Donald Pebbles, my Leica teacher, is young enough to be my daughter, at least, and probably my grandchild.

He is intelligent, kind, wise.  And he really knows his way around a Leica.

After guiding me about the Leica for an hour this morning, (I am going to Boston to meet him in April and work with him there for a few hours), he gave me a  homework assignment as the big storm moved in verbally and in writing.

He is a terrific teacher, and he is showing me how to make the best out of my new Leica camera. It was a great move signing up with the Leica Akademie in Boston. I am learning so much about photography and this camera.

I am stunned to learn what I didn’t know, even after years of taking pictures.

We talked about my desire to capture the feel of a snowstorm and figure out how to focus the very sensitive Leica in such bright light.

Autofocus couldn’t reasonably handle it; I had to use the settings – Aperture and shutter speed – more effectively.

He sent me out into the storm with this homework: Take a portrait of Maria that captures her spirit and softens the background.

I set Aperture to 2.8 and left the camera on autofocus. I also used the bar for the first time that tells me if I am over or underexposed. I’d been afraid to use it because I didn’t know how to read it.

I do now.

Secondly, we talked about capturing the fine snow by changing the shutter speed and the Aperture. Donald asked me to send him what I did (gulp.) Homework, and at my age.

I went out into the cold and snow dressed warmly except for my hands. I couldn’t use winter gloves (the camera winter gloves are useless, by the way, at least for me, don’t bother to message me), so my fingers froze up fast. I had to move quickly; it was windy and icy.

Donald said he wanted me to explore taking my Aperture away from automatic settings and experiment with it. Start to think about the images before you take them, he said.

I usually do just the opposite, I see an image that touches me, and I hit the shutter.

“A good experiment for you is to take some long exposures of the snow falling,” he suggested. “For this, you would want an aperture setting between F/8 – F-16 and play with shutter speeds between 1/15- 1s (speeds I’ve never used before).

“I think this could be a cool image if you have a barn or building in the background as well.” Score there. I did my homework as best I could in the cold, wind, and heavy snow.

Then I came into the farmhouse, shook off my clothes, took off my boots, ran my fingers under warm water, and made a hot cup of tea, then lay down for a while to thaw out by the woodstove.

The portrait of Maria was a hit, the background was just what a portrait should have, and Maria was radiant, as always, even in the cold and snow. She’s a good sport, and I love her dearly.

I also use my photo masking education to highlight a neighbor’s house in the snow, obscure by the storm. (third photo)  I painted it white.

That worked out. So did the photo of Fate, waiting as always, to work. The barn caught the snow beautifully, and the very slow shutter speed (I was using my tripod) helped.

I finished with the tin man, mostly because I couldn’t move my hands any longer, and an icicle was forming on my nose.

It took about half an hour for my hands to freeze up and my fingers to stop moving, but I tried a lot of different settings and thought I figured out how to use them.

I’m glad that it’s never too late to learn because I’m loving it.

I’m sending the four photos I took back to him tonight for critique and sharing them with you, too; you’ve all been kind enough to follow this adventure. I appreciate your encouragement. Thanks.