The Day after my Class

Took my photography class last night.  Remember when I said I now know what I don't know......I was so mistaken.  So much went way over my head.  But some of it took.  I concentrated on what I knew I would need for the near future.  I figure, with the notes I took, the rest I will recall later with any luck.

I took this early this morning, concentrating on composition.  The placement.  Usually I take just the trees in the  pictures but tried to get a bit of the road to add interest.

My dear brother David asked me to take pictures to update his Face book profile.  I was able to try out a lot of what I learned last night.

I don't know if he really needed this done, or if he was being sweet by giving me an outlet for my photography.  Either way.....I appreciate it.

This is a picture I took on Auto.  Notice that he doesn't especially stand out.  The background is as vibrant as he is.  This is great for an all around photo, but if you want more of a portrait for a profile on face book, I needed to change things a little.

This photo is the one we chose for his profile, but cropped for face book.  Notice how he stands out more and the softer tones in the background.  The setting is in portrait mode and then to make sure you are zoomed all the way in.  This softens the background.  He reminds me of Uncle Marcel in this photo.

This is the same settings.  I love this photo.  I think he looks so natural and again, you can see the leaves but your eye doesn't immediately go to them.  Maybe this is the one for his Face book profile,  oh I don't even know anymore.  There were a lot of good ones.

This was a VERY lucky picture.  Sammy, his basset hound is hyper to say the least.  I took this in portrait mode, which makes the balance good.  But I wanted more of Sammy and knew I would need to change the setting.

This is Sammy in Action mode.  It is a very fast shutter speed.  I was able to hold down the button and continuously take pictures until the right one came along.  It took about a dozen snaps, she was licking, biting, playing, and having a merry ole time.  But for a split second she looked at the camera and looked perfect.  I wish I could say the same for her owner:)

While we were up at the abbey, I took a few landscape shots.  The opposite is true from portrait shooting.  Listen carefully because this was the biggest tip I got for landscape mode.  It is better to keep it at a wide shot.  Not zoomed in at all.  This keeps the whole landscape clear.  Then if you want to get closer, you crop the photo.  If you take the picture on zoom, your camera will focus only on the closest or center of picture and the rest of the picture will be softened.  For portraits this is great, but for most landscapes, you want it all crisp.

So this picture was even at much more of a distance.  There were electrical lines in the shot.  You couldn't even tell there was a barn in the picture.  But by me downloading and the cropping, I get a crisp photo of the whole landscape and remove what I did not want.  I am going to fiddle more with this picture, so you might end up seeing the barn closer in a future post.

What I am finding is a passion for photography.  I would rather spend my free time out taking shots of beautiful Oregon, loved ones, nature, and travels than be doing anything else.  I want to thank David for being my victim,....um I mean subject.  He actually is very excited about my hobby.