Free one-day photography conference set Saturday
The St. Charles Parish Library’s free Digital Living Conference on Saturday represents more than just learning how to stream video or operate a tablet, it’s about bridging what has been infamously called “the digital divide.”
This year’s one-day conference will feature area photographer Charles Bush, who will offer an introductory course in digital photography at the East Regional Library, 160 W. Campus Drive, Destrehan. The conference will be 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“We are focusing on digital photography for this year’s Digital Living Conference because so many people have digital cameras and are trying to learn how to best use them,” said Stacie Russell, technology and education librarian. “Charles Bush presented a similar workshop for us in the past to rave reviews. We are very excited to work with him again.”
The course will cover how to select a digital camera; selecting the correct lenses and lighting for various subjects; importing images into a computer; preparing images for editing and production, and the role of the camera versus the role of the photographer.
“It’s a little bit beyond taking photos from the phone so if you’re ready to step up from there this is a really great place to start,” Russell said.
Smart phones allowing people to take photographs is an example of technology is embedding itself into daily living, she said.
“It’s opening a whole world of photography to them,” Russell said of an experience that makes the course the next logical step in advancing use of technology, as well as photography.
This will be the third year for the conference, which Russell said has featured a different topic each year depending on what people need in their digital daily living.
Conferences of the past have focused on “anything and everything that has to do with people’s everyday life in the digital or technology world,” she added.
As the person who does the library’s technology training, Russell observed an increasing number of people asking for help with their digital needs that included a myriad of questions over use of video streaming, tablets, digital magazines or the library’s Hoopla service with digital downloads that can be checked out of the library.
The concept of a digital living conference was an outgrowth of recognizing this need, particularly as the number of people asking for digital assistance started growing by the month.
“That’s kind of why I talk about it as day-to-day life – these kind of things are becoming day-to-day life,” Russell said. “It’s part of our conversation and people are coming to the library to get help. We like that. That’s a librarian’s role.”
Russell mused the No. 1 question about the conference is if it’s really free and the answer is a definite yes.
Registration is encouraged, but not required. To register, contact Lauren Campo Pitz at (985) 764-9643, Ext. 117, or lauren.pitz@myscpl.org.
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