Chicago as viewed from the Navy Pier, originally uploaded by walter gordy.

A few weeks ago I got the wild idea to take a photography class. I had reached a place where I was just wasn’t able to take the pictures I wanted. I was making a lot of pictures with the occasional good one. I’ve always wanted to take a photography class just to see what its like.

I did a quick Google search and found exactly what I wanted to find, a composition class in photography. I had no idea it would be so easy to find one, and it started that very night. I signed up online and within a few hours Shelly and I were in the class patiently waiting to learn all about composition and everything we had missed out on.

The first class was a little slow. We covered all the basics like the rule of thirds, using lines to direction attention, using contrast. These we ideas we had both heard before and it left us wondering what we would cover the next week.

I was a little disappointed but I kept my hopes up that we would finally be told the secret to everything, how to make the best picture in any circumstance.

The next class came and went. This time we spent a little time actually looking at photos and discussing what worked and what didn’t work, but no magic to get that perfect picture. It looks like there was no magic formula.

I was really hoping to get more out of this class that I did. I hate to think that most photography classes go the way this class did. We were shown a few examples here and there but what I really wanted to learn was how to take a better picture i the same situation.

One thing that could have made this course better would be a series of examples of the same object showing the difference between a good photographer and an amateur. Since I didn’t find what I needed in the class, I had to look elsewhere.

I searched Amazon for a few books and what I found was great. The composition help I looking for was in two books, Composition Photo Workshop by Blue Fier and The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Micheal Freeman. These book introduce the basics and have a ton of great examples to follow. I would recommend these books to everyone who wants to learn what gain more understanding about how pictures are made.

Although reading about composition won’t instantly make you a better photographer, at least it will give you the ambition to start trying. I also found this little article about Teaching Yourself Photography. It has lots of great ideas, and if you’re all alone it has some great starting points.