Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 21/00) - F-stops and shutter speeds got your tongue?

Never fear, your camera is your friend -- oh yeah, we're talking about photography here.

So dig out and dust off those 35mm cameras that have been hibernating for years and get ready to take pictures in a whole new way.

As the instructor of a basic photography course offered in Iqaluit, Ross Sheppard says one of the first things he likes to do is teach people a new way of looking through their viewfinders.

"The idea is to eliminate the busy elements of the photo, like poles coming out of people's heads," says the architect by trade.

"I like to start by teaching everyone to take the few extra seconds to check all four corners of their viewfinder to see what is in their photo, to change the angles, zoom in or zoom out."

Now more than halfway through teaching his second course, Sheppard says his students seem to enjoy getting out and experimenting with different ways of shooting the same subject.

"The class is eight lectures with exercises and two field trips. One of the exercises is to shoot the same subject five different ways. It's really amazing to see how many different photos come out of each student's work," says Sheppard, who studied photography in Montreal before moving north in 1998.

Using slide film that he sends south for processing, Sheppard aims for a two-week turnaround time so everyone in the class has the opportunity to view each other's work.

"Slide shows are a great teaching tool and the slide film gives you the exact exposure that you took the photo at -- it's truer than print film," says Sheppard.

Aside from assignments and lessons in exposure, Sheppard says the class is about teaching people what their cameras are capable of doing and also showing them that they can take great photos without all of the gadgets.

"Your camera can do anything you want it to with or without all of the gadgets, but you have to control what is in the picture.

"And a lot of it depends on the person and what they want out of the course," he says.

Sheppard hopes to begin teaching his third course from late September until the Christmas season and he says his main tip for winter photography is to dress appropriately.