Photography

Reviews & Results

I’ve taught thou­sands of stu­dents world­wide to learn to use their cam­eras and take amaz­ing pho­tos! Take a look at just a few of my favorite reviews for the Essen­tials Pro­gram, which include… Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials, Focus & Com­po­si­tion Essen­tials & Let in the Light Essentials.

As an artist and trav­el­er, being able to cap­ture spe­cial moments with my cam­era is impor­tant.  I pur­chased a cam­era and decid­ed it was time to switch off the auto­mat­ic set­tings and cre­ate great pho­tos.  Dena was the absolute BEST teacher.  She made the process real­ly fun, and the pro­gram was super easy to fol­low.  I high­ly rec­om­mend any course she offers.
Deb­by S

Dena has tons of great tips and offered great sup­port. She clear­ly is pas­sion­ate about pho­tog­ra­phy. She patient­ly explained what is sec­ond nature to her yet was total­ly for­eign to me. She com­plete­ly took away the frus­tra­tion I have pre­vi­ous­ly felt when try­ing to use my man­u­al set­tings on my own or via youtube videos that land­ed me back in Auto mode. Doing this online tuto­r­i­al also forced me to stick with it and spend time with my cam­era when before I would have giv­en up. This was a great intro course, and I am look­ing for­ward to the next one!
Wendy H

Dena’s Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials is easy to fol­low, with clear expla­na­tions that have helped me improve my pho­tos imme­di­ate­ly! I have played around with my cam­era for many years, under­stand­ing bits — but this pro­gram helped me piece it togeth­er to move for­ward in my own cre­ative way. The videos are short and snap­py, help­ing to quick­ly rein­force the les­son. I LOVE the Top Tip cards to print and keep in my cam­era bag for quick use on the go! I high­ly rec­om­mend this pro­gram to any­one want­i­ng to bet­ter under­stand the most impor­tant com­po­nents of cap­tur­ing that per­fect shot!
Heather M

Dena’s Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Pro­gram, are well explained & easy bite size pieces any­one can learn pho­tog­ra­phy. I am not a begin­ner, but felt like tak­ing her cours­es to improve my pho­tog­ra­phy & it’s improved my pho­tog­ra­phy a great deal! The videos are short & rein­force the assign­ments. I rec­om­mend this well orga­nized pro­gram to any­one that would like to bet­ter under­stand their cam­era & get them great pho­tos they want!
Kim­ber­ly  

If you want to take your pho­tog­ra­phy to the next lev­el Dena’s light­ing class will help you do it.  I was able to use all of the tools and guide­lines she taught to find the right light and cre­ate bet­ter pho­tos.  Dena’s exper­tise and tal­ent will help you too!  I high­ly rec­om­mend the light­ing class!
Lisa M

OMG!!!! These class­es are per­fect so far. I love the way you explain every­thing for peo­ple with no expe­ri­ence. I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to fin­ish­ing the course. Thank you for being such a good teacher and for being kind.
Brad A

Hon­est­ly Dena, I can’t thank you enough! You’ve helped me so much already and go out of your way to real­ly help ☺️ best thing I’ve done yet is sign up for your course.
Amy B

Before
After

I was soooo uncer­tain about Man­u­alSet­tings, but after The Essen­tial Begin­ners course, and play­ing with Man­u­al set­tings, I am hooked on Man­u­al. I don’t think I will ever use AV or TV or Fv etc again. Thank you, Dena Bar­rie.
Elize M

I’m so hap­py I took Dena’s class. She made it fun and sim­ple to learn how to use my cam­era in man­u­al mode. I’m so proud of my pho­tos now and they are bet­ter than I ever imag­ined they would be!
Bren­da F

I seri­ous­ly don’t know where me and my cam­era would be with­out this class!!!! I’ve learned so much and it’s bro­ken down so that you can under­stand, fig­ure it out on your cam­era and make it hap­pen!! I don’t get to spend enough time with my cam­era as I would like, but I’m work­ing on it!! With­out your class, I’d nev­er fig­ure it out!!!! Thank you!!!
Lisa Duda Stolze

Love your cours­es!  I am so glad I found your class­es.  I have just about mas­tered my cam­era and work­ing on light! I apply your teach­ing skills to all of my pho­tog­ra­phy.  I appre­ci­ate all the mate­ri­als you have offered.
Sandy S.

