Photo-along: Aperture schmaperture and shutter speed.

So are you completely confused as to what aperture and shutter speed are? For the longest time I couldn't remember that bigger is smaller and vice versa. Big is less and small is more. What?!

I'm not even going to try to explain it because I'll just end up confusing myself all over again. Instead head on over to Pioneer Woman photography for a great explanation on aperture and shutter speed.

Aperture part 1
Aperture/Shutter Speed part 2
Aperture part 3
Aperture part 4


Hopefully these will help clear things up for you. While you are there browse around for some wonderful photos and some more tips, tricks, and explanations.

Photography-along Lesson #2

It's Friday and time to move on to lesson #2 of the Photo-along. How did you do in lesson #1? Did you get in closer? I sure have and I must say getting in close yields amazing results. I'm not sure I did very well on the whole abstract thing but it was fun to try.

How did you do on assignment 2 of Lesson #1? This was shooting a subject from various angles. I kind of count my Jelly Fish pics as my submission for this assignment. It was fun to snap away and let me tell you, Jellies are interesting from every angle! Did you know they swim upside down too? I just assumed they swam upwards, but I guess it makes sense that they would have to swim in all directions! I just have always seen them in photos/movies swimming upwards! How do they keep from tangling up in each other?

So this week we are moving on to Lesson #2 which can be found over on morgueFile. This weeks lesson is all about aperture and shutter speed. Aper-what? Don't let the first couple of diagrams scare you off though! I took one look at them and almost ran in the opposite direction. Just chug along and later this week I'll be posting a couple of other links with awesome explanations of aperture and shutter speed. This is a hard one to learn and the more ways it's explained the more sense it will make!

Oooh there are 3 assignments for this lesson. This might become another 2 week lesson.

Now go out and shoot!

Photography-along Lesson #1: Assigment #1

I feel kinda weird posting about the photography-along since no one decided to join me *sniff* Maybe I should change the name to photography-alone. I know lame, right! I'm pretty sure my SIL will join me when she gets her modem working though... and I'm still hoping to inspire a few of you to bust out your cameras and manuals and join me in the near future!

So for Lesson #1 over on morgueFile there are 2 assignments.

The first is to take some abstract photos using some of the basic composition rules outlined: getting in close, the rule of thirds, triangles, frame within a frame, leading lines and a few others.

So here are some pictures I have taken recently trying to implement my new found knowledge.

So this is a close up of a fence with another fence behind it. I think most of the lines fall on the "thirds" of the frame.

Here's a landscape shot where I tried to place the bottom of the building along the "rule of thirds" horizon line.


Here's my favorite picture so far. I think that the principle of "leading lines" is used here and I tried to place the center of the wagon wheel at an intersection of the" rule of thirds".

Well that's all for now!

Photography a-long week#1

Does anyone want to join me???

*crickets chirping*

chirp

chirp

Well I didn't hear from anyone willing to join me, but I think I'll go ahead anyway and maybe once I dazzle you with my new photo taking skills you'll decide to join me!

So for week #1 we will be doing lesson 1 from the morgueFILE lessons. Don't forget that you can join morgueFILE (free) and upload your homework into the discussion board for some great feed back.

During the week I'll post some extra articles that might be of use to you.

Remember you don't need a fancy schmancy camera to take great pictures!

So before you get started make sure you have a working camera, batteries, a memory card, and most importantly your camera's manual!! We're going to learn how to use our camera's - finally!

If you decide to join me drop me a note and let me know. I'll be happy to add your blog or flickr account to my sidebar

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Original Post

Photography-along

Lately I have been inspired by all the beautiful photography floating around on Flickr as well as on my favorite blogs. I would really like to re-learn the things I learned back in my high school photography class - has it been 11 years already? I think I could be pretty good better at it, besides it runs in my family! Check out just a few examples of my brother's amazing photo skills!






Yes, I'm proud of my brother! ...and maybe a little jealous too! But in a good way! So while I may not have a fancy schamncy DSLR, yet, I just got myself a pretty decent point and shoot camera, a Canon PowerShot A570 IS - an oldie but a goodie. My goal is to get comfortable using it in full manual mode - Scary!! I know. Once I get comfortable with it, and I save up some money I'll think about upgrading to a DSLR. For now it is sufficient for my needs.

You may think you need a fancy DSLR to get some great images, but think again!!! I've been scourging the internet for info, tutorials, classes on improving your photography and you most definitely DO NOT need a fancy camera. Check out IvoryHut if you don't believe me!

So why don't you join me and learn along with me? I have found a great lesson set over on mourgeFile. It is comprised of 10 lessons that cover a wealth of information and techniques. What I really like about the lessons is that you have an assignment for each lesson so you actually have to practice what you learn! Don't worry though they're pretty simple assignments.

I was thinking we could take it one lesson per week (some might go for 2 weeks) and we could post our images on our own blogs and critique each others work (you could also sign up for a morgue file account and post your pictures in the lesson forum on morgueFile for even more feedback.) Through out the week I'll post other articles and links on the lesson's subject matter that you might find useful.

So leave a comment and let me know if you are "in." I'll post everyone's links on my sidebar so you can visit each other's site and give some constructive criticism. Feel free to join in even if we have already started. We'll start on Thursday Aug 6th!!


Here's a button for your blog:






Just right click and select "save as" to save it to your computer, then upload it to your blog. You can link to this post by using this url: http://blog.petitdebutant.com/2009/08/photography-along.html

You can find the lessons here:





See you soon!