Do you wish your photos looked like those on Instagram or Facebook? Maybe you have a smartphone and enjoy taking photos of your kids, grand-kids, or pets? Do you have a DSLR/Mirrorless camera and need to know how to operate it?
You are in luck! Local professional photographer Don Backman is teaching a short summer community education course at the Tillamook campus of Tillamook Bay Community College. “The class is designed to be fun, teach some readily applicable tips and techniques, and get everyone out taking photos as much as possible,” Backman explained. “It is built around digital cameras and the ease of practicing with them and will work with anything from a smartphone to a high-end mirrorless camera. The only prerequisite is that attendees know how to take a photo and their camera is fully charged when they come to class.”
The class will meet in person for two hours, beginning at 6:00 PM on June 29th. “We will then meet on Tuesdays for three more weeks, with the last session July 20th,” Backman said. “The first session meets at the campus, then the next two will meet out in the field and attendees will be taking photos, and the final class is scheduled to meet back at the campus.”
Backman started by taking a class in photography and developing film from Mr. Lind at Nehalem Upper Elementary in the early 1970s. He fell in love with photography and has been shooting ever since. After switching to digital cameras in 2005, Backman now shoots digital-only. “I don’t even have a film camera,” he says, “And haven’t had one for years.” Now a retired teacher, Backman has many years of teaching experience to draw on. His specialties are landscape and outdoor photography, flower photography, and now photo-journalism. “Shooting on the fly is challenging and fun at the same time,” he says. “Like a lot of people, I just like to take lots of photos, and I figure that anyone taking my class would want to do the same.”
This class is designed for people of all skill levels, although it is primarily geared for beginners or people who are casual shooters who want to improve. “Anyone is welcome,” Backman explained. “Film cameras will work,” he said, “but photographs will need to be developed and converted to digital.” The best suggestion is for anyone with a film camera to contact him directly through TBCC.
Real World Photography can be found in the community education section of the Tillamook Bay Community College catalog and is also available on the TBCC website, TillamookBayCC.EDU. The course description asks attendees to bring their camera manuals. However, as Backman explained, it is not required as today many devices do not come with a manual. “It would be more useful for a person who is new to DSLR or Mirrorless cameras to have their manual,” he explained, “Ideally, an attendee’s minimum skills should be the ability to turn the camera on or select a photo app, take a basic photo, and be able to find and review the photo.”
“The whole idea of this class is to get out and take photos and put instruction into practice,” Backman explained. “And the goal is to have fun.”