On my first day back to work after the holidays, I ruptured my Achilles tendon going up a flight of stairs. I’ve been stuck in the house since January 4th, and was itching to shoot something. I had an idea for a shot I wanted to do, and the rest sort of came to me.
Things are bloomin’ once again and got some new stuff for 2015, too! After seeing the sunflowers in Avon last summer and missing out on the sale of those seeds, my daughter and I visited Pandy’s and bought 3 different varieties. Those to come later in the season!!
My mint is coming in!
White Lilac
Phlox
Penny, gettin’ her lens time!
Kristen and I took a trip to the Conservatory at the LCMP’s Miller Nature Preserve in Avon. I had to find something with some color to shoot, because everything outside was wet, colorless and boring. Having been there before, and knowing what I’d find, I had to take a different approach. With the exception of very few shots, I took all my photos on the aperture setting. Pretty happy with the results.
While there are some really sweet photo ops this time of year, I’ve missed out on a few due to work or it just being horribly cold. Crashed out and recovering from a recent stint of night shifts, both of our cats, TJ and Penny, came up and joined me. Wanting to dust off the camera, I grabbed it and started firing. Both were patient (and comfortable) enough to let me.
This time of year I try getting that one mind-blowing shot of a snowflake that’ll make me say “Wow!!” Still searching…
Hope the last one doesn’t make you go cross-eyed.
I’m fortunate that the early morning sun shines into my backyard unobstructed. One recent a.m., the sun was throwing some really good light onto things. And outside I went.
I don’t know what slithered across this web, but I thought that was interesting.
Early morning dew on a web.
When I first started reading about the settings on cameras, and what each of them did, I found the following:
aperture controls the area over which light can enter your camera.
The explanation that went with that statement was somewhat vague, and even moreso to a novice who was trying to get into photography on a serious level. It went on to describe how the larger the hole the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light.
To me, that translated to brighter or darker. I mean, more light means brighter, less light is darker. Right? Duh?
Yea, um…..no. Let me show you.
Aperture settings are measured in f-stops. An f-stop of 1.8 is larger than an f-stop of 22. The above photo was shot with an f-stop of 2.8. Notice that the lilies in the background are blurred and undefined. The focus is on the flower in the center and foreground.
The photo above was shot with the aperture set at f/13. See how the lilies are much clearer and sort of distracting in this shot.
F/1.8 was the setting for the above.
Aperture (with the house very clear in the background) for this is f/16.
When you shoot in “Aperture Priority”, you control the f-stops and the camera will set the shutter speed. The reverse is true when you set it to “Shutter Priority”. On most cameras, these are the settings indicated by “A” and “S” on the dial, respectively.
Armed with this knowledge, get out of Auto or Program mode, and start shooting better pictures. Improve your photography skills and experiment with what YOU can do rather than what your camera can do for you.
And because I was such a horrible Dad that I’d never shown my daughter Hot Waters, or taken her to shoot the Lighthouse at night….
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