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This is a series of lessons designed to introduce beginning photographers to the basic techniques of digital photography. All the photos shown were shot by me, mostly with a 35mm camera. I am not a professional photographer so the quality is not what you might see at a pro's site. Lesson 1. Starting out with your first camera Pictured here is an Olympus Brio D-150. Step 1: Put in the batteries. (When the batteries wear out, replace with NiMh rechargables, and get a charger.) Step 2: Put in the Memory card. this camera uses a SmartMedia card. These come in 8mb, 16 mb, 32 mb or 64 mb. The bigger it is, the more pictures it will hold. The card has to be put in the right way, or it won't work. Step 3: Turn it on by pulling back the lens cover. Step 4: Point it at your neighbor, and push down the button on the top lightly; this should focus the lens. Push down hard to snap your first picture. Note: If you want to you can turn the LCD screen on and let that act as your viewfinder. You will save battery life if you just look through the little viewfinder. Step 5: Review your shot. Close the camera back up. Push the button to turn the LCD screen on, and you will see the picture you took. Step 6: Download to your computer. This camera comes with a USB cable that will connect to current Macs and PCs. You should not need any special software. Plug it in and the camera disk icon should appear. Open it up, and you will see a list of your picture files. The camera just gives them a number. You can rename them later. You can open them up to view, but you haven't transferred them into your computer yet, so you can't work with them yet. To do this drag the images you want to save into your personal image folder. Once you have copied the images to your computer, delete them and any others you don't need from the SmartMedia card, so you have space for more. Lesson 2: What makes a strong photograph? Lesson 3: Unclutter Lesson 4: The Rule of Thirds Lesson 5: Framing Your View Lesson 6: Getting Up Close Lesson 7: Photography Projects Lesson 8: Other Resources