Photo 11: The course to beat all courses

I've decided that 2011 is the year of schoolin'.  There are so many good articles to read, DIY ideas to try and interesting and important photographers to study.  So many business practices to implement, marketing ideas to work on, writing skills to hone.  I keep a huge database of ideas and things in my Gmail folder (as discussed here) but far too often they are bookmarked and forgotten.  2011 is the year to get serious about all of that.  Plus, there's nothing being taught at my community college I can't learn better by tailoring the subject to my needs.  Plus, my husband is knee-deep in grad school and isn't going to be around to entertain me anyway.  Plus plus plus.  2011 is the year to learn, to grow exponentially. With all that in mind, I'd like to present Photo 11, a composite course in photography, Photoshop, business and lots of other stuff.  I invite you to join me, even if not everything I am doing relates to your work or business.  If you're interested in following along, just leave a note here at the bottom of this post and I'll get things together.  In the meantime, you can see the schedule of assignments and due dates here. The course will run on a monthly schedule, with the following themes for the first, second, third and fourth Sundays of the month:

• First Sunday (starting 1/30): Shooting

Hot Cocoa and things to come

Here's some hot cocoa to warm your winter.  The best way to drink cocoa is to add one or two ice cubes after you first put in the hot water.  This allows you to sip immediately.  Make sure the ice cube is close to your lips and then suck a little bit of the cocoa up.  You get warm but not steaming delicious cocoa and a lovely little cool water.  It's really nice - try it! There is a point to this post, though, thankfully.  I'm working right now on a year-long (with probable large break during the summer) photo course I'm going to call Photo 11 (for 2011).  It's certainly not a Photo 101 and I'm not going to talk about the exposure triangle or basic composition.  Photo 11 is going to be a comprehensive course designed specifically for me - at my level of photographic expertise and business acumen - that anyone can follow along if they so choose.  I'll have more details soon, but it's going to be pretty awesome.  I'll have shooting, Photoshop, business and research assignments every month.  I'll also be participating in several internet projects that are also photography or business themed.  I'll put those details up as well.  Basically, 2011 is the year to get schooled.  I hope some of you will find my posts on this topic useful!