Santa brought me a really cool camera for Christmas, a Nikon D5100. I have been using it in the fully automatic “idiot” settings ever since. Before the Nikon era, I used a good quality point-and-shoot digital camera, but for a long time I have yearned to do more with my pictures. I signed up for a photography class and have been blown away by all there is to know about my fabulous new camera.
I used to love school….until law school. (I have yet to meet anyone who says they liked that experience.) This class represented a return to FUN school. For the past two Saturdays, I have been sitting in a small room with one great teacher and six new friends trying to figure out the secrets of f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, flash compensation, composition, lines, rule of thirds, and so on. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. It’s overwhelming and exciting.
I have a month to get ready for our Rome trip, and I want to keep using the camera in manual mode. Practice, practice, practice.
I am attaching some of my “homework” shots. First, an exercise in framing:
Next, we were told to get a photograph in low light without a flash. I was amazed at how much color and light I could get just by changing the settings. This room was very dark.
Next, we learned about the rule of thirds. I tried to put the cat’s eye at the intersect point.
We were tasked with a “story” shot. The photo should need no explanation.
Genene seemed to make her way into a lot of these. This photo is one of my first stumbling attempts at a panning shot. By sheer accident, the composition is in a rule-of-thirds.
We learned how to stop action. This little girl was quite the hotshot on the high board, and I got her in midair.
As I said, Genene seems to be my favorite model, and everyone in the class liked this one. It wasn’t a particular assignment. I just thought it turned out nicely.
And finally, I am partial to these macro close-ups. After last year’s punishing drought, we have been blessed with life-giving rain this year, and I went out after a shower and got this one.
I carried my camera everywhere last week and received some gentle mocking from people at work for coming into the office toting a backpack like a schoolkid. That’s what I am. I took over 800 photographs. I didn’t love any of them…..but it’s a start.
ramblingrazorback 