Online Photography Course
Travel Photography: Capturing a Sense of Place

What You Get

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	Benefits: You get direct feedback on your photos from world-acclaimed, professional photographers. You can learn photography in this way from anywhere in the world.
Learn at your pace, with structure. Be guided by a real pro instructor. Get your photos critiqued every week. Join students from around the world. Go far beyond any book or DVD. Make great pictures, again and again!

Instructor

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Brenda Tharp

Brenda Tharp is known for her inspirational and informative workshops. She is the author/photographer of the book Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography that has been receiving excellent reviews. Brenda has also written how-to articles for many photo magazines, including Outdoor Photographer.

Brenda followed her passion many years ago when she quit her corporate job to pursue a career in outdoor and travel photography. She has llama-trekked, sea-kayaked, flown in helicopters and hot-air balloons, cycled, and hiked to create her photographs. Those images have appeared on the pages of Alaska Airlines, Audubon, Discovery, National Geographic, Northwest Airlines, Sierra, Sunset and Travel Holiday magazines, along with many others. She has images included in books produced by Chronicle, Michelin, National Geographic, and Sierra Club.

Her keen eye for design and use of natural light and color are a signature in her work. Her photographs are regularly published in calendars and greetings cards for a variety of international companies. Brenda markets her own stock photographs, and is also represented by Workbookstock.com. She has co-starred in episodes of Canon's Photo Safari television program, and appeared on San Francisco area news shows to discuss photography techniques. She has developed a reputation as a teacher of unlimited energy with a compassionate yet honest approach to critiquing.

• Don't miss the BetterPhoto interview with Brenda Tharp.

A Couple of Photos by the Instructor

© Brenda Tharp

© Brenda Tharp

A Couple of Student Photos

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View photos by previous students. You can make pictures like this too!

© Pat Borowicz

© Pat Borowicz

Course Outline

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Lesson 1: Expressing a sense of place - capturing the mood/feeling
Assignment: Pretend your hometown or a nearby town is a new location. Find the things that best express your impression of the place, and then capture that impression with your camera. Use the ideas in the lesson, but be as creative as possible!

Lesson 2: Creating dynamic travel landscapes
Assignment: Explore your local "destination" and practice creating a "big picture," but make it dynamic by incorporating some or all of the ideas above. Get creative!

Lesson 3: Applying design to your travel images
Assignment: Explore your world - where you are currently home or away - and create images with design - i.e., line, patterns, texture, rhythm covered in the lesson. 

Lesson 4: The Candid Image
Capturing the action of festivals, rituals and daily life.
Assignment: Go out and explore your town, a park, a market or festival. Make images that are truly candid, but push yourself to try and do it without using a 300mm lens all the time! Get in closer, and practice becoming "invisible".

Lesson 5: Working with artificial light sources, fill-flash and reflectors
Assignment: Try some shadow portraits, plus try other techniques from this lesson: twilight or nighttime photography, interiors, etc.

Lesson 6: Photographing people while traveling
Assignment: I want to see portraits of people you don't know (honor system applies here - grin). I want to see the local flower vendor, or hot dog vendor; musicians, artists, truck drivers, moms, dads, children - I don't care who it is, I just want you to have some fun photographing people!

Lesson 7: Photographing details
Assignment: Go forth and photograph details! Find some wonderful images that tell a story by themselves, or add to the bigger story of your "travels".

Lesson 8: Creating a travel photo essay
Assignment: Pick a nearby place or some subject, and tell me the story of it. Do the establishing photos, the intimate views, the detail photo, etc.

Bonus Lesson: What to take, how to take it, and other essential tidbits for traveling light and yet complete.

© Brenda Tharp

© Brenda Tharp

Requirements

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Digital or film-based camera. Working knowledge of aperture & shutter speed Wide angle, telephoto, (zoom lens OK), & tripod.

FAQ

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This course is open to any photographer who wants to improve their ability to make travel photographs that capture what they experienced. It will be to your advantage if you understand the basics of aperture, shutter speed, and depth-of-field.  

You will need an SLR camera body that allows complete control of shutter and aperture. For lenses, you will need a wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens (zoom lenses in the wide-telephoto range are OK), and a tripod or monopod. A polarizing filter would be helpful as well.  

I would prefer to evaluate only the results of each week's assignment, as the goal of this course is to stimulate you to make fresh images, based on ideas discussed in the class. However, I know that weather, job changes, and life can get in the way of photography, so if you need to, you can submit previously created work.  

© Brenda Tharp

© Brenda Tharp

No, you do not need to be online at any specific time. The lessons are sent to your email and you are also provided the Campus Square - where you interact with your classmates and instructor. This is also where you upload your photos to be critiqued by your instructor. The instructors are very punctual and respond quickly.

Absolutely! Students can ask questions in the special Q&A forum set up in the course's Campus Square, or can ask the instructor via email.

Yes. We are confident that you will fully enjoy our courses. All the same, for our 8-week classes, we offer a 100% money-back guarantee before the Wednesday that Lesson #3 is sent out. If for any reason, you are not satisfied and let us know that you would like to withdraw before the Wednesday that Lesson #3 is sent, you will be promptly refunded.

For our 4-week courses, we offer a 100% money back guarantee before the Wednesday that Lesson #2 is sent out from BetterPhoto. If for any reason you are not satisfied and you let the ordering department know that you would like to withdraw before the Wednesday that Lesson #2 is sent, you will be refunded within 7 days. After the second lesson has been sent out, no refunds will be given.


If you have further questions about this course, feel free to contact us via the Contact link below.

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