The Photography Class: Act III

The drama continues.
Are you all caught up?
The Photography Class: Act I can be found if you click here.
The Photography Class: Act II can be found if you click here.

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Hour three involved applying what we’d learned by practicing outdoors. We had four tasks to complete in the parking lot, which was literally sizzling in this tragically-triple-digit evening.

I tried to capture the waves of heat rising from the pavement, but it didn’t show up on my point and shoot. Not that you were wondering. That would be ridiculous.

What must all the other shop owners be thinking as these hoards of people descend on their parking lot during the evening hours three times per month?

I tried to break free from the crowd—it was a big lot—but as usual, I was the pied-piper, a regular misfit-magnet, and I had more company than I’d have preferred. While I tried to balance my lighting manually, I realized two of them were taking pictures of me.

I glanced down at the task sheet:

Flower, landscape, portrait, waterfall.

I had better be the portrait.

It would have been nice if they’d at least asked, but I didn’t want to mess this up for them. I tried to hold still and did a subtle feminine suck-in and push-out maneuver that would’ve made Marilyn Monroe proud. I was relieved when they finally turned away, but at that exact moment, I felt a sting on my foot and realized I was standing among several colonies of fire ants engaged in a turf war.

My patience was wearing thin.

I snapped a few quick shots on my way back into the building without worrying about the fourth task. Because I was pretty much the first to arrive inside, I had time to consider the waterfall situation.

A sink is like a little waterfall—I could improvise. That’s when I realized there was also a drinking fountain at the back of the room.

Problem solved.

But soon, the others came back inside and saw what I was doing, and of course they wanted to try, too. So I was stuck holding the drinking fountain in the 'on' position because they all need both hands to hold their massive cameras.

It was only moments before I was soaked.

So many great ideas end this way.