Digital Photography Certification Course? Yes, please.

Well look at God! I've recently been bouncing around the idea of getting a job or getting certified in different fields. Randomly, last night, I decided to look into what Groupon has to offer in reference to certification programs, because in the past, I've found deals for being a legal assistant and a couple of days ago, someone posted a Groupon for getting certified in I.T. and something else. I can't remember. WELL lo and behold, when searching for certification programs on Groupon last night, not only did I find a Beginner's Criminology course on there (which would be a refresher for me), I found a DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE! I'll learn about digital photography, web animation, web development, Photo Art Studio, and Photoshop.
The fine print reads: Expires 180 days after purchase. Limit 4 per person, may buy 1 additional as a gift for 1 class option. Limit 1 per person for 2 and 4 class options. Limit 1 per visit. Valid only for option purchased. Online registration required. Must activate by the expiration on your Groupon, course will expire 1-year from activation. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services. Not only does this mean, I need to get off my butt and buy a digital camera and equipment, I'm gonna need to get out there and actually start shooting. I'm going to need to be serious about doing this course. Investing my energy into my art has been very troubling lately, because I've got some personal stuff going on that I'm trying to work out, but I'm trying... or would like to push myself into being energetic and motivated as far as photography and art. When I purchase the Groupon offer and begin using it, I'll give you all a review. The offer can be found here [x].

Finding quality equipment

I'm venturing into digital photography. Like I've mentioned in the past, I don't have the equipment and space to keep doing caffenol + black and white film photography, but I still want to take pictures. Digital will allow me to take pictures in color, learn a new medium, and it's more convenient. Because of my new interest, I have been researching like crazy what camera is best for me and what other equipment/tools I will need. I'm looking into purchasing a Canon T3i. Vlogger, Sarah Rae Vargas, uses a Canon T4i for her vlogs and I like the quality of her videos, but a college classmate of mine uses the T3i and I like the quality of her pictures. I feel that there wouldn't be much difference between the two. I'm starting off and limiting myself on how much I'll spend, so T3i may be my choice.
I've been looking for new and used cameras on Amazon, KEH, and B&H photo. I would look on eBay, because I got a really awesome macro lens for my Pentax K1000 on there, but I'm just really apprehensive about buying a camera or camera parts on eBay as of lately and for something I'm completely venturing into "blindly." I'm struggling on deciding whether to buy a camera body & lens together or trying to find the body for cheap on one site, then look for the lens on another. Again, I'm still learning and researching, so I don't know. What do you think? Comment below your suggestion(s)!
I asked my photo-friend about memory cards and batteries, she told me to get a battery that goes with my camera (Canon camera = Canon battery), so that's what I've been doing lately. I've added a few on my wishlist. I have to look for a reasonably priced battery charger and some memory cards, next. My photo-friend recommended SanDisk, which I have used in the past and usually lean towards. However, I found this awesome web page with memory card recommendations for the Canon T3i here [x]. Once I get the necessary basics, I'll look into a carrying case and a tripod. Maybe even decent photo editing software, Any recommendations on that? Anyway, I know I said I wanted to purchase some lenses for my iPhone 6, but after some research, I discovered that the kind that I want will not fit on my phone once my Otterbox Defender case gets here. I will have to take my case off to use the lenses and I don't have time for that. Taking my case off and on will stretch it out, plus the entire thought of doing that seems exhaustive/inconvenient. Maybe I will find lenses that can work around the case, maybe I change my mind and decide to go through the trouble of taking my case on and off. Who knows...

Center City Park, Immigration Reform, New Lenses, Mastercolor Labs, and Finals!

I went back to Center City Park to take more pictures for my final exam. Can I just say that the park is spectacular. There is so much to capture in photograph form if one would open their eyes and look for it. I went by myself this time and got to spend the amount of time there that I wanted to... I was able to explore more than just the park and I captured so much in doing so. For instance, there were a couple of Hispanic/Latino festivals occurring, as well as a protest for Immigration Reform which I thought was AWESOME! I heard people chanting from across the park and when I rushed across they had picket signs, people were dressed in traditional Hispanic wear, dancing, and protesting for equal rights for immigrants. It was luck that I ran into that, because I got a few photos from it.

