Month: February 2011

I took a photography class in Vacaville with Melinda today. The first part was very basic; I knew most of what was covered. In the intermediate class, we spent most of our time on focus and white balance. I learned quite a bit about both. And I have changed some camera settings as a result. I disagreed with our instructor about shooting RAW, though. He recommended we all shoot JPG until we’ve had a couple of year’s experience. He did concede that if you have the storage capacity, it was probably best to shoot RAW. I started shooting RAW because I wanted to have the most control over my photos. RAW files are huge but the option of manipulating them is much greater with RAW than JPG files. So, I’ll keep shooting in RAW.

The camera has a huge range of white balance settings depending on the type of light source that you’re shooting under, whether natural or artificial. I learned that I will have greater control over my photos if I change the white balance setting to coincide with the available light source at hand and not rely on the auto white balance setting because that could change with each photo, depending on how accurately or inaccurately the camera reads the light source. Here are several examples of how the camera sees black, white, and 18% gray (the camera “sees” and meters everything as it relates to gray) with the various white balance settings, but all under, in this case, cool florescent lighting.

Auto White Balance, left
Cool Florescent, right

Tungsten, left
Sun, right
Cloudy, left
Shade, right

And, the cool florescent light in question:

My neighbor’s ornamental pear tree beckoned this morning because the color of the sky above it was so intense. I took this from underneath the tree, looking up.

Once again, the Sunny f/16 rule worked for me.

Lens @ 200mm
ISO 100
f/16
1/100
SOOC

I didn’t find the answer, though the wind was sure blowing, my friend. I decided to take advantage of the blustery winds today to stop action and blur action. It was not easy and I have to admit I took probably 300 or more photos and was disappointed in all of them.

I have a colorful fabric wind spiral designed to twist in the wind. It has a little wooden ball on the bottom for balance, I suppose. It didn’t seem to help in 22 mph winds, with gusts even higher. I hung the twister on a shepherd’s hook that I pushed down into the grass so that the twister had sun on it. I used a slow shutter speed to blur the twister. I discovered that the auto focus couldn’t key on anything because everything was moving in the wind. When it finally dawned on me to focus on a tree trunk, I realized that the step ladder on whose top step my gorilla pod was perched, was not stable and although I leaned my weight onto it, there was still a wobble. When I realized most of the photos were unusable, the sun had shifted. I moved the still unstable step ladder and the shepherd’s hook with the spiral hanging from it to a sunny place in the yard and started again, with only slightly better results. I still had trouble finding anything to focus on; when I realized the fence was still, my step ladder was not. I need a reliable tripod!

Here are the results. The first is the blurred motion; the second, the stopped motion. The little wooden ball shows in each photo.

Lens @ 170mm
ISO 100
f/16
1/4
Exposure decreased by 1; black point increased slightly

Lens @ 200mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/640
SOOC

This morning I noticed that the Christmas cactus friends gave me a couple of years ago has started to bud and one bud has actually opened despite my benign neglect. It’s a little late for Christmas, but could this mean that my black thumb is metamorphosing to olive drab? Years ago, I was able to grow anything, and I used to think I had a green thumb. But it takes effort to maintain a beautiful garden indoors and out and in recent years I have lost the enthusiasm I once had for growing things. Now my rose garden is a wreck and I have replaced most indoor plants with silk imitations. I would love to have a beautiful garden again. Maybe this blooming cactus signals a change for me. I hope so.

200mm
ISO 1600
f/5.6
1/60
Cropped slightly

I try to reserve photos of Bobo for her own blog. However, I picked up my camera this morning when she climbed onto the counter to explore and the 35 mm prime lens was attached. Instead of switching lenses, I decided to see what I could capture with that lens. I braced my forearms on the counter and beckoned her to me and took the photo. I knew instantly that I had my photo of the day. I think it’s one of the best shots I’ve ever taken of her.

35m lens
ISO 1600
f/2.5
1/125
SOOC

Early Valentine’s Day gift? Nope! A late Christmas gift from a neighbor who finally tracked me down last night and delivered this luscious box of See’s Nuts and Chews. I don’t care what anyone says about Godiva or any other gourmet chocolates. None holds a candle to San Francisco based See’s Candies. This afternoon I opened the box and sniffed the intoxicating aroma. I couldn’t resist savoring one piece. Then I realized this was the photo op of the day. The rest of the box awaits!

35mm lens
ISO 800
f/1.8
1/80
SOOC

I thought tomorrow was Chinese New Year and I discovered it was yesterday. Since I had not taken any photos today, I found some stale fortune cookies, cracked a couple open and took a few snaps. I tried the bounce flash in the darkened dining room; then I tried no flash and turning on the dining room light. I didn’t reduce the intensity of the flash so the flash photos were a bit overexposed and the one I took without the flash and just the room lighting was a bit underexposed. I liked that version a little better and increased the exposure slightly in Aperture. The fortune wasn’t particularly good but I flipped it over and learned the Chinese word for “delicious” and I might just play the lucky numbers in the lotto tomorrow.

35mm lens
ISO 200
f/1.8
1/60
Increased exposure by .51

When I picked up the mail today, the package I posted on Tuesday in Port Aransas was in my mail box. I commented to a neighbor how impressed I was with the Postal Service, especially given the weather situation in Texas and elsewhere east of the Rockies; after all, my flights into and out of Dallas on Tuesday were cancelled. I didn’t expect to see the package for a month. It contained the “oceans” of seashells I found on the beach as well as some whimsically painted square plates from Mexico that I fell in love with. I noted the box was in pristine shape and thought the clinking as I walked home was the seashells rattling around inside.

Alas, I am not as impressed with the Postal Service now as I was an hour ago. Although I used bubble wrap and newspaper to pack, I made the mistake of placing the plates in the bottom of the box. And, I should have written “fragile” on the box. The plates, now in more than one piece each, will not be serving the hors d’oeuvres I thought they would. But at least they can serve as my picture of the day.

Lens @ 62mm
ISO 800
f/4.8
1/100
SOOC

At certain times of the morning, the sun shines through a high window in the bathroom and then through the beveled shower glass creating a prism reflection on the tile. It moves quickly so when I noticed it this morning while taking my shower, I quickly rinsed off, threw on my robe, ran downstairs to change the camera lens, then raced back upstairs to photograph. I took this photo crouching down and pointing the camera up a little and was intrigued to get a shallow depth of field on the rainbow. And the bokeh is an added bonus!

35mm lens
ISO 1600
f/1.8
1/1000
Cropped, otherwise, SOOC

I flew home from Port Aransas today. This morning was cold and windy there so we didn’t walk on the beach. I went up to the upper balcony to take one last look at the Gulf before leaving; the chairs where Susan and I sat to enjoy our morning coffee and listen to the sounds of the ocean were sadly empty.

Lens at 18mm
ISO 200
f/8
1/200
Exposure compensation was set to +1; once again I forgot to reset it. It didn’t seem to ruin the picture, though.