Monday, May 9, 2011

Leaps of Learning and Plateaus of Learning

         If you've followed my blog for a few months you will have noticed that I have challenges when it comes to high tech stuff. I wrote about my struggle to conquer an ipod. I wrote recently about putting a new battery in my bicycle speedometer and then resetting it. I still have digital watch that I have to have a go at, but since I don't wear it that can wait.

       In the last few days I took some time to play with my digital camera. You guessed it . It finally twigged that it is set up like all the other gadgets. There are modes and parts to each mode. Once you get the hang of modes and their parts you're away to the races. Now I look at it and say, "Why did it take me so long to catch on?" I had been looking at how poor some of my pictures were. I thought that if I had the camera on automatic it would do the work for me.

      As a photographer I'm a point and shoot type. My first camera was a 35 mm automatic. They were a very good camera as you could point and shoot and get a good picture. I don't think ahead as to what things will look like or how I want things to look. The camera and the environment have been in control of me at all times. From now on I know more what my camera can do and I will think about that before taking a picture. Then I will have to consider the environment and make that work so that I get a better image.

       So a few days ago there was a great leap in learning for me as I transferred learning from another area to the camera. I can also look back to incredibly long plateaus. I've had that digital watch for more than twenty years. I remember the battery going dead as I had 200 kids on a field trip. I didn't know what the noise was. One of the kids finally discovered that my watch battery had died. He then was able to turn off the annoying alarm for a dead battery. The next time that battery goes dead I'm it, as there are no more kids in my life.