Past Imperfect

 

Both these pictures were taken on a cold morning in a public park. Neither is very good. There are several lessons to be learned from these pictures. 1) make sure your camera is as steady as you can make it. If necessary, bump up your shutter speed and your iso. 2) Be patient. Good photographs take time and I took both of these awfully quickly. I'll return to the park when I have another day and I will practice and I will slow down. That'll help make better pictures.

Two new cameras

The blue one is a Nikon AW100. Useful for bad weather, camping, some water immersion shots and other situations where a more delicate camera might get damaged. The red one is a Canon 3400is. Not exactly the most sophisticated camera ever, but it's light, cheap and easy to carry in one's purse. It has a wonderful touch screen which makes it more like a cell phone and thus, easier for some folks to use. And I love the cheery color. Neither camera is as fancy as I'm used to but sometimes I just don't feel like hauling out the fancy equipment. These are a practical fall back.

It ain't good to be lazy

Today I'm trying to sort out alot of digital photographs clogging my hard drive. Sadly, there is a lot of dreck to clean out and it's kinda discouraging. From time to time, I take a really great photograph and my confidence soars. Then I look at the other pictures I've taken and I wonder why the heck I don't just take up some other hobby. The moral of this is keep your digital albums clean, and don't get lazy and let dreck pile up, it's bad for the soul.

It's okay to fail

This isn't a good picture. I was trying to learn how to photograph plants but no matter how hard I tried, nothing came out well. But that's okay. I'll keep trying and someday I will make a flower picture that is really special. It's like learning any other craft. You have to keep trying and accept failure and keep trying and keep trying and never, ever give up.

Fall is here!

The fall is my favorite time of year for photographs. Halloween, pumpkins, a clear moon on a dark night...Can't wait!

ISO What?????

This was taken as ISO 1000. I know anymore, that isn't really that amazing but I can remember when it was ASA, and 1000 was literally front page news. I still have a hard time wrapping my old brain around how much detail 1000 can keep.  I'll tell you a secret: when I first got into digital photography, I used to stop at 36 images, just because that was an old, old habit and it seemed inconcievable to me that you could take more pictures. Thankfully, I broke that habit quickly.
Progress is fun, just harder for us old farts to deal with.

Tip of the Day-lens condensation.

Our new car has a/c that absolutely destroys the Texas heat. I mean, that car stays as cold as a country club martini, if thats what you want. Great for the riders, but what do you do when you take the camera outside for photography? What will happen is that you take the camera out, power it up and bam! The lens is all condensed up with fog and it takes forever to clear.

So, here's what you do. Pack a baggie. Quart size for point and shoots, larger for DSLR's. Wrap the camera in the baggie before you get out of the nice cold car. Take the camera outside but keep it in the bag. Wait until the temp both inside and outside the bag are about the same (5 minutes or so). Remove the bag and start shooting.

Happy Shooting, folks.