Lesson 3 – Lenses

I don’t have an SLR, so this lesson was extremely frustrating. No matter how hard I tried, fiddling with the aperture did not alter the field of depth. Over the course of more than 200 photos, I learned that I can only change my depth of field when my camera is in macro mode with one item VERY close and the background reasonably distant. Since the majority of my food photos are close-ups, this is fine. For now.

The lesson: In Lesson 3, we looked at the different effects you can achieve with different lenses — from fish eye to wide angle. We also looked at how aperture can affect the depth of field, either blurring the background or foreground for effect. Coston also stressed the importance of a tripod. (Note to self: get a bloody tripod and stop balance the camera on books or stacked coasters.)

The assignment: There were two assignments this week. The first was to take a photo using the widest possible and longest possible lenses. The composition was supposed to be interesting. The second assignment was to take a photos where your subject was in focus and the background was blurred, and a second were everything was in focus.

My results: They stank. My camera is sooooo autmatic I can’t force it to make “mistakes”. I fiddled with the zoom but couldn’t get the distance required to show off the 15X zoom. So I dug into my archives and came out with a practice shot from May when I was in Nova Scotia.

The first three shots are zoom practice.

The rest of the shots are me trying to get shallow and deep focus. You aren’t seeing things. I used a carved wooden puffin and a ceramic sheep (same one from the abstract shot on Lesson 1). I figured they wouldn’t move and would provide different textures. Is it just me or are the results somewhat creepy?

The closer together the two figures were, the less obvious the blur was. The further away, the more obvious the blur. Regardless of their proximity, I found the lighting changed even though I didn’t move the camera. Very frustrating. And as I said before, kinda creepy…

Church in distance

Laundry in the distance

Laundry on line

Dots and lines shallow

Dots and lines deep

Whispering – shallow

Whispering – deep

Beak and horn shallow

Beak and horn deep

Sheep and puffin deep

Sheep and puffin shallow

Nature shots

Autumn is so gorgeous here in Ontario, I just couldn’t stop myself.

This is another practice session. I was playing with composition and light more than aperture and shutter speed. For some reason, the portrait-style shots show up as landscape. I can’t rotate them. Anyone know the fix?

I don’t expect you to comment on all 18 shots, but if something jumps out at you (good or bad) I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Just click on the thumbnail to see a larger version.

Apple orchard

Market tomatoes

Lone apple

Monarch

Fallen cone

Trees on fire

Wood pile

Golden delcious

Don’t pick

Tantelous

Last lavender

Streets of gold

More lavender

Orange flames

Road to nowhere

Twilight glow

Cotton ball leaves

Clouds

You’re in the right place!

This is the new location of my photo project. All the content, photos and previous comments have been transferred over.

Why the switch? The previous URL was too close to my website’s URL and I didn’t want to confuse editors.

Thanks for understanding.

I promise not to do this kind of thing again.

Lesson 2 – Aperture and Shutter Speed

A few days ago, Jill Something-or-Other made a few “fly-by” comments. Her name wasn’t hyperlinked, so I can’t thank her directly, but let me say here — Jill, you really know your stuff!

Jill SoO gave me stellar feedback, which forced me to look at my camera’s features more closely. How do I blur the background? What could I have done to eliminate that shadow? While my Sony Cybershot DCS-H9 is not an SLR, it has all sorts of settings I’ve been too confused to use. Jill’s comments tied in beautifully with this week’s lesson.

Thanks, Jill, wherever and whoever you are.

The lesson: This week, in Lesson 2, we looked at aperture, shutter speed and how the two features work together to create a variety of effects.

The assignment: There were three assignments this week. The first two were tasks to see how adjusting aperture and shutter speed affects the photo. These shots were instructional, not artistic. The third assignment was to play with the shutter speed and create an interesting effect.

My results: I really struggled with the super-fast shots. My camera has a delay between the time I push the button and the time it takes the shot. This made it almost impossible to capture a drop of milk (500 shots and I’m still trying to get a perfect “crown”), a spinning coin (gave up) or playful cat (unremarkable at best). I also couldn’t focus well if I used the zoom feature, so I couldn’t get in close for dripping milk or splashing water shots without getting my lense wet.

Also, my flash created shadows at the bottom of the picture. I’ve had to crop most of these photos severely. I started out copying Coston shamelessly, and in doing so learned I really need to buy a tripod.

Without further ado, here are some shots I took. Click on the thumbnail to read a description of the shot and how it was taken.

Drink

Play

Roll

Shimmy

Swirl

Bubbles

Clean tomato

Synchronized beans

Churning

Almost

Drips

Thread

Ring

Milky Way

Symmetry

Splashing pool

Man Overboard

Before

After

Practice Shots

Thank heavens I have a digital camera. I can’t imagine the film I’d waste and the toxic chemicals I’d be dumping into the water system if I was going the conventional photo processing route. I’d also be broke. My success rate isn’t very high. I’m estimating only about 10% of the pictures I take are any good.

Last week I took my camera to the Farmers’ Market and practiced taking shots from different angles. Despite snapping almost 80 pictures, these are the only ones interesting enough to post.

I realize these are just more of Lesson 1, but I thought I’d post practice shots between sessions to chart my progress. You’re under no obligation to comment.

Must remember to work on those abstract shots, too.

Radishes

Ugly gourds

Glass Pendants

Fresh donuts

Purple cauliflower

Last peaches

Orange lanterns

Shiny Peppers

An apple a day

More apples

Lesson 1 – Composition

Today I worked on Lesson One of Jodie Coston’s online photography course.

The lesson: Composition, specifically, what makes some pictures more interesting than others. Coston discussed The Rule of Thirds, The Golden Mean, framing and various lines that make photos interesting, including leading lines, triangles, circles and repetition.

The assignment: Coston assigned two tasks. The first was to take an abstract photo applying one of the composition rules. The photo should not be recognizable. The second task was to photograph a subject from various angles to explore what was most visually appealing.

My results: I’d gone to the Farmers’ Market expecting to photograph some of the harvest, but when I arrived home, a bright orange rose in my garden caught my attention. Although slightly battered, it was so beautiful I just had to tell the peaches to wait their turn.

Below are the best of my practice shots. Click on the thumbnails to post a comment about the respective picture, or just give general comments below.

Thanks in advance for your feedback. If you’ve joined the group and I don’t have you listed under “Photo Course Participants”, let me know and I’ll be happy to add you.

Abstract photo

Rose on fence

Core

Sideways

Peach waves

Light within