A picture is worth a thousand words, making photographs and stick-figure sketches the easiest solutions to looming dissertation deadlines. Take advantage of efficient visual-communication strategies with today’s Groupon: for $35, you get a 90-minute digital-SLR -photography crash course from Silver Hill Images in Franklin (a $89 Value). Classes are held at the Factory at Franklin. Students will need to bring along their digital SLR cameras and laptops.

Silver Hill Images founder and professional photographer Vince Wallace guides fledgling shutterbugs through the fundamentals of digital-SLR photography. The megapixel maestro draws upon experience as a teacher at Vanderbilt's Sarrat Art Studios program to impart photography basics including setting aperture, adjusting composition, and concealing vestigial bunny ears. Crash-course participants will learn the finer points of recording life's events, such as capturing perfect lighting for portraits and digitally altering time stamps when photographing Civil-War re-enactments. Classes are offered on Tuesdays and Saturdays and lasts for 90 minutes.