Arriving in Greece from Italy going down ferry's the escalator
When I retired, Georgia and I celebrated by traveling to Portugal, Morocco, and Spain. Looking for a new hobby, I bought myself a Canon DSLR. It was completely over my head, so my plan was simple: leave it on automatic for the trip and figure out the rest later. I also bought Georgia a nice, pocket-sized camera for her purse, since the era of the smartphone camera hadn't quite arrived yet.
What started as a casual hobby quickly escalated into an obsession—much to Georgia's occasional dismay. Whether we were exploring the streets of Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, or Morocco, you could always count on me being the absolute last person to board the tour bus because I was busy chasing the perfect shot.
SnapShotSandy
But that same obsession eventually evolved into an incredible ten-year second act. From 2008 to 2018, I taught over 3,000 students how to move past "automatic" and truly use their cameras to capture the world. Photography has always been a profound love of mine, and I often miss the days of teaching and being so hands-on with the art form.
"Air Matt"
The real catalyst for mastering my camera settings was sports photography. I was determined to take better action shots at the kids' games, particularly capturing Matt Bangston—affectionately known as "Air Matt"—flying through the air at Mt Si High School.
As my photos got better, word got around. It wasn't long before the Park District Manager for the City of Snoqualmie approached me with an unexpected request: would I teach a class? I put together a basic course for beginners, starting small with just three students. But Georgia, always the savvy collaborator, suggested I run a promotion on Groupon. I gave it a shot, and it completely changed the trajectory of the program. Classes ballooned to forty students at a time, ultimately growing into "Club SnapShot," an incredible community with over 2,500 members.
When we moved to Arizona, I taught at various libraries and then decided to teach for free at Luke Air Force Base. I made this picture into a large canvas poster for Brigadier General Scott L. Pleus, who had it hung in the library. Yahoo!
I explained to my students that photograpy is an art. Ansel Adams, an early expert photographer said, "The art of photography is taking photos and making pictures". He used film and developed the pictures in his lab using his hands to make his pictures. Now, we can use our computers and even out smart phones to create our pictures. What's Next?
Basic - Automatic to Artistic
Custom - Camera Phones and More
Discussion about the passt, now and the future, What's Next.
Private - One on One all classes and more
I still offer these classes to those wanting to improve their photography with DSLRs
I offer iPhone lessons as well
Soon, I could tell that many students left my class confused, even though they were given the link to the slideshow. So I decided to give them a tool that they could attach to their camera bag and refer to as often as needed. I created this for the students to remember what’s important, and my Granddaughter, Kalyn came up with the name, “Camera Buddy”.
It’s primarily Speed-O-Meter to help photographers who use the Manual Modes of the camera to avoid blurry shots.
The backside shows how to take a shot.
The students loved it and said it was very helpful.
When I stopped teaching I had over 3,000 students. Some took all three classes and more private lessons and earned a certificate. A few became friends & professional photographers.
The term camera obscura translates to "dark room" in Latin. The specific version in your drawing was a massive leap forward for artists. It uses a lens at the front to focus light, a mirror angled at 45 degrees inside the box to reflect that light upward, and a translucent screen (usually glass) on top. This allowed an artist to lay a piece of paper over the glass and trace the exact scene outside with perfect, lifelike perspective.
it evolved over thousands of years as different scholars and scientists built upon the mysteries of light and optics: Johann Zahn (1685): The exact design shown in your image—a portable, wooden box equipped with a reflex mirror to flip the image so it could be easily traced on a flat top surface—was first described and designed by Zahn.
This ingenious device is the direct ancestor of the cameras I used to capture the kids at Mt Si High School and the ones I taught your 3,000 students how to master!