7/365

Not a lot happened today for me photo wise.  I actually took this one the same day as the sunset on the previous post, but I liked the star-burst.

6/365

Sunset.  I realize that it may be slightly underexposed, but I think that it works for this one.  I could only get the pretty sun color fade by underexposing it.  If I had made the shutter stay open any longer I would have gotten a fuzzy photo.  There was nothing to prop the camera on as a temporary tripod and getting mine unhooked from my bag and set up would have taken too long.  The sun was setting very quickly.  I was taking pictures just as quickly as I could change the settings trying to expose it correctly and only 2 or 3 photos after this one the sun was already halfway behind the tree.  Still I like it.
I really need to stop posting after midnight.

5/365

Sprinklers at sunset.

4/365

Glasses in the sun.


I decided to pull out my wine and champagne glasses today.  The sparkles that show through the glass and water are beautiful.  If I hadn't been going blind looking out the window towards the sun I probably could have gotten even better ones.  The water in the glass just wasn't as dramatic as I was wanting but the red wine provided a wonderful contrast.  These were all shot in Manual mode.  I think that I am getting better at Manual mode.  


Here's to learning new things! *wine glasses clink together*

3/365

Once again I am posting after midnight.  Well at least I am getting my day in.  If I hadn't played so long in photoshop then maybe I would have met my deadline. 
I have been reading many blogs lately.  I came across a post from Jill Samter Photography about water droplets.
My experiment did not turn out quite as well as in the tutorial but it was still fun to try.  I used one of my studio lights and my kit lens.  I was really wishing for a macro lens today but I think that I still got some good shots.  Today was all about learning.  I actually shot all of these photos in Manual.  They turned out a bit better than yesterday's failed efforts.  Although the ISO is a little high in a few and are a bit grainy.  But if you can't tell which ones, I am not going to tell you which.

2/365

I have only had my new camera for a short time.  With the old camera I was using (which was borrowed from my husband's mother) I only shot in the green zone.  Those presets that come with the camera.  When I started learning more about what a camera can really do I was consistently disappointed.  That camera was a perfectly fine camera, but it couldn't do anything.  The manual modes were practically nonexistent.  Since getting my new camera, a Canon T3i, I have since learned the joys of aperture.  I love it.  Bokeah (bo-kuh) is amazing and beautiful.  I almost always shoot in this mode now.  I have experimented a bit with shooting in shutter priority.  Caught a little bit of lightning in one picture and made some soft blurry water in another.  Other than those two reasons I don't really know (yet!) how I will use that mode in everyday photo shoots.  Today I tried something even more challenging.  I read over quite a few blogs last night and learned several new things.  I woke up this morning feeling confident and decided to try.  Wow, I failed!  I tried shooting in full manual mode.  I am not ready for that!  I don't think that I made a single photo come out right.  My metering skills are not great either.  So for now, I think that I am just going to stick with my aperture priority and learn more about spot metering.  Thinking about changing to BBF (back button focusing) too!

The pictures of the flowers have no editing.  The color one has a little cropping but nothing else done to it.  The b&w is SOOC (straight out of the camera).

1/365

This is my first day of Project 365.  I know it would be better if I had started at the first of the year or even on the first day of the month.  Well, unfortunately, I did not really find out about it until the second day of June and did not get this posted until it was already the third.  That is not going to stop me from posting again on the third.  The way I see it, if I haven't gone to sleep yet it is still today and tomorrow will be the third, even though it is technically the third now.  Perhaps I do need to sleep soon.  I was looking over a blog by Click It Up a Notch when I found out about this wonderful project.  So many photographers do it that I am amazed that I am just now finding out about it.  Honestly, I am new to the world of blogs, so that could be the biggest reason for it.  

I was at a local park scouting a good location for portraits today.  I would not have gotten a photo of this amazing tree though if it was not for my husband, F.  I have been to this park dozens of times and even done a photo session there already.  I have seen every inch of it.  Honestly, I did not have any intention of crossing the bridge to the field on the other side.  F made me.  I have seen this tree before.  I knew that it was there.  Yet if I had not taken the time to walk to it, I would not have found the exact thing that I was looking for on my trip today.  I think that this tree is perfect for the portraits I want to do next to it.  I learned something today.  If we can just take the time to see what is in front of us, we will find exactly what we are looking for.

And I don't know about you but I think it just screams for a tire swing!