How to Use Your Own Camera, The workshop

esterday was the first ever Frozen Moments Photography workshop. The workshop was geared towards beginning photographers and those wishing to get more out of their cameras. I got to the Plaza De España about 12:30. Good thing I got there early for there were four homeless people using the Azotea as their castle. A man with long kinky hair and a skinny woman whose boob was falling out of her white tank top, were sleeping soundly close together on a flattened out cardboard box. Close by  there was a huge shirtless man sitting in a corner whose most prominent feature was his beer belly, who by the way looked really drunk. Next to them was a slender man cooking turkey tails and a partially eaten left over chicken breast in soy sauce on a portable butane stove. It appeared that they haven't showered in days, as they were dirty and their clothes more so. When Mr. Beer-belly stood up, it looked as if he peed in his dirty, blue denim shorts. As he started to approach me, I thought, oh great here we go. I explained to him, as I realized that he was drunk, that I was going to use their bedroom/kitchen for a workshop at 1:00. I guess they were used to people commandeering their place of refuge, for the man I spoke with tried to wake the sleeping couple, telling them they have to move. I started to feel a little anxiety and started to plan my exit strategy, as the kinky haired man gazed at me as if I owed him money. Then I thought, oh, maybe it's because he hadn't had his first cup of coffee yet. I kept my distance, as Mr Beer-belly and I started to talk, and he asked me if I was Chamorro. He told me he is half Chamorro and homeless. He said his dad was from Chuuk, and his mom was from Saipan. He kept repeating to me in a really bad, drunken, "Chuukese trying to mimic a Chamorro" accent, "respedoo taotao" (respetu taotao) as if those were the only two Chamorro words he knew, which,by the way in the Chamorro language means respect the people. He also kept up his persistence in waking the sleeping couple. As the group slowly started to leave, I couldn't help but think how the tourists react to these homeless people when they visit this important historic site. Well, okay maybe a not so important historic site, as sadly, the place is slowly dilapidating away, as there seems to be no government effort to preserve this historical landmark. What a shame. I guess there are more important government matters at hand like changing the name of our island from Guam to Guahan. Hey, I'm just saying. Okay, back to the workshop. When my sidekick Rita arrived we started  to set up for the workshop and just in time too because the participants started to show up. We went over many topics like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, et cetera. The participants were really eager to learn how to use their own camera, well, except for one. She didn't even bring a camera. After the required information overload part of the workshop, I sent the participants out to take photos around the Plaza using the rule of thirds, framing, leading lines and different aperture settings. It was pretty neat to see the "aha" moment in a few of their camera settings. All in all the workshop was informative and fun, and in the end while we were enjoying our iced coffee's at the Barista Blends coffee house critiquing the photo's of the participants, I felt pretty confident that the workshop was a success as there were some pretty good photos taken. I'm looking forward to the next one.