Capital Photography Center

I have taken one class and one fieldwork class and would give more than 5 stars if I could. I have taken a lot of photography classes and Marie’s knowledge AND most importantly, her ability to articulate her knowledge is superb.
Our class had 8 people in it, giving us the ability to ask questions and have one on one time with the Marie, the owner.
If you are trying to get a handle on how to operate your camera, take it off automatic and get creative with your exposures, come to CPC for your DSLR class.
Marie will give you tips and tricks on how to take great shots! I am so glad I signed up and I look forward to the next one — Night photography at the Mormon Temple during Christmas!!!

I’m new to the area and started searching for classes I could take right away to start learning more about Manual Mode Photography. I signed up for the Basics class and could not be happier with the amount of knowledge I walked away with!
She explained confusing aspects of my camera in such a way that made it all just click in me. I enjoyed every minute and couldn’t believe it was a 4 hour class.
She keeps class sizes small so those at different learning levels still get their questions answered. Plus Marie the teacher was friendly, knowledgeable and so nice! She still replies to my emails very quickly if I have any questions and even stayed after class to make sure everyone’s questions were answered.
I would highly recommend Capital Photography and have immediately signed up for another course. They made it so much fun and rough back my passion for photography at a time when I was feeling overwhelmed and confused by my camera.

Do not sign up for a class with Capital Photography Center if you have any sort of individualized need. It will not be met. Additionally, the instructors are only familiar with a small set of equipment, so you may be out of luck if they do not understand your camera (mine’s not exotic… just a regular old Nikon). The experience was so disappointing that, although I paid, I decided the third class in a series of three was not worth attending. Five minutes of searching on the internet was far more productive when it came to finding the answers I need. Look elsewhere for professional, personal attention.

I looked around at several options before choosing Capital Photography Center. After emailing questions to a number of local photography «schools» I choose CPC because they felt right and didn’t just condescendingly place me in their Introductory class right off the bat. I am so glad I did! Tim Cooper is a fantastic instructor in addition to being a fabulous photographer. He is very patient, encouraging and gave everyone in the class fantastic advice on improving in a very nonthreatening and nonjudgemental manner. He showed us how the smallest changes to our approach affect the final product and then went beyond that to give us a couple of really cool options in post processing. I would take the Macro class over and over again just to feel like I could take away as much as possible. Absolutely fantastic experience and I will definitely be looking into taking some of the other very interesting classes.

I learned a ton from Fundamentals of Macro Photography. Tim Cooper’s initial lecture was systematic and clear, with great photos to illustrate how different settings, focal lengths, and compositional choices can produce drastically different results. He also laid out the pros, cons, and costs of different macro equipment (e.g. macro rails, focus stacking software, ring flashes, close-​up filters vs. extension tubes vs. macro lenses, etc.). By the end of the first lecture, we were much better informed consumers.
The second session was a field trip to the beautiful U.S. Botanic Gardens, a flower-​filled and relatively windless indoor conservatory with nice diffuse lighting. The class got tripod permits, so I could take my time practicing my new manual focusing skills. Instructors Marie Jobar and Tim Cooper helped get my tripod lower and closer to the flowers than I thought possible before, showed me a couple hidden camera settings, and even offered to stand in front of a window to help get rid of glare in one particularly troublesome shot! Very helpful that they were right there to answer questions.
Our third meeting was the «Critique Session.» Using Lightroom, Tim Cooper examined a selection of our field trip photos, praising what we did well, and suggesting improvements (e.g. demonstrating alternative cropping, sharpening, and clone/​healing choices). I came away with several Lightroom tricks I didn’t know about before.
I also appreciated the 7pm start time, the location (17^th and H, a block from Farragut West and 2 blocks from Farragut North), and the complimentary granola bars and water bottles! Very convenient.

I can’t attest about the classes but I can write a raving review about the owner of this company. She has been in the industry for quite some time now and her decision to start her own company should not be one that she regrets! I took a personal tutoring session with Marie and it was invaluable. She spent quality time reviewing the basics, discussing my issues and helping me problem solve to get great pictures. Every explanation was simplistic and therefore easy to implement. I’ve taken group classes before but the one on one attention was what I needed. The following weekend, in the «field», I got some great shots! Thank you Marie, I couldn’t have done it without you.
As an aside, if her teachers are half as good as her, I can’t wait to sign up for some of the classes.