Blue in Focus

My photography class kicked off yesterday, and so far it's really interesting! I've already learned a lot about my camera -- how to control shutter speeds, F-stops and the ISO, for example. For years I've been shooting in automatic mode, relying on the camera to set all those factors for me. Usually it works really well. But there are times when I might want to take control, and now I'll know how.

I'm not totally green -- I know from working with film cameras what shutter speeds and F-stops are, for example -- but I didn't know which dials and buttons on my digital camera control and meter them.

The guy teaching the course is a photojournalist who worked for Agence France Presse, or AFP. He seems very knowledgeable and he's a good teacher. In between classroom lectures and demonstrations we are periodically sent out onto Oxford Street, the main shopping drag in the heart of West London, to practice our skills.



These photos are the result of a 10-minute assignment on focusing. We were supposed to choose a color -- in my case, blue. Then we shot photos experimenting with focus points, or those little squares that you see inside the viewfinder of your camera, incorporating items of our chosen color into each picture.



That's why part of these images is focused -- usually the blue object -- and part isn't.

Fascinating, I know.