I'm taking photography classes at a sleepy little art school here in suburban New Jersey. I've picked up little tricks so far, like make sure that your digital camera is set to take raw format pictures and not .jpegs. Also, the AV setting on the camera is better than the automatic setting. However, we haven't learned more than that yet. Actually, we haven't even taken any photos ourselves yet. After six hours last week and three hours today, I've mostly been looking at the instructor's pictures and pictures of his favorite photographers. 

The instructor was a big shot in the late 70s and early 80s and those are the photos that he likes. Graphic images with lots of tricks with the lenses. 

This stuff has gone out of style. I think I had similar images on posters in my dorm room. 

I prefer street photographs. I even like the grainy stuff that is coming out iPhones. Of the oldies, I like Walker Evans the best. 

I like the freaks of Diane Arbus.

And my absolute favorite is Sally Mann.

The instructor is sad and a little bitter that his style of photography is no longer in fashion. He says that photo editors would rather go with the younger photographers who shoot bored and angry models and then the editors and the photographers do coke together. The guy does know his gadgetry though, so I'm picking up on some lens geekery. Apparently, my camera is pretty crappy and he wants me to buy a $1,000 camera. (No.) My fellow classmates are sweet, so I'm enjoying myself.