(Photo credit goes to A Girlfriend’s Guide to Photography Basics Course Graduate, Elisabeth from Within the Grove)

A Girlfriend’s Guide to Photography Basics

“Seriously, Michelle.  I just don’t get it.”

How could she not get it?  I was explaining it just like my photography course had taught me.  And that was where I went wrong.  My friend was not a photographer and she didn’t aspire to be one.  She just wanted to learn how to take better pictures of her kids and for her blog.

And that is how the struggle began.

She and I went back and forth for hours.  I would explain aperture and she would say, “Nope.  That doesn’t make sense.”.  And then I’d take out all of the photography jargon and  try again.  When she finally understood, we moved on.

Then we started the process again with ISO, composition, Lightroom editing until everything had been boiled down to the photography basics that were easily understood and digestible.

When I created the videos, my friend insisted that I make the videos easy and fun and like sitting down and learning with me across my kitchen table.

And so A Girlfriend’s Guide to Photography Basics was born.  

So, let me introduce you to my course:

Some of my best friends are creatives, or bloggers or busy moms who want to know about photography but don’t know where to start or are overwhelmed by instruction and videos that seem to make it harder than it has to be.  Photography doesn’t have to be hard.  It doesn’t have to be confusing.  Learning photography can be just like sitting down with your best friend.

This course is for people who want to take better pictures of their kids.  It is for the blogger who wants to have more creative control of their pictures.  It is for the creative who wants to beautify their Instagram feed.  So, it is probably for you.

This course includes:

• 9 videos
• cheat sheets
• editing tutorials
• learning assignments

What you’ll learn:

How to shoot in manual:

• iSO
• aperture
• shutter Speed
• how to put it all those together to shoot manual
• my step-by-step to setting up a shot in manual

Photography basics

• types of lighting
• how to find the best times to shoot in your house
• compositional elements of a good picture

Editing

• edit your pictures quickly and easily in Lightroom
• my editing workflow

I’m a photographer and I created this course for my non-photographer best friend.  While creating it, she sat by me and kept asking the hard questions until I boiled the course down to the perfect combination of photography basics and simple terms.

And it is working.  I’ve gotten emails like:

“I just wrapped up your course and I just have one word: AMAZING!!  I don’t think my camera will be leaving my side ever again. I’m thrilled to start making improvements with my personal photography and the photography for my blog. This was seriously one of the best courses I have taken where I felt like I could actually improve my photography skills rather than being overwhelmed.”  Elisabeth Rishel, blogger at Within the Grove (read her whole review here)