I think its final­ly sink­ing in!  I’ve tak­en oth­er class­es and it nev­er sunk in. With your class­es, I’m final­ly understanding.…thank you!  
Sheila B

Dena,You are a won­der­ful teacher and I can tru­ly say that tak­ing your class­es has made it pos­si­ble to learn pho­tog­ra­phy. I have sud­den­ly had the “so that’s how it is done moments”! I am real­ly engaged in your class­es  and have begun to learn to take pho­tos and not snap shots. Because of your method of learn­ing pho­tog­ra­phy I am always chas­ing the light !  I will now have some­what of a lega­cy so that my chil­dren and grand­chil­dren will always have my pho­tos. Thank you for being a spec­tac­u­lar teacher and a beau­ti­ful and car­ing woman. I look for­ward to any class­es you are offer­ing.
Sandy S.

These class­es are dif­fer­ent from any class­es I’ve ever tak­en… Once you have them, you can access them at any time!  You get to sub­mit the assign­ments to the Face­book group and you have a teacher help­ing you every step of the day.  You have access to an actu­al teacher!
Ang­ie S.

Are you won­der­ing what is with the class that every­one is talk­ing about?  I have tak­en all of the class­es.  I used to shoot Aper­ture Pri­or­i­ty.  Once I start­ed tak­ing the class­es, I nev­er went back.  They are step by step and Dena is always there.  They are also yours to keep.  Take your time to com­plete them.  They are there to go over.  This is as close to in-per­son learn­ing as you can get.  She is always there to help you out.  
Christi­na B.

I am tak­ing the class and post­ing in the stu­dent group.  Won­der­ful place to get feed­back and I love that there is an actu­al per­son behind the class.  You get ALL of the mate­ri­als and you go at your own pace.  I am real­ly hav­ing a lot of fun with it and I am so improved.  I love that it’s now not intim­i­dat­ing and I love that I know what my set­tings are.  It’s inter­est­ing and it’s fun.  They are extreme­ly afford­able for what they are.  You get every­thing and a per­son behind it!  Thank you, Dena!
Ruth H.

Using light in your every­day pho­tographs is not intu­itive and the naked eye fools one into think­ing that a par­tic­u­lar set­up will make a beau­ti­ful pho­to­graph. This had caused end­less frus­tra­tion for me in the past.  Dena’s advice and instruc­tion “shed the light” on using light in my pho­tos.  They includ­ed cam­era tech­niques as well as how to use nat­ur­al and unnat­ur­al light to enhance your pic­tures.  Putting all of this knowl­edge into prac­tice to improve how and when I take pho­tographs.  I high­ly rec­om­mend this course, whether your goal is ama­teur or pro­fes­sion­al.  
Rhon­when M

Dena’s light­ing class is absolute­ly amaz­ing.  I now ful­ly under­stand how to take pho­tos in nat­ur­al light inside my home and have tak­en pic­tures of my chil­dren that I will trea­sure for­ev­er.  Her instruc­tions are easy to under­stand-ful­ly rec­om­mend!
Eva W

The Let in The Light course taught me to take pic­tures inside with­out a flash.  I nev­er thought that was pos­si­ble.  I know that I can take pho­tos all year long with­out wor­ry.  
Philli­pa E

Super easy-to-fol­low course that helped my pic­tures.  The best part is that you can ask ques­tions on the coach­ing call. 
Shan­non F

I love this pro­gram and the prac­ti­cal and fun way it was taught. I could instant­ly use the tech­niques and see a change in my pic­tures. Before my pho­tos looked bland and bor­ing. Now they look so much bet­ter.
Olivia H

Before
After

First of all I want to thank Dena for her awe­some work.  Not just on the course but every­thing.  I real­ly enjoy every part of the course.  Every­thing is very well explained.  When I first start­ed Man­u­al was a chal­lenge for me now after tak­ing Dena’s course every­thing makes sense and it’s eas­i­er for me now to under­stand how to get con­trol of my cam­era.  Now when I go out­side to take pic­tures I know exact­ly what to do and how to do it.  It’s been a love­ly expe­ri­ence which I have enjoyed very much.
Lee R

