Way better, right? Bottom line: close up the aperture as low as it will go (mine was at f/22), meter for the sky, and click away.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Some Improvement
I took a class at ClickinMoms.com. It was really great. And just having access to all the forums has been really great. So I wanted to post a before and after of sorts. I have an earlier picture (fail!) of sun coming around a tree. Well, here is my new attempt:
Way better, right? Bottom line: close up the aperture as low as it will go (mine was at f/22), meter for the sky, and click away.
Way better, right? Bottom line: close up the aperture as low as it will go (mine was at f/22), meter for the sky, and click away.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Some pictures - finally!
I spent a good amount of the day today outside with my kids and tried to shoot mostly in Manual mode. I don't love a lot of what came out. And certainly none of the action shots are worth sharing with anyone other than people who know and love the subject matter :) But I did take a couple of nice flower pictures that I thought I'd share:
I think the focus might be slightly off, but I still think they're pretty.
I also tried taking some backlit shots of trees that didn't do much other than possibly partially burn out my retina:
I have so far to go. I really can't wait for my class to start. I also found out that a school near me has an intermediate level class that starts shortly after the beginner class ends. I think the clickinmoms beginner class ends at the end of May, and this local school has an intermediate class that starts in the beginning of July. So I may see about getting into that, too. But let's not put the cart in front of the horse. I may find out that I have zero aptitude for this after about 10 seconds of taking an actual class. Okay, so add "nervous" to "excited" and maybe that's closer to the truth. :)
I think the focus might be slightly off, but I still think they're pretty.
I also tried taking some backlit shots of trees that didn't do much other than possibly partially burn out my retina:
I have so far to go. I really can't wait for my class to start. I also found out that a school near me has an intermediate level class that starts shortly after the beginner class ends. I think the clickinmoms beginner class ends at the end of May, and this local school has an intermediate class that starts in the beginning of July. So I may see about getting into that, too. But let's not put the cart in front of the horse. I may find out that I have zero aptitude for this after about 10 seconds of taking an actual class. Okay, so add "nervous" to "excited" and maybe that's closer to the truth. :)
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Weekdays are hard!
I wasn't able to post yesterday because, well, weekdays are busy! Yesterday, I had a doctor's appointment in the morning and a work seminar in the afternoon. (I know I said I'm a stay at home mom, but I do do some freelance-type work in the mornings before the kids wake up.). So I didn't have any time to do anything yesterday. Sorry!
I can't say that I did much more today, so I'll report on some more things that I did a few days ago. I started looking at photography stuff on Pinterest. There's SO MUCH out there. I was loving it. One thing that I found was a sort of multi-step process to improving your photography. One of the steps is to work with manual focus. This is a MAJOR deficiency of mine, so I'm going to make a concerted effort over the next few days to shoot using manual focus. I have a really hard time with this, so I'm glad to work on it.
The other big piece of photography news for me is that tomorrow I'm signing up for my first ever photography class on clickinmoms. I'm so excited! I'll be totally bummed if it fills up before I get to sign up! :). Wish me luck!
I can't say that I did much more today, so I'll report on some more things that I did a few days ago. I started looking at photography stuff on Pinterest. There's SO MUCH out there. I was loving it. One thing that I found was a sort of multi-step process to improving your photography. One of the steps is to work with manual focus. This is a MAJOR deficiency of mine, so I'm going to make a concerted effort over the next few days to shoot using manual focus. I have a really hard time with this, so I'm glad to work on it.
The other big piece of photography news for me is that tomorrow I'm signing up for my first ever photography class on clickinmoms. I'm so excited! I'll be totally bummed if it fills up before I get to sign up! :). Wish me luck!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Some things take priority over photography
I don't think I've said this before, but I live in Boston, I had planned to take my kids to watch the Boston Marathon today and see whether I could get some good photography practice in. I did bring the guys and, luckily, decided to go outbound and watch at the halfway mark, rather than going inbound to the finish line, which I had also considered but dismissed because it gets too crazy and I didn't think I could handle it with two young kids and me not firing on all cylinders (because of that old pregnancy thing). I did take a couple of pictures, but nothing great. I was too worried about controlling my kids in the crowds :) Of course, since sitting here and thinking about it, I've thought of way better shots. Alas.
We left the halfway point at about 2:00 and got home around 2:30. About an hour later, a friend of mine texted saying that there had been explosions at the finish line of the marathon. I thought she meant there had been a bomb threat, which would have been bad enough, but the reality was so much worse. Then we started hearing about an explosion at the JFK Library, right next to where my husband works. Needless to say, I did not do any real reading today. I have been listening like a zombie to the news all afternoon. I promise to be back at it tomorrow.
