Composition in the Field - Photography Workshop

Each Composition in the Field class begins with a talk with one of our experienced instructors, and then you and your fellow students take a stroll through one of a variety of photogenic locales (in any of the 20+ cities the DPA encapsulates). There is street photography, magnificent interiors, farmers markets, zoos, landscapes, and more, photos of which are included within. These photos are a mix of student and instructor images in many different venues and cities across the United States and Canada.

You will have fun in the three hour session, learn to shoot strategically, get more interesting photos of the event, and walk away with a foundation to improve your photographs in the future, whether you’re traveling, or at a birthday party and everywhere in between.

The Reid Park Rose Garden originally opened in 1960 with 232 rose beds. Today there are 100 species and 800 individual plants maintained in the garden, which received the Pacific Southwest District Garden of the Year Award in 2012. Flowers are a popular and pleasing subject matter for photo hobbyists. In this class we will discuss how to isolate and highlight the perfect specimen through the use of shallow depth of field, color contrasts and framing to create stunning compositions. If you have them, bring a macro lens and a telephoto lens, along with your normal camera set up. We will use the macro lens to do detail photos of the flowers and insects that might be on the pedals, and telephoto lenses to create portraits utilizing the rose bushes as foreground and background elements in our compositions.

Once we are done in the roses, we will walk to the nearby stream and pond within Reid Park to experiment with how shutter speeds can be used to freeze the action of moving water or allow the movement to show.

Please meet your instructor at the entrance to the garden. Parking is available at no charge adjacent to the gardens by entering Reid Park from the southern-most entrance off of Country Club Rd., then following the drive a short distance east to the gardens.

Please note – if a class must be cancelled due to weather or other circumstances beyond our control we will be happy to work with you to reschedule or provide a refund. However, if you should need to cancel or require a new class date, contact us. A $25 transfer fee will be imposed without a 3 day notice before the scheduled class.

Call Digital Photo Academy at 1 877 372 2231 or a field agent at 917 597 7053. Lots of people seem to hang up if our welcome recording comes on instead of a live voice, but we promise to return your message within a day or two if you leave one with your name and number. It would be even better if you included your email address as well as the date and city of the class you are considering. If leaving a voice mail message is not your thing, please email us at and include the date and city of the class you are considering, as well as your phone number.

Host or Publisher Digital Photo Academy