I real­ly enjoyed this pro­gram because there were easy to fol­low steps. Dena was excel­lent. Fun to fol­low and I saw real progress in a short amount of time.  I can high­ly rec­om­mend her.
Katy J

I would just like to thank you for the amaz­ing course I hon­est­ly did­n’t know any­thing about pho­tog­ra­phy at all, I want­ed to do a course to learn the very basics so I could start using my cam­era to take the crisp clean shots I see all the time. I now know after your course how I am going to achieve these. Thank you so much and will nev­er shoot in auto again. 
Nicholas A

So incred­i­bly impressed with the improve­ment in my pho­tos after com­plet­ing the Begin­ners Essen­tials! And hon­est­ly, mind blown that I’m using man­u­al mode. It’s def­i­nite­ly been a learn­ing curve and can be over­whelm­ing at times. Look­ing for­ward to get­ting into Focus & Com­po­si­tion.
Kay­la W

 Your course is excep­tion­al and so easy to fol­low.   I Love how you explain how to change the set­tings for each brand of cam­era for the two.  I have tried n tried to fig­ure out the set­ting for my Canon t7 with no luck.  I did fig­ure some of it out but not very much of it.  I appre­ci­ate what you did to explain every­thing n I actu­al­ly feel like I just may get some where with my pho­tos.  Right now I’m just feel­ing unde­scrib­able­ly beyond excit­ed.  Thank you so much again for this course!  
Ter­ri S.

I love the BPE pro­gram! Even though I came with sol­id, self-taught expe­ri­ence, I imme­di­ate­ly gained con­fi­dence, knowl­edge, and new skills. But even more impor­tant, I feel as if I have gained a men­tor and a com­mu­ni­ty in this hob­by that I love. Thanks, Dena Bar­rie!
Kali D.

Dena has a way of explain­ing things that makes me “get it”. I love it! I’ve been able to con­nect the dots and seri­ous­ly improve my pho­tog­ra­phy with the clear direc­tion and per­son­al sup­port from Dena!
Dav­ene D

I seri­ous­ly don’t know where me and my cam­era would be with­out this class!!!! I’ve learned so much and it’s bro­ken down so that you can under­stand, fig­ure it out on your cam­era and make it hap­pen!! I don’t get to spend enough time with my cam­era as I would like, but I’m work­ing on it!! With­out your class, I’d nev­er fig­ure it out!!!! Thank you!!!

Love the Face­book site. The best I have seen yet. So friend­ly and sup­port­ive. 
Sheila

Dena Bar­rie… awe­some teacher!  She takes you by the hand and teach­es you all the basic essen­tials that you need to know.  She breaks every­thing down into easy-to-learn lessons and she even gives you exer­cis­es at the end so that you can prac­tice.  All of the cours­es are great, I high­ly rec­om­mend them.  I’ve tak­en all of them and my pho­tos have gone from 0 to 100 in a mat­ter of months.  If you ever have ques­tions, she gets back to you and gives you con­struc­tive crit­i­cism. 
Toni 

I always dreamed of being able to take real­ly nice pho­tos.  I bought a cam­era, watched a cou­ple of YouTube videos and quick­ly real­ized it was a lot more dif­fi­cult than I thought.  I found Dena’s class­es and was amazed at how easy it was to learn and under­stand your cam­era.  If any­one is inter­est­ed in learn­ing pho­tog­ra­phy these class­es are a must-have. 
A+Nicole V.

If you’re con­sid­er­ing an online pho­tog­ra­phy class Dena’s class is the class to take.  I have done YouTube and books and this class did it for me.  I nev­er thought I would shoot in man­u­al mode but now I enjoy it.  My pho­tog­ra­phy has improved sig­nif­i­cant­ly through this class.  The assign­ments are small and fun and she makes you want to pick up your cam­era and take pic­tures.  I high­ly encour­age you to take Dena’s class!
Kristi V.