Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
South Eastern Railway Musuem...
Here are some pictures I took last weekend at the South Eastern Railway Museum....
Until next time keep on Snappin'!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Missing in Action...
Sorry, I know that I have been scarce. I have been very busy and tired. I also have not really been out taking pictures lately because it is just way too hot. I went out for just 15 minutes yesterday evening to get some shots for my class today and I returned home soaking wet. Honestly, I don't remember summer ever being this hot and humid. I am praying for some cooler temps. I'd rather sleep under 10 blankets that put up with this heat! LOL!
Do you remember the post I did, titled "My last meal", where I took photos of some of the meals I ate the week before starting my diet....urhh... lifestyle change? LOL! I am happy to report that since that post, I have lost 23 lbs and three dress sizes! I look and feel ten years younger and am really happy with my progress so far. Of course I am nowhere near my goal weight, but I am finally on the right track and if I stick with it I should be at my goal weight by Christmas.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned being busy and tired. Well, being tired comes from some of the heavy workouts I have been doing. I go to the gym daily now, yes even on weekends! I run anywhere from 3 to 8 miles and have also been working out with weights every other day. I keep pushing myself to go faster, longer and lift heavier. Some days it hurts just to walk back to my car. On those days, when I have gone too far, I find that the rest of the day is spent recovering. Needless to say I have been recovering a lot lately! But this is only because I have been on a plateau for about two weeks now and I am trying to get out of it. Anyway I thought I would share a picture I took after my workout yesterday. This is the front of me and you can see I am soaking wet.
OK, now on to some real photography! There are a couple of things I have been studying recently. These include night photography, panning and zoom burst techniques. I had to go out in the field and put these into practice as part of my homework assignment. I thought I would share some of those shots with you today.
I will start with night photography. As we know the shutter controls how much light comes into the camera. The longer the shutter remains open, the more light is allowed into the camera and viceversa. At night, especially when it's really dark, there is not much available light, so we tend to need a longer shutter speed to produce a better picture. Because the shutter remains open longer, there is going to be an increased risk of camera shake and a resulting blurred photograph. So for nighttime photography, a tripod is necessary. The ISO selected on your camera determines how sensitive your camera is to incoming light. The higher the ISO the more sensitive the camera is to light so for nighttime photography, you will want to set your ISO to at least 400. The higher the ISO the more "grainy" the shot, so I try to go no higher than ISO 800, unless it is absolutely necessary. Keeping all this in mind, I took the picture below at about 11:00pm. I wanted to go downtown and get some really pretty shots but hubby would not entertain that, so I settled for this deserted church parking lot. My ISO was set to 400. The camera was on a tripod. I set the camera to "TV" mode, aka "Shutter Priority" and set my shutter to 30 seconds. Below is the resulting shot.
I did the same thing for the shot below, but this time I created a "ghost" effect by walking in front of the camera lens and standing there a few seconds during the camera's 30 second exposure. Can you see what appears to be the ghost of a woman in the driveway?
Here is another example. I had my husband do the same thing in this shot. This is so neat! It makes me question all those ghost pictures I see on TV now! LOL!
Now we move to "panning". This is a really neat technique and it is effective at showing motion and movement. For this technique you need a relatively slow shutter speed. For the two pictures below, I set my camera to shutter priority mode and my shutter speed to 1/15. I did not use a tripod.
Finally, we come to the "zoom burst" technique. This is another neat technique. It can be used to demonstrate a number of things such as movement to, or away, from an object or point of interest. It can also depict disorientation, insanity, dizziness, an altered mental state etc. It is recommended that you use a tripod, but if you have a steady hand a tripod may not be necessary. Again for this technique, you will need a relatively slow shutter speed. You will also need a zoom lens. For the two pictures below, I set the camera to "shutter priority" mode and selected a shutter speed of 1/15. I used the kit lens that came with the camera. It was an 18-55mm zoom lens. I did not use a tripod. These images were created by pressing the shutter release button and turning your zoom lens at the SAME time. The direction you turn the lens does not matter. The most important thing to remember is that both these actions have to occur at the same time. It takes some practice as initially you will want to do one or the other. I found that in the beginning I was pressing the shutter release button and then turning the lens. I had to really practice doing them at the same time. This is also why you need a slower shutter speed. If you shutter speed is too fast, your picture will be taken long before you get a chance to turn the lens. The show shutter speed allows you to zoom through, as the camera is exposing the picture.
Well that is all I have for today! Thanks for visiting and until next time, keep on shootin'!
Do you remember the post I did, titled "My last meal", where I took photos of some of the meals I ate the week before starting my diet....urhh... lifestyle change? LOL! I am happy to report that since that post, I have lost 23 lbs and three dress sizes! I look and feel ten years younger and am really happy with my progress so far. Of course I am nowhere near my goal weight, but I am finally on the right track and if I stick with it I should be at my goal weight by Christmas.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned being busy and tired. Well, being tired comes from some of the heavy workouts I have been doing. I go to the gym daily now, yes even on weekends! I run anywhere from 3 to 8 miles and have also been working out with weights every other day. I keep pushing myself to go faster, longer and lift heavier. Some days it hurts just to walk back to my car. On those days, when I have gone too far, I find that the rest of the day is spent recovering. Needless to say I have been recovering a lot lately! But this is only because I have been on a plateau for about two weeks now and I am trying to get out of it. Anyway I thought I would share a picture I took after my workout yesterday. This is the front of me and you can see I am soaking wet.
OK, now on to some real photography! There are a couple of things I have been studying recently. These include night photography, panning and zoom burst techniques. I had to go out in the field and put these into practice as part of my homework assignment. I thought I would share some of those shots with you today.
