My first-ever photo meetup was an invitaion to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. About 35 photographers in various levels in the art showed up and had full-access to the exhibits of butterflies, gems, and anthropology. I learned about lighting set-ups, flash, soft boxes, tripods by watching some of the others as they worked. The photo of the Faberge` necklace above is one of my favorites because I was able to capture not only the necklace, but a clear reflection of it in panels of it's glass case. Below is a 4-pound quartz cluster, which is a little blown out and over-exposed in the center. But could have been corrected if I turned the F-stop up a notch. The process of learning.
