UT Informal Classes

We have three photography classes coming up that still have space for enrollments.  If you’re wanting to expand your knowledge and boost your skills, check out the following classes!

Digital Photography: Beyond the Basics: Become an expert at camera controls to enhance creativity and expand your photographic vision through good composition, lighting and timing. http://goo.gl/1McPe

Photography: Composition and Light: Study camera and lighting settings that can best enhance your compositions. Learn about the uses of different lenses and the effects of light in detail. http://goo.gl/CZxLW

Digital SLR Photography: More experienced photographers can explore the meanings and relationships between such topics as shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, focal length and depth of field. Gain the confidence to set your camera to “manual” and shoot anything, in any light. http://goo.gl/vbeK1

Carlos’s beginning-level digital photography class is one of our most popular classes, year-round.  Remarks on his reviews include, “Carlos is engaging and brilliant,” “enjoyed the class very much,” “Carlos loves photography and it shows,” and “Carlos has a great way of giving the class a lot of information without making it overwhelming.

Student Cleta Ernst wrote:

I learned so much from Carlos.  I would like to take more classes with him.

Cleta, it’s your lucky day!  Carlos has developed a new class for us, called iPhoneography.  The first session in June has already sold out, but there is another session available in August.  His next beginners class starts June 3, as well!

Brian Loflin (of our fantabulous Nature Photography video) teaches several different photography classes for us - Composition and Light, Macro Photography, Publishing Your Photographs.  We asked him to take part in our instructor interview, and we thought we’d share a snippet:

IC: Can you tell us a little bit about your background with photography?

BL: I am a biologist by education. Early on I had the requirement to document my work through photography. That work included producing high magnification images and processing the materials in a traditional darkroom. As they say, it got in my blood. Later, I had many fortunate opportunities to travel around the world photographing people, places and products. Today I am back to the pursuit of natural sciences with my wife, Shirley, through writing, photographing and publishing books through Texas A&M University Press. I have recently completed my third in that series and two others. We also lead nature photography workshops in a variety of locations.

We also wanted to share some of the comments from his last Beyond the Basics class:

Great teacher.  The class was very informative -some topics over my head in the last couple classes, but I liked talking about Photoshop too.

Very insightful.  Learned basics, advanced techniques, and creative methods.  Brian brings professional and creative processes to the classroom.

Brian has more classes scheduled to start in June!  Check out his instructor page to find links to all of his upcoming courses.

Photography classes, spring 2013

We tend to have an overwhelming demand for Digital Photography for Beginners, so I am very pleased to let you know that we are opening three new sessions of it!  Please follow the links below to register!

October session – Monday nights, 10/2-10/30, 6-9pm: http://bit.ly/RJatyn

November session 1 – Monday nights, 11/12-12/3, 6-9pm: http://bit.ly/NNV6yD

November session 2 – Tuesday nights, 11/20-12/11, 6-9pm: http://bit.ly/Q8KA9z

Creative Life and Culinary Arts!

We have so many of these great classes coming back this fall, starting off with Beginning Drawing!  Our September session is already full, but you can still sign up for the October course.

Art classes:
Beginning Oil Painting - September or November
Introduction to Life Drawing
Watercolor I - September or November
Watercolor II

Music classes:
Beginning Guitar - September or October
Beginning Guitar Level II
Beginning Harmonica
How to Play Piano by Ear
Instant Piano for Busy People

Culinary Arts:
Chocolate 101 - October or December
Coffee Barista for a Day - September, October, November, or December

Photography classes:
Digital Photography for Beginners
Digital Photography for Mac Users
Digital Photograph: Beyond the Basics - September or October
Documentary Photography: A First Look
Making the Experiential Photograph
Nature Photography - check out this video, too!
Photography: Composition and Light - September or October
Publishing Your Photographs
Using Flash for Digital SLR Photography

Writing classes:
Dreams and Dream Journaling
Journals and Memoirs: Writing down to the Soul
Write Your 1st Book (or 7th)
Write A Book in 3 Weeks or Less

New Classes for Fall 2012 - Creative Life

Want to explore the music theory behind jazz?  Find out what the life of a true crime writer is like?  Learn the history of the Austin music scene for the last forty years?  We have some exciting classes coming up this fall.  Some are with brand-new instructors, like Kathryn Casey and Margaret Moser; some are with returning favorites like Chad Tracy and Brian Loflin. 

Click the links below for more info on each class and to register.

Beginning Jazz Guitar
Guitar 101- The Music of the Rolling Stones
Making Music with Garage Band
Home with the Armadillo
Publishing Your Photographs
Making The Experiential Photograph
Crime, She Writes
Food Blogging

This is our video for our Nature Photography class, taught by Brian Loflin.  Brian had another class wrap up over the weekend, Using Flash with Digital SLR Photography.  Here are some of the comments his students left on the evaluations:

“Great class!  Clear, concise instruction, all questions answered.”

“Much greater value than camera store classes.”

“Liked the location.”

“Handout of CD with fantastic info is very valuable.”

And under what improvements they’d like to see in the class, my personal favorite:

“Doughnuts :-)”

Ha ha ha!

Our class coordinators here have been working hard to open more photography classes!  I have a list below with links to all the photography classes we have for the fall so far.  It is many of the classes that we have frequently, plus several new ones!  Please follow the links for more information: we hope to see you here at a class this fall!

Digital Photography for Beginners with Carlos Austin: http://bit.ly/N5MnW0
August 6-August 27, Mondays (4 meetings)
6:00 PM- 9:00 PM

Photography – Composition and Light with Brian Loflin: http://bit.ly/Ni7xlN
Sept 4-October 9, Tuesdays (7 meetings)
7:00 PM-9:00 PM

Documentary Photography: A First Look with Todd Williams: http://bit.ly/NieGm3
Sept 5-October 3, Wednesdays
6:00 PM-8:30 PM

Making The Experiential Photograph with Todd Williams: http://bit.ly/LVFn45
Sept. 6-Oct. 4, Thursday (5 meetings)
6:00 PM- 8:30 PM

Digital Photography – Beyond the Basics with Brian Loflin: http://bit.ly/P6eATY
Sept 10-October 15, Mondays (6 meetings)
7:00 PM-9:00 PM

Publishing Your Photographs with Brian Loflin: http://bit.ly/N8sS2V
Sept 19-October 17, Tuesdays (5 meetings)
7:00 PM-9:00 PM

Using Flash for Digital SLR Photography with Brian Loflin: http://bit.ly/M3zv3w
Sept 22-Sept 29, Saturdays (2 meetings)
9:00 AM-12:00 PM

Digital Photography for Mac Users with Bob LeVitus: http://bit.ly/OiUF1s
Nov. 6-Nov. 15, Tuesdays and Thursdays (4 meetings)
6:00 PM- 9:00 PM

One of our most popular classes, Digital Photography for Beginners with Carlos Austin, just had another session end on Monday.  Here are some of the comments:

Carlos was a fantastic instructor!  I am looking forward to more classes.

Regarding improvements needed:

Nothing.  All was good.

Nothing.  For a beginner photographer, the class provides enough information.

Other comments:

I liked this class and the instructor.  Would love to take another class with him.

I really enjoyed the class and had fun.

the class was excellent.  I enjoyed and learned a lot.  Looking forward to take other classes with Mr. Austin.