Central Park Photo Safari

This past Saturday I had a chance to take a photography class in Central Park. I had purchased the class for half price as part of a living social deal, when I saw it, it sounded too good to pass up for a 2 1/2 hour photography class in Central Park. I had picked a Saturday afternoon in the July to attend the class, assuming I'd have a nice afternoon in the city for the class, who knew when the day came it'd be the heatwave of the century. 

The day finally came, and I headed into the city on NJ Transit to go in and take my class. After I waited for the subway for what felt like a good 20 minutes and I finally made it uptown, I was already late to my class. I was running (and sweating from the heat) through Central Park to get to the location, let me just say that is one big park and way too easy to get lost in there. I finally made it to my photo safari which started at Belvedere Castle in the park, which I had never even seen before or knew that it existed. We started out there and got some cool tricks about how to take a picture of "our best friend" in front of a landmark, apparently the trick involved getting REALLY close to the person and further away from the landmark. 

Then we moved onto some landscape pictures of the fences and getting the perspective of the curving fence. It was cool because the class was so small, I was only one of 3 others in the group. The instructor would walk around and look at our shots and tell us how we could improve them and then I'd end up getting a much better shot. I really enjoyed the instant personal feedback on my pictures. 

I learned some other cool things about horizon lines. I like these two shots since they were taken in the exact same spot but look completely different. In the first shot the horizon line is at the bottom and there is only a little bit of the road and a lot of the trees. While in the second shot the horizon line is much higher and there a lot more emphasis on the road. I think it's cool how the same location can have two totally different perspectives depending on where the horizon line is. 

I had a great time taking the flower pictures and I'm really happy with the way that they turned out. The instructor had given me a tube which let me get in really close on the flowers. I love these shots!

And finally we got to take a picture of the skyline and another on the perspective of the fence. I really enjoyed the two and half hours I spent in the class even in the ridiculous heat in the park, it was a great learning experience. I can't wait to take my next photography class!