Cosumnes River College’s Photography Department started offering a new class this spring semester on how to take professional photos with a cell phone.

The class is an eight-week asynchronous course taught by Photography Professor Patty Felkner.
Students can learn how a phone camera can work as a regular camera, as well as learning how to use different photoshop apps, Felkner said.

“Skills to learn how to use their camera and then also to just become more creative,” Felkner said.

Felkner said her cell phone allows her to be more experimental.

The cameras have gotten so good in phones, so unless someone wants to be a photography major, using a phone as a camera is perfectly acceptable, Felkner said.

“She really gave us a lot of new tools to use for our cell phone photography and to edit and also a history of photography,” said Mignon Stapleton, 61, who is taking photography classes for personal fulfillment.

Stapleton said this wasn’t an easy class and they had to come up with new images every week.

“That being said, I learned a great deal from Patty,” Stapleton said. “She introduced us to new apps for editing on the cell phone that were creative and fun.”

Felkner said the cell phone photography class is new. She wrote the curriculum a year ago after talking with the dean.

“Last summer, I signed up for a class through the Santa Fe workshops where I learned a lot of stuff that I didn’t know,” Felkner said, “especially the applications.”

Felkner said she has been using lots of editing apps on her phone and didn’t realize how powerful the editing apps could be.

Felkner said she had students who had experience with photography and students who were new to photography.

“I was really encouraged that I could get, you know, some good pictures with the phone because in the past I really hadn’t,” said Linda McClendon, 66, who’s retired and took the class for personal fulfillment.

McClendon said she found it liberating to not have to carry around equipment when doing class assignments.

McClendon said she has been taking photography classes for three years and was interested in this class after buying a new phone with a new camera she didn’t know how to use.

What students were doing in the class “was fun and it’s practical too,” McClendon said.
Students are offered the eight-week course this fall semester from Oct. 17 to Dec. 13. More information can be found here.