A Flutter of Butterflies

Walking along the waters edge at Ohiopyle, PA I found this:

A beautiful butterfly:



A few friends decided to join him/her:



and then more:



and then even more!



A huge flutter of butterflies:

Weekend Shots

Bloggography Challenge-Focus

This weeks challenge was all about focus.  you can read it here.

I didn't get a chance to take a bunch of photos-but I went to my Nephew's T-ball game.  It was so cute to see a bunch of 5 year olds learning the game.

Here are my best shots:

 The first 2 shots I practiced focus in action shots:

This last picture he directed me to get "the Thunder" (logo) on his hat and he wanted to hold up the piece of plastic he found in the outfield while playing. So cute.

Rule of Thirds.

This week in the Bloggography Tutorial we learned about the Rule of Thirds.  Basically, you imagine a tic-tac-toe board over the viewfinder and attempt to position your subject where the lines intersect.  This usually enhances the aesthetic quality of your pictures.  You can read the full explanation here.
Here is my best picture from the week using this Rule:

I went back and looked at some on my pictures over the last year and discovered that about 80% of "My Favorites" follow this rule.   I never realized it.

Bloggography Challenge: Exposure Compensation

This week's lesson was all about adding or subtracting light in your picture.  You can read all about it here.  Basically, it adds/subtracts light to adjust the automatic setting your camera picks when it reads the light, because it sets the setting according to the light it reads-which is not always the light for the actual picture you want.

I experimented with this a lot this week.  The weather was B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!  We had been in the winter doldrums for what seemed like years-so this week's above normal temps and Sun (!!) seemed magical.  I took pictures of the sky, the first Spring flowers and my dog.  We got Dairy Queen, Italian Ice and went to the park.  I have dozens of pictures on my computer of the same image-all with different Exposre Compensation Values.  Here is the best of them (along with an incorrect exposure to compare it to) Oh, I shot everything in the "A" Aperture mode:

ISO: 800 Shutter: 1/640 Aperture: f 5.0 Exposure Bias: +.67

Correct Exposure makes this one look Sun-Kissed even though it is under a tree.

ISO: 800 Shutter: 1/80 Aperture: f 22 Exposure Bias: -.67 

Too dark

Here is another example.  From these I realized that adjusting the Exposure Compensation I could lighten and deepen colors:

ISO: 400 Shutter: 1/4000 Aperature: f5.6 Exposure Bias: -1.0

This picture of the sky is too dark.  It looks like Storm Clouds

ISO: 400 Shutter: 1/800 Aperature: f5.6 Exposure Bias: +1.33

This picture of the sky is too light.  The color washes out.

ISO: 800 Shutter: 1/1600 Aperature: 5.6 Exposure Bias: +.33

This picture is just right. 

Finally, took these pictures today.  These two pictures illustrate how just a small change in Exposure Compensation can make a difference.

ISO: 800 Shutter: 1/640 Aperature: 5.0 Exposure Bias: +.67

This picture is good...

But this picture is just a little better.  More color.  More definition.  Only one step up in Compensation

ISO: 400 Shutter: 1/320 Aperature: f5.6 Exposure Bias: +1.0

Bloggography Challenge: The Exposure Triangle

This weeks challenge was to review "the Exposure Triangle" of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed.
I understand each of these separately, however, how they impact and when/how to adjust each one for the picture I want at that exact setting is far from being easy or quick.  Also, setting up a shot so I get the image I want is hard-but I know that "photographers eye" will come in time-I hope.

I played around with each setting-both inside and outside.  I definitely need more practice and help in low lighting situations-I have a lot of difficulty NOT using a flash in those situations and getting a decent picture.  However, this weekend was nice and sunny-so low lighting wasn't as big a issue.  I took over a hundred pictures this weekend. These are the best of them:

This one I was playing with the Aperture.  All of mine with a smaller aperture-but they were all blurry because I just can't hold still long enough while it gathers enough light to take the picture.

ISO 200      APERTURE  f/9.0    SPEED 1/4

I was attempting stop-action via Shutter Speed.  My husband threw snow about 50 times that day for me (it took forever to get my timing down so his hand and the snow were in the picture.)

ISO 200       APERTURE  f/3.5    SPEED 1/2000

I also was working with shutter speed here.  Also, the ISO to get some brightness-but not too much.  

 ISO  800   APERTURE   f/8.0  SPEED 1/2000

Aperture

This weeks bloggography challenge was to learn about aperture. You can read about it here.

We were asked to take 2 pictures=one with a large aperture and the same picture with a small aperture. For added fun-we were asked to take a picture of something red or pink because it's February and Valentines day is this month.

I played around with this for a long time. It took me awhile to see the difference in the pictures (of course, I was relying on that tiny 2 inch screen on the camera-when I loaded the pictures I saw the difference a little clearer.)

My first attempt was just to get the feel of this challenge.  I took about 100 pictures of various items-this set clearly shows the difference aperture setting make.  The background is clear with the smaller aperture setting while it is blurry with the large aperture.  If you click on the pictures they will get bigger.

