If you’re like me you were truly thrilled when you bought your camera, but somehow the photos you took didn’t quite match up to your expectations. Unfortunately the salesman didn’t offer too much in the way of instruction. YouTube videos raised more questions than they answered. You talked with one of your photographer friends but soon your head was spinning with talk of shutter speeds, depth of field, f-stops, ISO’s, megapixels, and other things you couldn’t even begin to pronounce.

Why not come out to the King Family Library in Sevierville at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, July 20th and we’ll talk a little bit about Photography for the Rest of Us. In just over sixty minutes, I’m going to tell more than a few stories, show a couple of pictures, and talk a little bit about how you might use your camera to take some really great portraits of your family, your friends, and maybe even a few complete strangers. We’re going to start with a little bit about why you bought your camera in the first place, and then move on to how you might use it now to have a lot of fun. Certainly I’ll mention a little bit about the “how’s” of portraiture, but it’s going to be a lot more on the “why’s” of creating someone’s image. I know that sounds all artsy and philosophical, but keep in mind I have all the creativity and creative insight of dry white toast – it’s nothing more than a farm kid’s view of photography. The good news is that I’m not going to suggest you buy anything new, but instead use whatever you have already. If you stay at home, you’ll probably wind up doing household chores like cutting the grass . . . , come on out and join us for a morning of fun, followed by some great fellowship and photography talk at lunch (Dutch treat!). Even if the program is terrible, it still beats cutting the grass by a mile! Bring your camera: if the group is very small, we’ll take a few photos of one another; if the group is big, we’ll skip the shooting and instead oooh and aaah over each other’s lenses at lunch. For a photographer, I can tell a pretty good story, and for a storyteller I can occasionally take an OK picture. If we all get lucky, maybe I might try to slip in a little useful information here and there along the way. Hope to see you on the 20th, and most importantly I hope you stay for lunch!

Tennessee Rick Elliott is a retired school teacher, storyteller, and a VERY amateur photographer. Having bought and tried loads of gadgets that promised that this was truly the item that would make him an amazing photographer, he finally realized what Ansel Adams said was indeed true: “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.” Should you come to this program? Just look what people are saying . . . . “He’s amazing!” “Simply incredible” “His talent is beyond belief!” “I can’t imagine anyone better!” OK, those quotes weren’t really from critics, they were from his mom, but we couldn’t find any critics who had actually heard of him. We hope you can share your Saturday morning with us.

This program is not a sponsored event by the library.  For more information on our club, visit our website at:

www.lecontephotographic.com