robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I am teaching a class on basic photography at the local senior citizens center Photography Club and have been gathering materials. I copy, edited and print on line articles. (with credit for the author)

I now have 4 different simple rules of composition etc I have but each of them has some things the others don't. I have about 2 shelves of books on photography and another two shelves of magazines with good articles and CDs or DVDs (yes UK magazines) and several of the "The Great Courses" and other photography lesson sets.
Yesterday was the introduction day - examples of photographs, help with new cameras etc. Then just talking about photography and answering questions. Their homework until next month's meeting is to go over their camera manuals and learn the menus and controls a bit and the 2nd meeting I will start with picking of subjects, seeing the light and composition. With taking time to help with their cameras that should take about 2 meetings. (The center gives us a two hour block on a large meeting room.) Third meeting will be the start of them bringing pictures for critique etc. And the 3rd I will introduce the exposure triangle. The 4th meeting we will move on to more advanced things.

I am also going to talk to the center about getting the room more frequently than once a month - I think every other week will be about right until the class is over probably starting with lesson 3.

When the class is pretty much over we will then discuss it as a group and either go back to once a month as a club or whatever the group wants.

I am also loaning books, CDs and DVDs from my collection to the students. This first class I had 6 students with a prospect of 2 more by next month. A small class makes it nice. We can sit around a large table seminar style instead of class room or lecture hall style.

Any one with ideas post them on this thread - I will keep it on my watch list and check it from time to time so I can make note of them and look them over for possible inclusion.

If this catches on I may have more classes of new students in the future. My teaching style during my career was to look for new material or techniques and revise my lessons constantly. If it worked for history, geography and government it should work for photography also.

Long ago I taught 5 periods of Basic Photography for one year when the Photo Teacher became an administrator. The Principal changed the class name to "History and Practice of Photography" so I could teach it with my Social Studies/History credential and I was taking photo classes at night to add it to my credentials. Then at the end of the year a school district budget cut sent the photo teacher back to the classroom and I went back to History etc. So I never really had a chance to revise and change my lessons.

malawibob Loc: South Carolina

May I suggest you video tape the sessions to share with us old timers around the country?

Buffalolensman

Suggest you do critique sessions

wishaw

Over 55, senior citizens, old timers. WTF. Get with the program. 70 is the new 50. Drag yourself into the 20th century. I for one do not like being categoeised in terms that were dropped along time ago by most of the 75 years young crowd

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

1) The basics of the camera functions (advanced modes) you don't need to teach them how to use full auto. What each mode is good for, and how and when to use them.
2) the basics about lenses, zooms, primes, fast, kit, etc, and best uses of each
3) Discuss what most 55+ year olds will typically be shooting as in vacation shooting, landscapes, pets, family shooting, posing groups, individual portraits...there are plenty of do's and don'ts in each of these subjects areas to discuss at length
4) light and shadows, dynamic range, qualities of light, light sources, hard light, soft light, filtered light, flash do's and don'ts
5) Basics of good composition and the basics of design elements (I know people will always say rules are meant to be broken, but you need to learn them first before you think you have a reason to break them)

Hope this helps some.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

An honest, unbiased look at where consumer photography is headed. This would include the various offerings in mirrorless and cellphone cameras as well. Many people have no idea of the options they have regarding camera type or what they actually need to achieve their goal.

Riverrune

Good for you! My wife was diagnosed with cognitive impairment a couple years ago and a study then showed that engaging in new, mental stimulating activities helped slow progression and even halt it. The best cognitive stimulation? Learning digital photography. But it needs to be "intense", with some work just about everyday. Ince a month with no activity in between won't work. Providing assignments and enlisting the help of family and friends might work between formal class sessions.

JanSIrons Loc: Central Illinois USA

Maybe at the end of each class offer a challenge - real photo "homework", not just review your camera manual (necessary, but *yawn*). They need to take a photo with a certain rule and bring it to the next class for review.

Then take 10 minutes at the first of the next class to review the photos - with 6 students this shouldn't take too long.

