What the title really should be is "Ridiculous, yet useful," but that doesn't have anywhere near the same ring.
What's ridiculous you ask? My photo instructor: Professor Eugene Balzer. He is shown below shooting a demo portrait with a Canon 5d Mk II...
Rather than using a Hoodman Loupe (like the fancy pants photographers) or shading his screen with his hand like the rest of us, he pulls out a monster sheet of fabric leftover from his old view cameras and goes to town on his 3" LCD.I admit it, I laughed at him along with the rest of the class... but thinking about it, it probably works really well.
The class I'm in is PHO285: intermediate photography. In the average 75 minute class, I learn maybe one useful thing about photography. I don't meant to sound all high and mighty, I've just taught myself a lot of this stuff already. That's the beauty of the Internet; becoming a self taught photographer, at least as far as the basics, doesn't take too long if you're determined to learn.
I'll admit, the one thing I learn each day is usually something I wouldn't get from any other photographer, which is why I'm taking these classes in a university to begin with.
That's what I got for now. I'm working on making a couple shoots happen, but if they don't happen in the next couple days they will probably have to go on the back burner for a while, as I'll be shooting lots of sports from the 17th-22nd. If I get anything really fun from sports, I'll be sure to post here for the world to see. :-)
