Utah Community Learning
Photography & Media

Phone Photography Basics

Meets Mondays 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM · Fall 2026 · registration open
This class runs in the Fall 2026 session. Registration is open now; lessons, materials, and the class discussion board are posted before it begins.

This class is for anyone who wants better photos of their kids, their hikes, and their everyday life using the camera you already have. No new gear. No fancy words. We start with the thing that matters most, which is light, and then work through tap-to-focus, exposure lock, the grid, and a few composition tricks one problem at a time.

Here's the thing: most bad photos aren't a bad camera, they're bad light and a lazy angle. We'll fix both. I'll show you my own bad photos first (the green one, the silhouette one) and then the fix.

You'll leave able to look at a scene, move to better light, get low and close, and take the second photo. ❤️

Lessons

  1. Light Is the Whole Game

    Before anything else, we learn to see and move the light, because ninety percent of a bad photo is bad light and not a bad camera.

  2. Learning the Camera You Already Have

    A plain tour of the app on your own phone, no matter what phone it is, so you know where the useful buttons live.

  3. Tap to Focus and Locking Exposure

    The two controls that changed everything for me, taught slowly with your own screen in your own hands.

  4. Get Low and Get Close

    Most people shoot everything from standing eye level five feet back, and that's why the photos are boring, so we kneel down.

  5. Simple Composition That Holds Up

    A few honest tricks for arranging the shot that beat filters and fake blur every time.

  6. Real-Life Photos and What I Still Fight

    We put it together on the stuff you actually shoot, and I'm honest about the things I haven't solved yet.

Class discussion

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