A number of people have asked me what Nikon School is so I thought I’d take a minute to explain. Nikon School is not really a school; it’s two seminars (one is an intro and the other is advanced) that take place a few times a year across the country. I had considered doing it in Boston, but Amy suggested that we do it in New York, since we both have the same camera and it’d be fun to do it together.

School was actually a large ballroom on the 18th floor of Hotel Pennsylvania and we were two of about 400 other students. There was a pretty big range of ages represented - from high school kids to grandparent types, and then we 30-somethings in between.

Amy and I weren’t sure what to expect. Would there be a lot of those annoying students who know everything, or the ones who try to stump the instructor? Or would we end up beside chatterers? First thing was first. We made a pact that we wouldn’t make friends with anyone. We didn’t need any zealous camera freaks monopolizing our quality time.

The first instructor came to the front of the room and introduced himself as Bill Durrence. Bill Durrence has been doing this kind of thing for 15 years. Bill Durrence is from Savannah, Georgia, and has a white beard, pleasant drawl and an aversion to yankees. I immediately adored him. Bill explained the basics of digital photography, including exposure, shutter speed, aperture, and basically all the buttons all over our camera. Our second instructor was Reed Hoffman, who seemed the complete opposite of Bill, but also very likeable in a Midwestern kind of way. Reed went through the history of digital photography, file formats and the science of organizing photos. After our lunch, Bill came back and talked about the craft of photography - how can you play around with settings to make photography your own art. After that, Reed came back and went through digital editing programs and printing tips.

I came out of the whole thing loving my camera all the more, feeling a little overwhelmed, but since then things I’ve been reading for months are starting to sink in. Things are starting to click.

Nikon person or not (and really, there are a lot of good camera makers out there) I think anyone would get a lot out of a seminar like this.

Amy and I only did day one of the seminar. Day two is more of the editing techniques. Maybe next year!