Educational Media Reviews Online

This is foremost an instructional video for photography amateurs looking to improve their camera work. The focus throughout each segment is on practical, low-tech information centering on professional photographer Tamara Lackey’s themes of interaction, composition, lighting, background, and equipment/accessories. This is done by referencing features found on most modern digital point-and-shoot and/or SLR cameras (she points out many of these principles also work for cell phone cameras). Tamara is engaging, personable, funny, and fun to watch, though her pace may feel brisk to some; I found myself taking notes so I could experiment with the options later. Tamara’s own openness and ease with her clients reinforces the idea that sometimes the best way to take good photos is to interact with your subjects (be they people or pets).

Chapters are organized topically (e.g. Parties and Special Events, Landscapes, and Sports + Action), which will be helpful for those who don’t have time to sit through the whole video, or who want to practice in between segments.The coverage is perhaps a bit uneven—for example, a lot of time is spent giving instructions for portraiture and showing examples of Tamara’s own lovely photography work, but not as much time goes to describing how to use your camera’s macro setting or explaining terminology. Then again, this advice is really aimed at the average, untrained photographer, who will likely find this information useful and will probably see an improvement after applying the principles shared in this video (…but only if they can remember to charge the camera batteries!)

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