Sunday, November 21, 2010

Rock Your Camera 101, week 1 photo assignment

Warning: Boring photograhy class blog. This may put most of you to sleep. Proceed with caffeine.

So last week I was THRILLED to have finally gotten into a 5-wk. online photography class (in my forum Clickin Moms) called Rock Your Camera 101 that I've been unsuccessful at getting into for the past 7 months!

I saw a Facebook announcement that there were a few spots left and nearly chipped my teeth getting to my wallet to sign up and pay. After I was registered I happy-danced around the house like a fool celebrating......then I realized......wow, you dumb arse....it's the holidays. No wonder there were spots left. Everyone else will be immersed in cornucopias, turkeys, wreaths and jingle bells these next few weeks and YOU will be turning in assignments. (dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy!!)

{{{smacking myself in the forehead}}}     Duh.

Then I stood up straight and tall, wiped away the sweat from my brow, put on my rose colored glasses and declared loudly to myself, "Well, that's okay! I'll just take pics of cornucopias, turkeys, wreaths and jingle bells and make them my photography assignments. WOO-HOO! You go girl!"

My goal is to practice in my manual camera settings as much as I can, nail my white balance, ISO settings, shutter speeds and fstops & learn to capture children....in focus (which, I've recently learned the hard way is the exact same as shooting a NASCAR race. A little kid = race car. Same thing. Enough said).

So I'm starting with RYC 101. Then I pray that I get into 201. (Probably next Thanksgiving)

Our first assignment is simply dealing with lighting. Our cameras had to be set in "auto white balance" because that's next week's assignment. All images are straight out of the camera (SOOC), absolutely NO editing allowed, no cropping either. Everything as taken in manual mode.

We had to turn in 4 images: Outside, Window light, Inside low light & Image of choice. It was fun! I had several "Ah-ha!" moments learning how to meter my light and then make everything balance to "0" and then click away!

Garden statue

Outside - Garden statue  ISO 640  SS 1/500  fstop 2.5

My girls

Window light (I took this literally) - My girls  ISO 500  SS 1/160  fstop 2.5

My dragonfly collection

Inside low light - My dragonfly collection  ISO 3200  SS 1/125  fstop 2.5

GO NAVY!

Photo of choice - GO NAVY! Ornament in the gift shop Temptations that I volunteer in. I worked on Friday and yes, I bought it  :o)  I'm trying to work on my indoor, low light images and nail the focus. 

ISO 250  SS 1/100  fstop 1.8 (that's why the lighting works, I opened up to 1.8)

I couldn't help myself! While supper was baking I had to go in and do some post processing on my Christmas ornament. It needed a bit of lightening & sharpening and that brought out the soft pink hues. I love it!

Navy ornament, full edit
                                                              
Before/After
Before/After

I'm really getting into the holiday spirit. See? This photo class is going to be great.

I hear next week is going to be a doooozie. Mainly composition & white balance, but we'll have two weeks to finish. Wish me luck!

Photobucket

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