Please send thoughts and prayers to everyone who was injured during today's events in Boston. It hits very close to home for me.
We left the halfway point at about 2:00 and got home around 2:30. About an hour later, a friend of mine texted saying that there had been explosions at the finish line of the marathon. I thought she meant there had been a bomb threat, which would have been bad enough, but the reality was so much worse. Then we started hearing about an explosion at the JFK Library, right next to where my husband works. Needless to say, I did not do any real reading today. I have been listening like a zombie to the news all afternoon. I promise to be back at it tomorrow.
Please send thoughts and prayers to everyone who was injured during today's events in Boston. It hits very close to home for me.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Baby steps
I made some good progress today. It's Sunday, so the last day of the weekend (i.e., the last day that I have an appreciable amount of free time until next Saturday :)) and I made the most of it.
Well, alright then, rookie, what did ya do? Well, I'll tell you. I finally FINALLY figured out what ev single button on this old thing does. Now can I maximize everything to te a perfect picture? Not on your life. But at least I know, in theory, what everything does,
I also joined a community called clickinmoms. I found a coupon code on Retailmenot that gave me 20% off membership, so I bought a 6 month membership for $24. The price per month goes down if you buy a longer membership, but I'm just dipping my toe in right now. I will say, though, that it is AWESOME. I have learned a TON from reading their resources already and it's just my first day! They have fabulous tutorials and courses and stuff like that. I've already told my husband not to buy me anything for Mothers Day because I'm signing myself up for one of their classes as my gift. (A word to the wise: the classes are not cheap, but from what I hear, you get really top-notch feedback, so I'm splurging.)
The best thing that I learned about today is metering. Did you know that your light meter says that a scene is balanced when 1/2 of the light is reflected back at it? In a big landscape, things even out: white clouds, blue sky, green grass, dark bark, etc. altogether absorb about 1/2 the light and reflect about 1/2 the light. But if you're shooting a whit snow covered mountain, just about 100% of the light is reflected. That totally freaks out your camera. The camera wants to make the picture seem like 1/2 of the light is absorbed (in other words, grey, not black or white) so it sets the exposure of the camera to underexpose the shot, making everything darker, and turning the snow grey. To compensate, you have to select settings that would make it seem (by looking at the meter) http://www.bissell.com/manual-sweepers/ the picture is going to be overexposed (e.g., +2 on the light meter). The same holds true if you're photographing, say, my Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost white kids or husband. You need to compensate some. Amazing, right? It all made sense to me, when I read it from a professional, so hopefully it makes sense to you here now... I'm sure I'm not doing the subject justice.
Along those lines, I also today realized that there is a button on the back of my camer that says Av (not the mode selection dial, but an actual button on the back). I had previously thought that, no matter what mode you were in, you could press that button and turn the main dial to change the f-stop. WRONG-O! If you're in MANUAL mode and you press that button and turn the dial, it adjusts aperture. If you're in any other mode and press that button and turn the dial, it affects the exposure. D'oh! No wonder my shots were previously all incorrectly exposed. Facepalm.
What else? I set up an Amazon.com wishlist with a bunch of stuff that I'd like to get. Notably absent, however, are any lenses. I know I would like another lens at some point, but I'm just not there, yet. When I figure out some more, I'll let y'all know on tht point.
But as much as this all seems like, I haven't even hit the piece de resistance: I took some pictures in "Manual" mode! Go me! Were they ready to exhibit? Nope. But they were in focus (by and large) and were (mostly) correctly exposed. I felt like it was such a victory.
Well, alright then, rookie, what did ya do? Well, I'll tell you. I finally FINALLY figured out what ev single button on this old thing does. Now can I maximize everything to te a perfect picture? Not on your life. But at least I know, in theory, what everything does,
I also joined a community called clickinmoms. I found a coupon code on Retailmenot that gave me 20% off membership, so I bought a 6 month membership for $24. The price per month goes down if you buy a longer membership, but I'm just dipping my toe in right now. I will say, though, that it is AWESOME. I have learned a TON from reading their resources already and it's just my first day! They have fabulous tutorials and courses and stuff like that. I've already told my husband not to buy me anything for Mothers Day because I'm signing myself up for one of their classes as my gift. (A word to the wise: the classes are not cheap, but from what I hear, you get really top-notch feedback, so I'm splurging.)
