I've read her excellent books, and long to have her as an instructor. She's an awesome author, a fine photographer, and I'm certain an excellent instructor, if the student goes in with the right attitude.

I've been waiting a long time to improve my skills and look forward to the filters and lenses she recommends to achieve better photos.

I have some issues with the class, I found the class material dated and instructor recommending expensive filters that she benefits from and I’m sure the filters are fine, but they are costly and if you are starting out it’s clearly not something you would ad to your arsenal. I have taken many classes on BP and found it rather frustrating that I felt Brenda was doing us a favor working in the critiques because of her travel and book editing obligations. These were the cons and I have to say if you want to learn to take better photos, then take this class. I’m sure the class will be updated and it’s presented in a learnable method.

This is a five star class, it’s only three stars for because of the issues I mentioned, but trust me when I say it all works out and you will get some new ways to make better photos when you take this class.

Cheers,

Can you read all of it in books? Yes! Can you learn all of it from the books? Probably, not! Well, at least some people like myself can not. Within 8 weeks? Definitely, not! Don't believe me? Well, I saw a lot of people (including myself) who read a lot of books without much progress. Do you?

Critique is a very important and extremely useful part of the class as well as targeted assignments. I learn a lot from shooting with a goal in mind rather then in a typical "freelance" style - press the button and hope for the best.

Working on the assignments and reading critiques creates wonderful feeling that I become more aware of what happening in the frame DURING the capture and not after I print the image and before I put in a trash can. That is very important cost and time saving transition the class helped to make.

The amount of information is large enough to keep learning and practicing for a year or more.

I think a level (novice - advance) does not really matter. Pretty much everybody will learn from the class only there will be different things for different people.

Her critiques are always useful, making use of constructive criticism where it is needed.

I found her classes to be expressive, challenging and forcing me to think 'out side' my comfort zone at times. The challenge for me is to continue the lessons past the class.

My only complaint was the class size. I felt it was too large for Brenda to manage by herself. She always answered the questions, and did her very best to keep everyone informed of her progress. I appreciate that.

But with the large class, I really think it was too much work for her to manage on her own.

The other students were good. The skill level ran the spectrum very EXCELLENT to just getting started. It was fun to see the other students ideas, and to read the students and Brenda's critiques.

Two years ago I took Brenda's travel course, and since it was my first Betterphoto class, I was a little over my head, although it was meaningful enough that I came back for more...and more...and more...

14 or so courses later, this class was by far the best for me from a creative point of view. Up to now, the most helpful classes were Lewis Kemper's Toolbox classes, and I still think that every serious photography student should take every one of his classes. At the same time, they should be immersed in classes with Brenda. And probably others...there are so many good instructors at BetterPhoto.

Each of the eight lessons was meaningful. The interaction between students AND Brenda was phenomenal and spirited. Brenda has high expectations, and yet she is kind and thoughtful in her critiques.

Brenda is a wonderful photographer, as anyone can see from her images interspersed in the lessons, and her beautiful nature photography book. What made her stand out for me, however, was her genuine connection with each and every student in the class. Not only did she make personal connections with each of us, but with the subjects of our images. If I uploaded a picture of my dog, Brenda referred to the dog by name, and with genuine warmth. Each week she gave us a pep talk, and that helped everyone of us as we dealt with January and February, the blah months in terms of weather and lighting.

Even more important, at least for me, is Brenda's funny sense of humor; sometimes it's wry, sometimes it's self deprecating. It's always appreciated. When a student uploads a picture or three, he or she is exposing himself to criticism, and it resembles singing a solo---there is an immediate reaction either positive or negative. It can be really difficult for anyone's self esteem. As adults, risk taking can be really scary.

I'm a teacher, and I learned, or relearned, some skills about communication with students: be honest but be supportive and encouraging. As I said to her, sometimes that's hard to do when kids are bopping each other over the head. At least we didn't do that in this class, but if we had, I feel certain that Brenda would have popped in with her amazing humor, and would have set us back on track.

I heartily recommend this class; it was tops in every way! It just can't get any better than a class, or three or four with Brenda!

Cindy

I listed several goals that I wanted to achieve during the course in my pre-course survey and I felt like each one of those goals was met and in fact, exceeded. I found the lessons to be well laid out and easy to understand. The shooting assignments were very good learning exercises and the critiques were very insightful and quite helpful. I made good progress as a photographer because of the course and I will invest in future courses at Betterphoto.com.

My wife even noticed the improvements!

I was not disappointed. In each lesson Brenda deconstructed the theme into its elements so I could put the concepts into practice without simply trying to replicate her example photos. Brenda's comments on my submitted photos were straightforward and encouraging. She always gave constructive advice on what I could do better.

I also enjoyed seeing the work of my fellow students, and sharing comments with them.

My only criticism isn't with the course or the instructor - it's the web site. The functionality is good, but navigating from one task to another is confusing and requires far too many steps. Also, the site has a cluttered look that detracts from the photographic content.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you (!!!) for the course. It was extremely well organized and presented.

Your ability to give quality constructive criticism and feedback in a meaningful and supportive manner is a rare gift, and to be emulated by teachers of any profession.

I've learned exactly what I wanted and expected from the course, and look forward to continuing to use these lessons to think about, apply to and trustfully improve my photography going forward. I look forward to learning more from you in the future.

Thanks again,

The idea of concentrating on one or a couple of concepts per week was a great way to build skills. I spent the week focused on the one topics. I felt like that gave me time to drill the concept in.

Then, uploading the pictures and receiving the constructive feedback helped me refine my skills further.