Utah Pictures

This past weekend while I was in Utah, my sister and I had the opportunity to go to the Mt. Timpanogas Temple.  Since it was such a special occasion I took some pictures outside.  It is soooo beautiful there.

I love this one because I focused in on the flowers behind her so that she came out fuzzy.  (Low aperture.)  It gives the photo depth and character.  

This one is just beautiful with my sister in the middle of all the flowers.  

Tennis

So I just figured out how to do the continuous shooting....  It is AWESOME!  I took my kids out to play tennis and grabbed my camera.  I was so excited to get these shots and they turned out PERFECT!!

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.  :)

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!!

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!!

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.  :)