Goodies from Napa

This weekend I was blessed by a beautiful trip to Napa Valley with my husband and some wonderful friends. There was certainly beauty everywhere and I easily could have spent the entire trip composing photos and loving every minute of it. Perhaps I spent too much time with my camera as it was.  Someday..... someday it would be fun to go back to that area just for photography fun. I am thankful for what I have learned in my class, yet continually feel the frustration of not knowing how to capture what I see with my eyes.  I wish I could just know if it is composition and settings or a special lens or attachment.


My photography class is over. I still need to finish the final and work on the assignments that I haven't completed. It is difficult to describe how much I enjoy all of it. I love it. I am afraid, though, that I will get out of balance about it. I am finally pursuing something that I like and enjoying the chance to learn something-- yet, in the scheme of things, it just isn't that important, right? It is just photography. I find myself often reminding myself to hold onto it loosely- this pursuit doesn't need to define me, or be understood by everyone around me. It can't cause me to feel frustrated when I don't get the time I would like to delve into it. I can't irresponsibly place it in a higher financial priority. And, expression of how it moves me can't  be my highest aim.  There's a lot to think about with that. Anyway, here's a few shots of things I enjoyed this weekend.

Crops

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. Hebrews 6:7

In previous posts I have talked about certain things "catching my eye." It happens all the time. Yet, with this topic, I think I can also say, it catches my heart, too. There is something about crops/harvest that amazes me and stirs up my heart with worship for God. It is fascinating to me, how food develops from little seeds and how it grows with time and nurturing. I love the whole process and each stage seems to be beautiful on its own (except maybe for the seed part.) :) After living away for almost 8 years and then returning to the Central Valley- It seemed that I had new eyes with which to appreciate the process of food production around here. Every late summer, early fall brings a sense of anticipation in me as the fruit stands are overflowing with variety and  I consider the different nut harvests. I have been able to "help" some friends from time to time with their harvest. I didn't actually do much! Mostly, I just wanted my boys and I to get to share in that hard work, get dirty, and see more of the complete process of how food gets on our table and around the world.  When I think about it, I can't really reason why I would be excited about standing/sitting in an orchard watching the truckloads of nuts load and leave, or why I would get such pleasure out of making sure the nuts got picked up and put on the elevator without debris, etc. I can't explain it! But, I do like it! 

Here are some pictures I was able to capture yesterday. I don't think I used a whole lot of technique-- Maybe just a little with composition guidelines. My goal was more to just capture what I thought was beautiful and/or fascinating while practicing Macro or Close-Up Photography.

I know, that's a LOT of grapes! :) But, they are soooo pretty!!

I love this one--if I had done things a little differently. I wish I had made the focal point toward the top left instead of center, and I wish I had a lens that let me get a little closer while maintaining focus.

Assignments

As I mentioned before, I am a little behind in my photography class assignments. Actually, I think I would like to do more on just about every lesson, but, there are some that I haven't even touched yet. I just finished some work on the Portrait Lesson- but I didn't take as many shots as I should have and I didn't vary lighting or the poses. In the next assignment I am supposed to look at some of the suggested websites and in magazines/newspapers to find poses of people, families, groups, and pets. If there is a pose idea that I like, I am supposed to  print it/tear it out and put it in a separate binder to keep as a reference. That's a pretty neat and practical idea.


The lesson after Portraits and Group Portraits is on Travel Photography.  For our assignment we are supposed to travel to a place we don't usually go for at least 1/2 of a day and complete several specific tasks in our picture taking.  I am toying with the idea of driving up to Knight's Ferry by myself one day and trying to get some nice shots of the covered bridge. However, she wants us to take a photo that shows the "culture." I'm not sure how to do that at Knight's Ferry! :) Another barrier to this assignment is time. I have looked at the calendar and the next 2 weeks seem pretty full, not to mention the difficulty in finding childcare for my jaunt.


After Travel, we learned about PhotoJournalism. Wow, this chapter was so exciting and intimidating, too! One cool thought that was addressed is that many local papers accept freelance work and pay per picture. If you happen to catch the action on your camera before the paper is there, you really might have something to bargain with.  Additionally, there are magazines and other events covered by the paper that accept freelance work or photos from the community. It would take courage-- but it would be fun to try submitting something sometime. For this assignment we are to photograph a current event of some sort- a parade, a breaking news story, a community event, etc. We are encouraged to complete a number of tasks from a checklist in our assignment, but overall, to tell the story with pictures rather than words.  A teaching point in this lesson was to be "out, move in, move out." In other words, take some photos from a wide, distant perspective. Then, find some detailed shots that continue to tell the story and then quickly move the perspective out again and take more photos.  With at least 36 photos we are supposed to be answering, "Who, What, When, Where, Why."


The last assignment that has been released to the class so far is on Close-Up Work. I picked up a couple of library books on this subject last week but haven't read through it yet. I have learned that there are special lenses for Macro Photography and/or some adaptive equipment to use with a regular lens. No wonder I couldn't capture an image the way I saw them in books and magazines! For the assignment there are several categories from which to choose. Macro work, Still Life-like a postcard, a historic painting, picture from a book, Architecture-finding at least a 2 story building to photography with some shots of detail and some to give a sense of the structure, or finally, Moon Photography. At this point, I am not sure which one has more appeal!

Golden Path

I tried again to capture that golden light highlighting the path, and retried the lighting on each lap of my walk. It really is amazing how the tone of the light can change so drastically in a 30 minute time frame! In the top photo I used the spot meter. I metered light just to the right of this shot, on some shady bushes that had a little bit of light on them-- then, turned the camera back to the scene and took the picture. This allowed the shutter to be on a slightly slower speed to let in more light. Before I used the spot meter, the picture was very dark because of the direct sunlight beaming into the camera. That would have been great for a silhouette!  

