Thursday, September 29, 2011

Through the Eyes of a 4 Year Old (Manual)

Even though it is technically Week 4, I am still trying to practice working on the Manual Mode from Week 3.  I took my 4 year old outside (in his play clothes and everything!) and had him pose for me.  Of course, the attention span of a 4 year old is only about 2 minutes so we took quick pics.  He was ready to go indoors after about 5 pictures.  I was able to capture some really cute moments first though.  



***NOTE:  Do you notice the duct tape & rope on the fence?  We are still waiting for the fence guys to come out after our fence fell down in the storm a little while ago.  I thought it gave the pictures personality.  :)

Friday, September 23, 2011

Riding a Bike - Manual Mode

Wow!  I never realized how fun AND frustrating photography could be!  PHEW!  Good thing I am loving the fun part more right now!  LOL!  Once I get this manual thing down I know it will get much easier for me.  

These pictures were all taken in manual mode meaning that I adjusted the Aperture (f stop), Shutter Speed, & ISO.  As you can see, all of the pictures turned out different.  I wish I could tell you the settings for each but I didn't write anything down.  Oops!  I was in picture taking mode and just went with the flow.

Story behind the pictures:  My son (who is 6 years old) just learned how to ride a bike without the training wheels this week.  I wanted to capture some of this with my new skills.  Notice that his training wheels are still attached but pulled up to the side??  They will be completely removed tomorrow.  One of the wheels fell off on a family bike ride a few weeks ago.  He kind of had no choice on learning to ride without training wheels.  LOL!

I love how the picture below turned out.  The Shutter Speed was super high.  He was going super fast and I was able to capture him suspended in space & time.  :)

Isn't his toothless smile adorable?? 


Not really sure what he was looking at but I was able to capture it on film.  :)

Comments:  These are 5 of my favorite pics from this photo session.  I probably took over 25-30 pictures and trashed almost half of them.  Some were out of focus, dark, etc.  I am learning that I need to practice, practice, practice......  and even with that there are going to be a lot of mistakes!

P.S.  Yes, he had a helmet on earlier but took it off right before I came out with my camera.  I guess I was so much in the picture taking mode I didn't realize he didn't have it on.  Now that I am looking at the pictures I am realizing!!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Manual Mode!! YIKES!!!

Hey Everyone!

This week I am learning how to use the Manual Mode on my Nikon D90!  YIKES!!  Super scary but OH SO FUN!!  I am actually kind of understanding it.  Lots of dials, turning, etc. but I think I should be able to get it really soon.

Here are some pics I took before biking yesterday.  Thanks to my friend Carrie for being such a good sport.  What is she looking at, though???  LOL!!


Guess what??  I made my first Photography Video for you guys!!  It should go up tomorrow.  I want you all to be able to participate in this blog, too, and have fun with your camera whether or not you have an SLR or not!!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Creative Assignment from Week 1

Hello Everyone!

Every week in my Photography class we have 2 assignments.  Even though we are on Week 2 I was not able to complete the Creative Assignment from Week 1 until now.

We were asked to take a pic of something that we passed everyday.  My family LOVES this sign that one of my neighbors has on his fence.   Pretty comical considering we live in a very low crime area.

Depth of Field & a Rainy Day!

Hello Friends!
Today I was planning on spending my morning outside in the sunshine taking pictures and working on some of my photography class assignments.  It's a dreary (but much needed) rainy day!  I actually really LOVE rainy days but I have only learned how to take outdoor pictures so far in my class with real natural light!  YIKES!  What is a girl to do???  Well, I decided to make some lemonade and get out there anyway!
Today I am still working on my Aperture assignment but wanted to mess around with the depth of field, too.  Here is a detailed description for all of you who do not know what Depth of Field means...

"In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance at a time, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions.
In some cases, it may be desirable to have the entire image sharp, and a large DOF is appropriate. In other cases, a small DOF may be more effective, emphasizing the subject while de-emphasizing the foreground and background. In cinematography, a large DOF is often called deep focus, and a small DOF is often called shallow focus.
The DOF is determined by the camera-to-subject distance, the lens focal length, the lens f-number, and the format size or circle of confusion criterion."

So what I've done on this first set of pictures is set my dial to Aperture Mode (which is A on a Nikon) and I used the front dial on the right side to set my Aperture to 1:1.4.  If you have a kit lens or you are using a zoom lens it will be a higher number.  I splurged and purchased the 50mm 1:1.4 lens for my Nikon and am soooo happy that I did!  My indoor shots are so much brighter.  The reason is that my Aperture goes open all the way to 1:1.4, which means it brings in more light.
For my depth of field test I just took the same focal point but I moved closer and farther away.  I kept my Aperture on 1:1.4 the entire time.  LIke I said, it is a rainy day so these would look so much better with the sunshine.  :)






Thursday, September 15, 2011

My New Camera Bag!

Over on www.mypinkstamper.com today I did a little poll with you guys on which camera bag I should buy.  The majority of viewers thought that the turquoise would be a nice compliment to my pink obsession passion.  The next most popular color was the green bag which would also be a great color to go with pink.  After reading EVERY comment and then pondering for myself, I decided to go with....
Yep!  The Pink/Raspberry bag!  My thoughts were that I might wish that I bought this one in a little bit since it is my FAVORITE shade of Pink.  Another great bonus to this bag that you don't see in the picture is the optional shoulder strap.  My next purchase will be this one... because I can also fit my Macbook Pro in it which will be great when I travel and I seem to do that a lot!  


Check out all the women camera bag's HERE!  Thank you everyone for your input today!

Pencil Filter

Okay, so I did NOT learn this in my photography class but it was super easy so I thought I would share.  I pulled one of my favorite Aperture photos of my daughter from a couple of days ago into my PSE 6.  I opened up the filters and chose the Pencil filter.  I didn't even adjust it and this is how it turned out.  Totally AMAZING!!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Week 2 - Day 2 (Apertures)

It's so much funner having a live model for this assignment!

Aperture Speed 1:1.4

Aperture Speed 1:13

Open Aperture 1:1.4 (notice how the subject is sharp but the background is blurry?)

Closed Aperture 1:14 (notice how the background is sharp along with the subject?)


Week 2 - Apertures

Hello Everyone!

This week I am learning all about how to use my Apertures.  I also just got my new Nikkor 50 MM 1:1.4 lens in and am LOVING it!!!

I am taking the Oh Shoot! class at Jessicasprague.com.

I'm using an open aperture on this one of 1:1.4.  What that does is focus on one image and blurs out the rest.

This one is with a more closed aperture.  I used 1:14 Aperture.

This is also an open aperture of 1:1.8.

 What I've also noticed with the closed aperture is that it does make the picture a little darker which is nice for full sunlight but probably not so great for indoors.

Week 1 - Shutter Speeds

I had so much fun learning how to use the Shutter Speed dial on my Nikon D90.  I was able to capture a child jumping in the air, swinging on the swing set, and sliding down the slide.

Slow Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed
 Slow Shutter Speed

 Fast Shutter Speed
My friend is actually going pretty fast on her bike but I was able to freeze the picture on a fast shutter speed.  

Introduction

Hello Everyone!

I am on a new journey.   I have just started taking a photography class and I am going to post my daily pictures here.  I would love to hear your comments on what you think of my progress.

Here is a little about me...  I am a stay at home mother of 5 and I also own my own business that was started from a blog.  :)