Chad's Photography class #1

I decided to sign up a photography class a few months ago and the first class took place this week. I purchased a pretty good camera a few years back (Canon Digital Rebel EOS) and accumulated a few additional lenses (50mm portrait, 28-135mm macro zoom IS) ...but for every 10 pictures I take only 1 or 2 really turn out ok. I always seem to take really good blurred and blacked out effects.. I never really did figure out the manual modes even though I understand the basic concepts of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. This is something I really want to figure out before the baby arrives - hope I can learn the basics quickly as she will be arriving soon! The class is taught by professional photographers Mark and Diane Wallace. Their company is called SnapFactory which I found one day when browsing the web for digital photography classes in the area. There are 8 classes, once a week for 2-3 hours per class. They have a really good online presence, forums for photography discussions, blog, etc which I think is really cool (Mark's day job is a programmer at Intel) They just opened a brand new studio in Tempe - they have a really nice setup. There are only 2 of us in the class (typically there is close to 10) - I really like that 1:1 teacher:student ratio! Very cool, I should learn a lot. Here is a slideshow of the photos I took for my homework assignments for week#1. The primary assignment was to take photos based on composition elements (texture, shape, form, unusual point of view, horizon, etc) The first bonus assignment was to use the shutter speed mode (Tv) and take pictures of a fan at every setting. The second bonus assignment was to take pictures of objects in a row using the Aperture mode (Av). The bonus assignment didn't turn out as expected, I didn't see to have enough light and/or my lense selection could have been wrong.. I will see next class what I can adjust on the camera so it turns out better..