Intro to Digital Photography in Auckland

This course assumes nothing: you may be using a phone, a camera you were given, or the optional kit. The first exercises are about looking, then about the handful of settings that change a picture. Auckland's parks are where most students do them. The Domain gives you open lawns for depth-of-field practice, big trees for framing and the Wintergardens for colour and detail under soft light when it rains, which in Auckland it will.

Mission Bay is the second stop: a wide beach, a fountain, families and dogs, and the reliable Rangitoto backdrop for practising where to put the horizon. Britomart's laneways teach you about shade. Portraits of a friend in the even light under the buildings will look better than anything shot in full sun, and understanding why is half the course.

You do not need to travel far or shoot anything dramatic. The assignments reward looking carefully at ordinary places: a Ponsonby villa in late light, the ferry terminal at dusk, a market on a Saturday. Upload what you make and your tutor will tell you what is working. Most students are surprised how quickly that changes their pictures.