Back from the UK with stuff

Well, I have had to put the formal part of the course on the back-burner for a couple of weeks while we went to he UK to see the family (mainly the grandchildren!). However, the time was not wasted as I was able to obtain a bit more equipment and order a few books on photography that took my fancy.

What did I buy? A new 'superzoom' lens, the Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di 11 VC, as recommended by Photoplus magazine (issue 19 March 2009). UV and polarising filters for both my lenses, a remote control and some folders. I also bought Michael Freeman's 'The Photographer's Eye' , which appears to closely follow the content of the course material.

I had my camera with me in the UK (of course) and managed to take some shots, mainly of the grandchildren, I have to say. It gave me an opportunity to think about shooting portraits and action shots and this was very useful. In addition, I was able to read/revise about some of the technical aspects of exposure/shutter speed with which I have been unfamiliar up until now. Actually, I have had to do quite a bit of background reading on this as the course (quite rightly)assumes that students have a basic knowledge of the mechanics of photography. For example, on page 53 of the course manual, there is the bold statement "You will, naturally, need to adjust the shutter speed so that the exposure stays the same". This is probably second nature to more experienced photographers but I had to do some research to understand it. Is the inference in this section that one should manually adjust the shutter speed if one changes the aperture (using the M setting on the camera) or can you rely on the camera doing this for you in aperture priority mode?

I'm a bit worried about the lack of contact from my tutor since I returned the profile form about 4 weeks ago. Rang OCA who contacted him and he will get in touch within the next few days.