Digital Photography Classes - A Waste Of Money?

Mastering your camera can be a long hard slog or it can be a fun and even profitable stroll. It all depends on how you learn to shoot. Digital photography classes provide the answer that most of us are looking for.Here's the problem...Most of us get a brand new camera - we open the box - read just enough of the manual to learn how to turn it on and we start shooting away!The problem being, that with no formalized, systematic education, we usually wind up just putting the camera on its automatic settings and figuring that is "good enough!"It isn't good enough!True a camera on its basic automatic settings can do a plausible job in simple, basic situations, but there is a whole new, creative world out there that we are missing!To move past the snapshot phase - where we look at our snapshot once and then "file it away" never to be seen again - to creating shots that get people to say "WOW" and want to hang on the wall... We absolutely must take the camera off autopilot and start controlling the blasted thing.That's when we start our trial and error, hit and miss process of trying to figure out all the various knobs, dials and buttons. Some we will learn to understand, some we will get a totally WRONG knowledge of, and other options we will never even know exist.The bad news is...Using this trial and error approach, we end up with gaping holes in our photo training. It is not that we aren't smart enough to understand, it's that we just don't know enough of what creative options are possible to ask the right questions.There IS a simple solution...Take a formalized course. This way, the materials are laid out in a systematic logical manner that will plug all the holes in out hit and miss education. It's surprisingly easy and fast!We don't have to enroll in a degree program, there are tons of low cost online courses where we can get the required information on our own schedules and at our own pace.When looking for an online course, don't shy away from a course that starts at the very basic beginnings. It's surprising how few of us truly understand the basics. Two areas to avoid at first...When choosing digital photography classes, don't bother with the free "101 tips" type of information. That tends to be just more of the hit and miss training we are trying to avoid. AFTER you finish your systematic digital photography classes, THEN is the best time for the 101 tips sort of thing.Avoid courses that cost hundreds of dollars...There are many - very good - courses that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. For the most part, they will be far too involved for what most of us need. You can get into one of those if you later decide you want to turn pro or really get into advanced techniques.Like Goldilocks, you too can find online digital photography classes that are "just right!"