With a none too shabby 9.30am start, the lecture of the day was on composition, equally if not more important than exposure. An images exposure could be spot on but if the content is not pleasing to the viewers eye then it could be far from a masterpiece! With two hours of rule of thirds, leading lines, framing, and various other topics, our minds were opened up to what makes a compelling photograph.
The second couple of hours of the day was our first critique session, providing invaluable feedback from the instructor as to where we could do things better. Being given criticism from someone who is involved in photography for a living is very welcome. Now that critique session one is out of the way I’m actually excited for the next, hopefully opening my eyes to further improvements.
Our evening was spent at Ninepipes Reservoir, a small nature reserve around 45 miles from Missoula, where we practiced what we learnt in the earlier lecture – so applying our new found composition skills. With two hours of daylight followed by a pretty cool sunset we had every opportunity to take many photos, with four necessary for the next days critique session.
I was pleasantly surprised by my results, at least some of them!