CIIT’s Basic Digital Photography Workshop

I believe that everyone should always be learning stuff, no matter if it’s in a field we think we already know. It never hurts to refresh your knowledge.  That was my mindset when I joined the Basic Digital Photography Workshop by CIIT.  I have taken several Basic Photography classes before, but I thought, why not learn it again from another teacher?  I could pick up a new tip or two.  And besides, it’s always nice to meet new people.

Besides, CIIT is just near my place.  Luckily, the class was scheduled on a sunday and I didn’t have anything planned for that day.  So it was a no brainer – I’d take the class.

I admit, I’d never heard of Cosmopoint International Institute of Technology (CIIT) before.  I was curious!  Do they provide quality education to students?  I came in ready to learn and to observe.

CIIT has a small campus and it seemed like everyone knew each other.  An interesting thing I noticed immediately was that the classrooms are painted different colors.  That made it easy for me to find the Basic Photography class.  All I had to do was find the light blue room!

I came in a bit early and there were only 10 people in the room.  We had to wait a few minutes for the rest as 25 students were expected to attend the basic photography class.  While waiting, I surveyed the room hoping to see someone familiar.  So I just took my seat and waited for the class to start.  I was sure that once the class began, everyone would be more comfortable and we could begin socializing then.

The class started with our teacher introducing himself.  Our teacher for CIIT’s Basic Digital Photography Workshop was Edwin Celestino.  He brought with him 8 years of teaching experience (seven years in the College of St. Benilde) and he specializes in fashion and advertising photography.

Teacher Edwin was engaging.  He asked us to share what we expected from the class and encouraged us to ask any questions we might have on photography.  He cracked jokes all throughout the class making sure that we wouldn’t get bored while listening to him.

According to teacher Edwin, the basic photography class had been cut down from 2 whole days to just 1.  Because of that, the teachers decided that we wouldn’t do the photo walk.  Fortunately, Edwin noticed that we were all kind of disappointed at the news, so he asked us if we wanted to do the photo walk anyway.  The answer was a resounding yes!  Teacher Edwin laughed and agreed to our request. He said he’d manage the time so we could finish both the lectures and photo walk.

The lecture ran from 9AM to 11:30AM then continued on from 1PM to 3PM.  Photo walk was done from 3-5PM.  The last part of the session was to receive feedback from our teacher regarding our pictures.

Here’s what we learned in the morning:

• Basic Camera Parts and their Purposes and it’s operation
• Understanding and Creating Proper Exposure, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Bulb setting
• Exposure Compensation
• Program modes of modern SLR

During lunch, the owner welcomed me and 3 other bloggers who were invited to try out CIIT classes that day.  Sherwin was enthusiastic and very positive.  He graciously gave us a tour of the campus.

According to him, CIIT is a proud member of the Cosmopoint Education Group (CEG) which started in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1991.  In 2008, CIIT opened its branch in the Philippines to bring top notch ICT education to us Filipinos.  With its goal to promote quality of ICT education, CIIT offers courses in Web Design, Multimedia, 3D Animation, Game Development, Photography and Network Design.

CIIT prides itself for choosing teachers well.  They also treat feedback from students seriously.  Sherwin even told us of the time that they discontinued the services of a teacher who got failing grades from the students. Wow.  That must be really scary for the teachers.  Since they know that they are always being evaluated, I’m sure they’re always on their toes and doing their best to provide quality education.

We also saw CIIT’s beautiful library.

The drawing room was pretty nice…

I was in awe as I inspected the drawings on the white board.  I’ve always thought that drawing wasn’t for everyone, that you should have the talent for it.  Apparently, it can be learned.  I was so curious that now, I’m thinking maybe I should take drawing classes just to prove that it can be learned 😛

Lastly, I took a peek at the Photoshop class.  I wanted to learn this but I use Adobe Lightroom more than Adobe Photoshop.

Sherwin said that seeing their students’ work make them feel that they’re meeting their goal to provide quality education.  I agree: it is the best proof of their success.

After a yummy Chinese lunch, we continued on with the Basic Photography class.  This time around I learned about composition.  Teacher Edwin shared with us different design elements and design principles.  This part I really appreciated.  At that time, I already knew that in spite of knowing basic principles in Photography, this was a good learning.  As expected, I learned something new!

At 3PM, we went out of the campus and started walking around the ABS-CBN area.  We were tasked to take photos of anything interesting.  I honestly struggled hahaha!  I remember when I joined last year’s Canon Photomarathon, I had the same dilemma.

At the end of the photowalk, believe it or not, I hadn’t taken a single picture!  I was so embarassed.  Out of panic, I shot a quick picture of this “no taxi ‘no taxi terminal’ sign after I saw the taxis actually making it as a terminal.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very good shot.  But I really appreciated Teacher Edwin’s critique of it.  He said that a photographer should not need to explain the pictures they have taken.  The story should be obvious, he said.  I am so going to keep that lesson in mind.

We all got our certificates!  Whee!  I have experienced a CIIT class and actually finished it!

I asked some of my classmates and they said they were very satisfied.  This Php 2,500 class is a good investment especially for beginners.  Thanks CIIT!

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CIIT: Cosmopoint International Institute of Technology
5F CTTM Square, 68 Timog Ave Cor Tomas Morato, Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.: (02) 441-0737