I was at a friend's house for Christmas Eve. She showed me an album she had of pictures from her childhood. They were obviously taken with a box camera, and were probably contact prints.(posted 8674 days ago)The composition and generally good quality of the pictures were almost unbelieveable. The best of photographs can come from the simplest of tools.
So, my recommendations are:
1. Get a simple camera. Complexity won't help at all with composition and can hurt because you get concerned about things that aren't all that important.
2. Look at photographs in detail. You own and those of others. Understand what you like & don't like about them.
3. Polaroid is a great way to start because it gives instant feedback. Take a picture, analyze it, then take it again to improve those areas you think need improvement.
4. You learn photography by doing. Reading & studying can help, but only if you are and have done a lot of actual work.
A class is OK, but sometimes the focus is more on the technology than the art. If you learn to see and analyze what you see first, then you can learn the technique and will do it with a purpose. I always learn better if I need to apply is being taught than if it just academic.
My recommendation for starting (if you want a guide book) is Fred Picker's Zone VI Workshop.