I will start with night photography. As we know the shutter controls how much light comes into the camera. The longer the shutter remains open, the more light is allowed into the camera and viceversa. At night, especially when it's really dark, there is not much available light, so we tend to need a longer shutter speed to produce a better picture. Because the shutter remains open longer, there is going to be an increased risk of camera shake and a resulting blurred photograph. So for nighttime photography, a tripod is necessary. The ISO selected on your camera determines how sensitive your camera is to incoming light. The higher the ISO the more sensitive the camera is to light so for nighttime photography, you will want to set your ISO to at least 400. The higher the ISO the more "grainy" the shot, so I try to go no higher than ISO 800, unless it is absolutely necessary. Keeping all this in mind, I took the picture below at about 11:00pm. I wanted to go downtown and get some really pretty shots but hubby would not entertain that, so I settled for this deserted church parking lot. My ISO was set to 400. The camera was on a tripod. I set the camera to "TV" mode, aka "Shutter Priority" and set my shutter to 30 seconds. Below is the resulting shot.
I did the same thing for the shot below, but this time I created a "ghost" effect by walking in front of the camera lens and standing there a few seconds during the camera's 30 second exposure. Can you see what appears to be the ghost of a woman in the driveway?
Here is another example. I had my husband do the same thing in this shot. This is so neat! It makes me question all those ghost pictures I see on TV now! LOL!
Now we move to "panning". This is a really neat technique and it is effective at showing motion and movement. For this technique you need a relatively slow shutter speed. For the two pictures below, I set my camera to shutter priority mode and my shutter speed to 1/15. I did not use a tripod.
Finally, we come to the "zoom burst" technique. This is another neat technique. It can be used to demonstrate a number of things such as movement to, or away, from an object or point of interest. It can also depict disorientation, insanity, dizziness, an altered mental state etc. It is recommended that you use a tripod, but if you have a steady hand a tripod may not be necessary. Again for this technique, you will need a relatively slow shutter speed. You will also need a zoom lens. For the two pictures below, I set the camera to "shutter priority" mode and selected a shutter speed of 1/15. I used the kit lens that came with the camera. It was an 18-55mm zoom lens. I did not use a tripod. These images were created by pressing the shutter release button and turning your zoom lens at the SAME time. The direction you turn the lens does not matter. The most important thing to remember is that both these actions have to occur at the same time. It takes some practice as initially you will want to do one or the other. I found that in the beginning I was pressing the shutter release button and then turning the lens. I had to really practice doing them at the same time. This is also why you need a slower shutter speed. If you shutter speed is too fast, your picture will be taken long before you get a chance to turn the lens. The show shutter speed allows you to zoom through, as the camera is exposing the picture.
Well that is all I have for today! Thanks for visiting and until next time, keep on shootin'!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Here comes the bride...
Here are some pictures from Saturday's wedding...
Wedding shoes and helmet. The happy couple left on a motorcycle.
The bride getting dressed....
A solemn moment...
Isn't she beautiful!
I decided to make her reflection black and white.
Look at the beautiful dress! The dress was actually made with feathers. This is so cool as the bride is a parrot owner.
Having some fun...
A little closer....
Here is a picture of the beautiful cake.
That's it for today. Until next time, keep on snappin'!
Wedding shoes and helmet. The happy couple left on a motorcycle.
The bride getting dressed....
A solemn moment...Isn't she beautiful!
I decided to make her reflection black and white.
Look at the beautiful dress! The dress was actually made with feathers. This is so cool as the bride is a parrot owner.
Having some fun...A little closer....
Here is a picture of the beautiful cake.
That's it for today. Until next time, keep on snappin'!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
At The Beach...
These are the last of the photos from my Florida trip. I am so glad we had the opportunity to play on the beach before it became affected by the oil spill. I see that this past weekend the oil made it to Pensacola beach. Yesterday I saw some images of oiled pelicans that were captured at Grand Isle, Louisiana and these images really touched me. I guess it's because I have been around pelicans recently and observed them enjoying their surroundings and hunting for food. These are truly beautiful birds and to think that their food source and their very existence is affected by this disaster is very disheartening.
We were on the beach for the Memorial Day weekend, so needless to say it was crowded. I shot these pictures with my new Canon Powershot SX20IS in manual mode. This is a great camera with an incredible zoom. It's also my first Canon camera and I have to say I am loving it! I will be taking it with me on all my future trips.
I thought this was so beautiful, two mothers attending to their daughters. Hopefully this will be me one day!
One thing we noticed this time on the beach was that a lot of people were being bitten in the water and this bite left them paralyzed for minutes. We believe jellyfish were the culprits but I did not confirm this. The picture below is one such instance of this. There were a couple others. The little boy in this picture was bitten. The life guard, in the red shorts, came to his aid as his concerned parents and sibling comforted him. For this reason alone, I did not enter the water for a swim. With my luck, I would have been the next victim!
I sat on the seashore and took pictures as my husband sat next to me reading.
Some more beach pictures.
Some more beach pictures.
Below are examples of the zooming power of this camera. These people were very far away from me. The Canon Powershot SX20IS has a 20X wide angle optical zoom so it brings you closer to the action. I was hand holding the camera for all these shots.
These other pictures were taken in the evening around 7:00pm as we arrived to capture pictures of the sunset.
This is where I sat to take my sunset pictures.
In the distance, way across from me, I noticed a couple getting married on the beach. From where I was sitting I was able to zoom in for this shot. I zoomed all the way to the faces of just the bride and groom but I had a hard time keeping the camera steady enough to get a good picture at such a long zoom. A tripod would have helped.
On the other side of me were these teenagers enjoying the water and the beginning glow of the sunset.
Well that's it for today. Enjoy the rest of your week and until next time, keep on snappin'!
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