Welcome to Basic Digital Photography

 Hello out there!

Thank you for joining me on this new online photographic adventure. At least for me it is new. I have prepared a full series of assignments that I hope will help you learn to have more control in, and better outcome from, your digital photography.

I began photographing at the age of twelve. My father brought me a little 16mm Minolta camera from a trip to Japan. I developed my first roll using my mother’s baking pans for the chemistry, just pulling my curtains in my bedroom on a very dark night. But those negatives came out–and I got the bug! Some 44 years later, I am just as excited about making images as I was then, if not more so. But now, when using digital equipment, I look at the image that “develops” instantly on my screen instantly and still get a thrill.

I have taught photography at UAF since 1990. I have gone from all darkroom work through the shoot-film-and-scan-it era, began editing with Photoshop 3 (not CS3!), and then through the introduction and evolution of digital cameras. But this is the first time I have taught online. I say it elsewhere, but please let me know how the assignments, and the course, are going for you. I want this to be a good journey for us both.

Charles Mason