{"id":101,"date":"2014-05-17T12:46:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-17T12:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=101"},"modified":"2014-08-11T21:38:52","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T21:38:52","slug":"photographic-memory-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/photographic-memory-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographic Memory – NOT!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Josh Kaufman\u2019s The First 20 Hours<\/em>, I discovered why learning to use my Nikon D-90 was so frustrating.\u00a0 My first problem was that I would take the camera out only when I went on mission trips or on personal travel, which meant that sometimes it would sit idol for upwards of six months or more.\u00a0 During those six months I would pretty much forget all that I had learned during my week of picture taking and instructions.\u00a0 It would be like relearning a golf swing after not playing golf for a year\u2026it was aggravating, as I knew that I could do special things with the camera but I couldn\u2019t remember where to find them in the camera\u2019s programs or how I did it last time (which Kaufman terms \u201creinforcement for memorization\u201d[i]<\/a>).\u00a0 The second problem was the lack of \u00a0\u201cfast feedback loops.\u201d[ii]<\/a> \u00a0On my travels, I would have only the tiny screen on the back of my camera to gage any progress of my skills or determine subtle changes in lighting and contrast when using different ISO settings.\u00a0 This was made worse by the fact that I have poor eyesight and am developing cataracts that make viewing anything small difficult.\u00a0 I had to wait till I arrived home and settled in before I could download my pictures and view them on a large computer screen \u2013 often times being blown away by the beauty of some of my pictures.\u00a0 The issue is that whatever I did right to produce such a beautiful picture was long forgotten.\u00a0 With this system, I experienced a zero learning curve and found every new trip a great frustration as I had to relearn how to use this silly camera.<\/p>\n

Over the last week, I took up Kaufman\u2019s challenge.\u00a0 For preparation, I was ahead of the game.\u00a0 I had the equipment (camera, lenses, computer). I already had two books on using the Nikon D-90. \u00a0I was familiar with several websites that gave instruction on the Nikon D-90. \u00a0I also had several friends who I could turn to for help and advise (one of the reasons I bought this particular camera was the fact that two of my colleagues that I work with in Romania had this same camera).\u00a0 Further, I was traveling up to South Dakota (last week-end) for three days, allowing me a new setting to take pictures, but close enough to home to get the pictures on my computer quickly and be able to both see what I did on the large screen while remembering what I had done to get the shots.\u00a0 Here are several of the important key steps I put into practice from Kaufman:<\/p>\n