In other news, I purchased two new lenses for my camera last week from KEH and they were delivered to my house today! I got a 70-210 F4 Macro Lens and a 28-80 F3 Macro Lens; I don't know where my photography ventures will take me this summer and I hope to stick with this even though the semester is over... but I'm excited to have my own lenses, because my original is broken and the one I'm using now is a loaner.

My final for photography is approaching next week. I went to Mastercolor Labs in Greensboro, NC yesterday and today to try and get my pictures together for the final to see how they look in print compared to on my screen. Some were too dark, some had a purple tone to them, but Mastercolor worked with me to be on the way to the perfect prints that I want. I started with 15 images, but ultimately, I realized that not all of them were necessary for my final; a couple, I just didn't like in print form. Ultimately, I'm showing 11 images for my final. I'll find out this Thursday if my pictures for my final will be everything I hoped for and more. I'm excited and I hope they translate properly in the final product.

Some of the below are reproductions/edits of pictures I posted in my last blog post:

Copyright infringement applies to my photographs. Unauthorized use of my images on other websites is prohibited.

Center City Park, Greensboro, NC

On 18 April 2013, my photography class and I went to Downtown Greensboro for a workshop/field trip to explore the area and take pictures. My teacher told me about a park and the middle of downtown and I ended up falling in love. There were so many shapes, so much movement, people, and activities to take pictures of up. I think what particularly interested me was the curves, lines, and shapes of the three different fountains in Center City Park. In addition, I fell for the way the water in the fountain moved. I had so much to take pictures of and so much to look at. For once, I was excited to get out there and take pictures. It didn't to matter to me who all was in the park that may be watching me do what I do - I was "geeking out" and capturing the best essence of what interested me the most. The most eventful part of the trip was gaining photographic clientele. I got contact information from four different people while in the park, because they wanted me to send them the pictures that I had take of either them or their little ones that I used as in-the-moment models. I haven't had a chance to digitally upload the rest of my images, but below are what I was able to get to throughout this evening.

As stated in older posts [x] [x] [x], I take my black and while film negatives and scan them into an Epson scanner to create a digital photograph which can later be printed off into a digital print.

Copyright infringement applies to my photographs. Unauthorized use of my images on other websites is prohibited.

Gregarious Ali Spotlight

Now that I've learned how to scan my negatives, I need to buy more film so I can take tons of new pictures. I'm falling in love with my photography and the Mims Digital Lab. Below are a few of my negatives that I scanned this evening and turned into digital images. Copyright infringement applies to my photographs. Unauthorized use of my images on other websites is prohibited.

"Halloween" - My apartment door Halloween '12.

"Fire Safety" - One of the first pictures I ever took. 

"Conceptual Contrast" - My nephew's face lathered in oil and my niece's face smothered in flour mixed with water. A contrast of slick/clean and gunky/messy. 

"Conceptual Contrast: Young and Old" - My dad and niece.

"Leap" - My niece taking a smaller jump from the same tree as her brother.

"Valiant" - My nephew leaping from a tree.

"Launch" - My niece jumping from the swing. 

More of my photography can be found here [x].

FINALLY!

I've finally learned how to use the scanner! The mistakes that I mentioned in my previous post? Those were what was holding me back from properly scanning in my negatives. The downfall to this is that scanning my negatives is taking longer than I expected because I have a lot of negatives I'd like to crop, edit, and save for future display. I've got five images set aside for the class critique on Thursday. They're pretty decent, but I can't wait to go back to my classmate's daycare so that I can take better photographs. I also need to buy some more film expeditiously, but that's neither here nor there. I figured I'd scan some of my old negatives while I'm here so that I could create an album of my favorite pictures. DID I MENTION THIS IS TAKING A LONG TIME? Luckily, I have my iPod and all of the time in the world... or at least until midnight, then I'm calling it a night. I have other work to do for different classes!