Maybe start with straight horizon or rule of thirds, basics that will help their photos? Just an idea to boost involvement with the class. Enjoy!

krl48 Loc: NY, PA now SC

If your class includes newcomers to photography, take care to fully explain and define those acronyms and the jargon used in photography today. Too often I witnessed the "mego" (my eyes glazed over) effect in photography groups as the more experienced members began throwing acronyms and using terms and phrases peculiar to the hobby/profession, leaving beginners feeling like strangers dropped into a foreign land, with no understanding of the language.

Wanda Krack Loc: Tennessee, USA

Some basic information and practice with taking phone pictures would be my suggestion. I have family members who (within the age group given) can shoot a phone image, but then don't know how to download it or send it where they want it to go. Many of them also don't realize that all phones that take pictures have an editing program that comes with them. Reading manuals is good, but if the person doesn't know the meanings of many of the terms, it becomes frustrating for them. IMHO, from helping with adult classes in the past, people attend thinking that the instructor is going to make picture-taking easy for them, little realizing that the student is who must learn to do everything and the first and most basic is learning the camera, whatever kind it is.

I am glad to learn of your helping this group of people who (some) are not as computer oriented as the younger generation!

Eric Bornstein Loc: Toronto Canada

Hello all. I started a photography program at my place of worship about 4 years ago. The attendees are generally 65 and older. The class enrolment started at 10 or so and now on a consistent basis there are 18 attendees registered. The classes are held weekly and generally fall, wither and spring terms are offered, each with a 10 to 14 week duration. The core group today include the 10 that started to learn photography 4 years ago. Each class runs for 2 hours. The theme is 'become a better photographer'. Since this term was not tangible, I further defined the goal to producing 'works of art' versus 'snapshots'. Thus, the attendees had to learn the operating features of their cameras, leave the comfortable world of automatic and program settings and move on to aperture priority and shutter speed priority. In the early days, time was devoted to helping them understand their camera. However, from the early days, the program was focused on composition. The student takes the photographs through the week following the particular class and we critique them in the class. The rule is be constructive, be kind and be respectful. The structure of each class was and still is, instruction on a certain aspect, be it f/stops, exposure compensation or rule of thirds. The assignment for the following week 'echos' the previous week's teaching. My advice to each participant is to use the camera, self critique based upon a model that I gave them and share the experience of that week with the class. I have found that the driving force for attendance is split between the learning and the socialization. I am very fortunate that the group, while diverse in age and background has jelled. Friendships have been made. The classes are lively, fun, educational and fill a need both creatively and socially. Four years later, there is some really good work being done. I am most proud of them. They were also my 'guinea pigs' as I turned each lesson into a future chapter of a teaching book on digital photography. The book now has 48 chapters, with almost 100 of my photos and encompasses 244 pages.

ceallachain Loc: Cape May, NJ

Familiarize yourself with the classroom. Use it to teach the exposure triangle using the artifacts in the room as objects. Teach at either the aperture or shutter level, not auto and definitely not manual. Move on from there to composition. Once all students are comfortable and you’ve seen that they all get it. Then you can teach the art of photography.

ronpier Loc: Poland Ohio

Very good ideas. Thanks.

photoman43

When I used to teach kids in grades 6-8 basic photography who have never taken a picture before or used a camera I used info taken directly from Cambridge photo tutorials to teach them the basics supplemented by some other sources.
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

The course was held during Christmas school break that lasted about a week.

The teaching portion lasted three days with lecture time kept to a very minimum. During each day the kids spent most of their time taking pictures. We also did a field trip to take pictures outside. And we had lots of critiques, or show and tells. This is how they learned the most.

After three days the kids entered images into a competition where there was usually four categories. The school had a computer lab so the kids had access to photo software. I served as judge. The winning images were displayed in the school's library.

My teaching time was limited to 10-15 minutes for each session. Then I showed them examples of what I had just talked about, showing them images with errors and then the same image with corrections. And sometimes I took pictures in the classroom and showed them to demonstrate things like camera blur, depth of field, use of a tripod, etc.

For their age group, the least effective method of learning was long presentations. The best was seeing and then doing and learning from their own efforts and those of their fellow students.

When it came to Composition, those kids had more native talent than most pro photographers. I learned things from them!

rando Loc: Rochester NY

Perhaps you should also deal with aging issues that affect photo quality like vision issues and diopters, stabilizing tripods, remote control for shutters, best cameras for travel, etc.