 

ISO 800, f/5.6 

 

ISO 800, f/32.0

My husband and I went to Erie, PA to see the frozen lake (Parts of Lake Erie are ice).  I saw this red life saving box and knew I had to try different aperture settings in a landscape.  Although not as crisp-I can definitely see that the background is sharper with the small aperture and blurred with the large aperture:

 

ISO 100, f/29.0

 

 
ISO 100, f/5.3

I was so happy to find something red outside!  It is funny that we have so many colors around us-but when you start looking for something "perfect" to use for an photo challenge how hard it is to find what you need!


Want to join the fun?

Photography Challenge 3-Shutter Speed

For years I have been complaining how my camera does not take action pictures well. All of my husband's graduation pictures have blurry morphed faces. I have deleted countless action pictures because they are blurry and unfocused. That is the main reason I wanted an SLR camera--since my old Olympus (regular) digital took wonderful pictures-as long as everything was still. However, using my Nikon on "Auto" has not yielded the expected results. I started the challenge taking pictures of the snow-since here in PA we were experiencing Snowmageddon 2010. They are not the best pictures-I tried various versions (night and day) to get pictures with slow and fast shutter speeds-I got some good experience but the pictures are not great-it was hard to find something dark to contrast the white flakes in a world completely covered in snow. Here are the best of them, taken at the onset of the snow-it was "raining" snow:


Shutter 1/6 ISO 1600

Shutter 1/25 ISO 1600

Shutter1/60 ISO 1600

The next day we were completely snowed under by 2 feet of the pretty white stuff-so I took pictures from the window of the birds at the feeder. I got some better pictures that day-but it completely emphasized how much I miss having a Zoom Lens. (My husband also heard me whine (hint hint dear hubby) for a long time because he couldn't go anywhere-snowed in).

Shutter 1/100 ISO 400

Shutter 1/800 ISO 400

Shutter 1/1250 ISO 200

Shutter 1/800 ISO 400

See Honey, that last pic would have been fabulous if I had a Zoom!

I still wanted a better handle on this shutter speed so I dug a path to may car, uncovered it and found my box of wind-ups I use during speech therapy with my students for motivation. I experimented with a few at different speeds-a bunny that does a complete flip and a butterfly that goes forward fast, flapping her wings.

Shutter 1/1.3 ISO 400

Shutter 1/800, ISO 800


Shutter 1/1.3 ISO 400


Shutter 1/500 ISO 400


Shutter 1/320 ISO 400


Shutter 1/800 ISO 800


The bunny ended up being my favorite.


Want to join the photography fun? Go here.

Challenge 2-ISO

This week's photography challenge involved using ISO. We were challenged to take a picture of toys and/or children playing with toys without flash and changing the ISO. Not having any children and not willing to take my camera with me to work to photograph some toys at one of the preschools where I work, I took pictures of my dog's toys and her playing with her favorite (tennis ball).


ISO 1600

I also took pictures of her (and the cat's) basket of toys-and yes, they go and find a toy to play with-and no, they do not return the toy to the basket-that's my job apparently. This isn't a very creative picture-but I took each one-several different angles-at every ISO so it took a while. These were the best of the bunch:


ISO 800


ISO 1600

All of these pictures look kind of orange to me-I know it is because of the light level-can this be fixed without using a flash-or do they look "normal" and I am just over-analyzing because I am used to bright-white flash?

Photography Lessons

I used the macro (flower) setting on my dial.
Aperture: f/5.3, Shutter speed: 1/60 Focal Length: 38 mm, ISO speed 220-What this all means--not sure. Flickr helped me out under my picture properties.

One of the things I wanted to be "when I grew up" was a photographer. I wanted to take pictures of people-famous and not-and scenic breathtaking pictures. I was at an inservice for work one year and the speaker was a National Geographic Photographer. Even though the purpose of the inservice was not about photography-the photographs and stories he used to illustrate his message were inspiring. (My apologies to him-the years have erased his name from my memory-I remember the photos but have not (yet) found them). I bought an digital camera-one of the best point and shoots of the day-with a 10x zoom (very new at the time). I have thousands of pictures now-and I have a few that are surprisingly good. (Once, the manager at Walmart would not let my friend print the photos I took of Steven Tyler at a toy run because he thought she was violating a professional photographer's copyright.) But I still don't really take great pictures-I just take A LOT so i can go through and delete the many, many bad ones (the digital memory card is one of my favorite inventions EVER!)
Last year, My Husband spent too much money on me and bought be a Nikon D60 DSLR. I Love it. A year has passed-I have taken some decent pictures...but I am no better a photographer than I was before. (although, honey, I still think it is because I don't have a zoom lens yet-and Santa apparently forgot)
SO-I am embarking on a journey-hopefully one with lots of scenery. I am attempting Project 365. I am also participating in several online photography assignments via blogs. Both are daunting. Attempting Project 365 without having a child to photograph (I mean, how many pics of the dog can one REALLY take?) seems impossible-but the optimist in me believe this will open my eyes more to the photography opportunities around me.
The first blog assignment I chose was posed by Manic Mother:
Chose any one of the modes on your camera other than full auto and take a Winter-themed picture. Then come back next week and share it with us (we'll have a linky to link your post on Tuesday!). Include any information you have about the mode and settings that you used when taking your picture, so that we can all learn!
Since I am new to this blog-thing I cannot figure out how to put the picture at the bottom. So see the one above.