Welcome to Dale Kesel Photography Courses

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Adult Photography Course
Course Title: Principles and Techniques for More Creative Photography

Purpose: This is a course designed by a professional photographer to enlighten students and to create excitement about their own creative abilities through photography. It was developed to provide people with an opportunity for creative expression and self-discovery - to take what is buried inside them and express it freely with the camera as your eye to the world. The course gives participants insights into their own abilities that could lead to more exciting and fulfilling lives.

Format/Structure
1. Eight-week program with seven weeks of classroom instruction and participation, followed by a half-day field trip to apply the principles and techniques learned.
2. Classroom sessions (limited to 15 students) will be held at Corona Baptist Church, on the northeast corner of Ray Road and Lakeshore, in Chandler.
3. Weekly photographic assignments will be given, following each lesson taught in the first seven weekly sessions.
4. After each of the first 7 sessions, students are expected to shoot a roll of 24-exposure film, using their own camera, following the lesson of the week. Students are to have the film processed and printed, ready for sharing at each subsequent class session. The hands-on learning and sharing of results reflected in this step are critical to effective learning of the program content.

Course Concepts

1. Elements of Composition:
Subject, foreground and background
Line shape and form
Angles and motion
Horizon
Textures and patterns

2. Techniques for Creating Exceptional PHotographs
Framing and cropping
Unusual point-of-view
Motion
Rule of thirds
Silhouetting the subject
Diagonals /skewing the point-of-view
Dramatic lighting
Keeping images simple

Description of Content 1. The first classroom session involves an overview of the course and highlights for students the elements of composition and techniques for creating exceptional photographs.
2. Each successive class will build on the knowledge of the previous one(s) by reviewing the lesson from the previous week, sharing photography homework results with the class and going on to the next lesson and assignment.
3. Students will learn through hands-on-experience, lecture and sharing of results with other students how to take better photographs by developing a consciousness of the elements of composition and mastering the various techniques for creating exceptional photographs.
4. The field trip at the end affords each student an opportunity to put together all that he or she has learned and to practice the principles and techniques with a professional photographer available for demonstration and to answer questions as they occur to each student.