The best thing that I learned about today is metering. Did you know that your light meter says that a scene is balanced when 1/2 of the light is reflected back at it? In a big landscape, things even out: white clouds, blue sky, green grass, dark bark, etc. altogether absorb about 1/2 the light and reflect about 1/2 the light. But if you're shooting a whit snow covered mountain, just about 100% of the light is reflected. That totally freaks out your camera. The camera wants to make the picture seem like 1/2 of the light is absorbed (in other words, grey, not black or white) so it sets the exposure of the camera to underexpose the shot, making everything darker, and turning the snow grey. To compensate, you have to select settings that would make it seem (by looking at the meter) http://www.bissell.com/manual-sweepers/ the picture is going to be overexposed (e.g., +2 on the light meter). The same holds true if you're photographing, say, my Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost white kids or husband. You need to compensate some. Amazing, right? It all made sense to me, when I read it from a professional, so hopefully it makes sense to you here now... I'm sure I'm not doing the subject justice.
Along those lines, I also today realized that there is a button on the back of my camer that says Av (not the mode selection dial, but an actual button on the back). I had previously thought that, no matter what mode you were in, you could press that button and turn the main dial to change the f-stop. WRONG-O! If you're in MANUAL mode and you press that button and turn the dial, it adjusts aperture. If you're in any other mode and press that button and turn the dial, it affects the exposure. D'oh! No wonder my shots were previously all incorrectly exposed. Facepalm.
What else? I set up an Amazon.com wishlist with a bunch of stuff that I'd like to get. Notably absent, however, are any lenses. I know I would like another lens at some point, but I'm just not there, yet. When I figure out some more, I'll let y'all know on tht point.
But as much as this all seems like, I haven't even hit the piece de resistance: I took some pictures in "Manual" mode! Go me! Were they ready to exhibit? Nope. But they were in focus (by and large) and were (mostly) correctly exposed. I felt like it was such a victory.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
About Melissa
Talk about starting on a whim: I'm a 35 year old mama to two great boys, 5 and 2, with one more on the way. Ever since I was pregnant with my second son, I've owned a Canin EOS Rebel XT. I like to tell people that I love it, but the truth is that I see how it could be awesome and just cannot seem to make it work to its potential. I tried using the Av mode for a while and nothing came out right, so it became just a gigantic point and click that I started finding I never wanted to carry around.
Well, we just got back from vacation where my husband was busy at a conference most of the time, so I was left with the two guys, a ton of stuff and no patience, at 5 months pregnant, to lug around a heavy camera that I was using in the same way as my iPhone camera. I left the thing at home.
Then something interesting happened. My 5 year old decided to become obsessed with photography. We gave him our old (way too slow) point and shoot, and he has literally been taking pictures of everything in his sight.
Let's face it, I cannot have my 5 year old taking better pictures than me! :). Actually, it's just that his enthusiasm is contagious. So I lugged out my SLR and am determined to learn how to really use the thing. I know that I won't mind the extra weight/bulk if I can make this thing pump out awesome pictures.
And there's more... I'm also inclined towards the nerdy. My husband is a physicist, who deals with microscopes a LOT, so I'm hearing about lenses through him all the time. I used to be a scientist before I went to law school, but I still have some residual nerd left. Photography really appeals to that side of me... Numbers: fstop, exposure, ISO... How neat! If I only knew what it all meant. Ha! Add in a dash of creativity and a longing to capture some of thee fleeting moments in my young children's lives and it all just sounds awesome.
Want to join me on my mission? I'd love to have you along!
Well, we just got back from vacation where my husband was busy at a conference most of the time, so I was left with the two guys, a ton of stuff and no patience, at 5 months pregnant, to lug around a heavy camera that I was using in the same way as my iPhone camera. I left the thing at home.
Then something interesting happened. My 5 year old decided to become obsessed with photography. We gave him our old (way too slow) point and shoot, and he has literally been taking pictures of everything in his sight.
Let's face it, I cannot have my 5 year old taking better pictures than me! :). Actually, it's just that his enthusiasm is contagious. So I lugged out my SLR and am determined to learn how to really use the thing. I know that I won't mind the extra weight/bulk if I can make this thing pump out awesome pictures.
And there's more... I'm also inclined towards the nerdy. My husband is a physicist, who deals with microscopes a LOT, so I'm hearing about lenses through him all the time. I used to be a scientist before I went to law school, but I still have some residual nerd left. Photography really appeals to that side of me... Numbers: fstop, exposure, ISO... How neat! If I only knew what it all meant. Ha! Add in a dash of creativity and a longing to capture some of thee fleeting moments in my young children's lives and it all just sounds awesome.
Want to join me on my mission? I'd love to have you along!
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