allowed, projects were not accepted late. Projects? What did he say? Then he announced when our exams would be...exams? What did he say? In my naive thinking, it never occurred to me that I'd be having homework, let alone projects and exams. I glanced at the seated students and didn't notice squirming, so they must have known there would be work in the class to complete. Well, I held steady in my seat and breathed deeply so as to not attract any attention to my red face.

After completing all his instructions, the teacher, Brian (do I call him professor or Mister), took out a few of his cameras and began show and tell using words like: DSLR, SLR, mirror less cameras, the correct ISO for particular circumstances. I placed my breath mint in my mouth - faking a soft cough so not to be so obvious, as a distraction, and sat transfixed as a new language was introduced to me.

In my previous life, I knew medical terminology, a little Russian, some Spanish, administrative lingo, I speak fluent Yooper - so do believe I can pick up on a new way of talking - photography. So this new adventure begins. Oh, note cards! Yes, must get note cards!