Taken July 22, 2012

Portraits

One of our lessons in my photography class in on Portraiture. I am learning a lot from the reading and must say-- it's kind of intimidating. There is a different pressure in trying to get a person to look nice in the photo and also with time restraints as your subject might not be as patient with the continual adjustment of settings as is the POND!! And...... getting people to relax in order to capture a genuine smile and sparkle in the eye--so challenging!


My assignment for this section was to set up a portrait session while keeping several things in mind. I am feeling so behind for my assignments (it doesn't matter because I am not graded or anything- but just wanting to do this thing well and not let life crash over it.) Portraits were started in Lesson 6 and I am currently working on Lesson 10!! Anyway, I thought I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone and set up a portrait session at my daughter's birthday party. I tried to set up an area with a solid backdrop and some natural lighting, while wishing for a studio light of some sort.  I did get to practice some of the info I had learned, but quickly realized that my expectations weren't reasonable. I was pretty much handling a birthday party as a single parent and my portrait subjects were here for a tea party not to indulge my learning goals! I had just a few seconds with each guest as I was trying to greet people at the door, settle them in, and simultaneously sneak them off for a photo shoot in my bedroom! 

I plan to post a little more on this, but for now I need to upload these images so that I can post the link to my class assignment board before the discussion board is closed.

My Walk- July 18, 2012

As I was leaving for my walk last night, as a last minute thought, I grabbed my camera. I had the place to myself and was able to just look around and get ideas. I limited myself to one lap of photography eyes and then put my camera away. Sometime soon I hope to allow more time. This photo is another one of those instances where I don't feel like I captured what my eyes were seeing. For some reason I am always drawn to this little path that curves around the pond, just past the dock. The sun rays were splitting through the foliage of the trees and I'm glad I was able to capture that, but there is more. After I put my camera away and came around for a second lap, it was PERFECT!! I couldn't believe it! The light changed to pure gold and the beams seemed to highlight the path so perfectly. It's the path that I love, with the gentle curve of the wooden fence posts. With the light shining on the path it looked like an invitation, felt like the beginning of  a story. I have to go back and try to capture it!

This is a really odd photo to add! :) I include it because I was so excited to have finally been confirmed in the fact that I know how to use the metering feature on my camera! I have been working on that for some time. The digital camera  usually measures the light of everything in the viewfinder and averages it out- then adjusts settings to provide a proper exposure. Many times that works fine, except when you have a shot that includes really bright and dark, or light and shadow.  Have you ever had your flash pop up and totally ruin the mood of a photo just because your camera sensed things were too dark? So, the metering feature allows you to focus in on an area that you would like the camera to yield to in factoring the settings. For this shot of the path, I experimented by stepping out a little to place the focal point at the bright sky with the metering setting on. With the AE Lock button depressed I recomposed the path area into the viewfinder and took the shot. See how the camera adjusted for a bright scene? It must have had a much faster shutter speed. It obviously didn't help me capture this scene any better, but I was excited that I used that function successfully on my camera!

This point of the walking path is my favorite spot.  I love walking past the pasture and I love this old piece of equipment. This is also a weird, twilight kinda spot where the air feels cooler for about 15 feet. On my walks I think I often take a deep breath, sigh right about here. It's restful to me for some reason. One of the things we are taught in my photography class is to look for natural framing in a shot. Here, I liked the way the upper tree branch provided some framing. I also like the colors of the straw/dirt, rusty equipment, light green field, darker green trees.

As I uploaded this onto the blog, I now notice it looks slightly out of focus. The camera must have been focusing on the tree. I remember reading a way to get past that problem but don't remember what I read! I will have to check into that.  Don't know why, but I like this one.

I mean, really? Look at that! :) I know next to nothing about art. But, I am pretty sure that red and green are opposite each other on the color wheel- providing great contrast and so pleasing to the eye. What an awesome Creator to provide that contrast on the SAME plant. He did that- not a clever photography display! 

Fun Stuff

So much posting today!! :) Here's a few more that I enjoyed in my experimenting yesterday. Maybe I will comment more on them at a later time? 

Image 339
July 16, 2012

Image 338

Image 337

Image 336

Image 323

Shutter Priority- 1/200

F5.6, ISO 400, WB-shade

July 16, 2012

Image 325
Same Settings

Image 326
Same Settings

Image 319

Image 314

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is also part of exposure. The variation in shutter speed can not only make a difference in the exposure (how light or dark the photo is, depending on how much light makes it through the lense), but it can also dramatically effect the overall image, particularly with portraying movement.  I took some photos with varying degrees of shutter speed to play with the effects of the water movement. My camera has a Shutter Speed Priority Mode which means that as I set the shutter speed, the camera will adjust the Aperture accordingly to allow the appropriate amount of light to correctly expose the photo. (according to the brain of the camera--a.k.a. the engineers who set the factory settings :))

Image 343
Speed 1/2500
July 16, 2012

Image 344
Speed 1/1600

Image 345
Speed 1/100




** Notice how much more light comes in with slower shutter speed. Image 345 is overexposed! Image 343 looks slightly underexposed and perhaps a little out of focus- probably from not enough light reaching the camera with that super fast shutter speed.  Also notice how the shutter speed can impact the sense of movement, and in my opinion, really can change the mood of  a picture!! Exciting!

Bracketing

Exposure is a big deal in capturing those images just the way you want. In previous posts I have mentioned aperture, white balance, ISO, shutter speed, etc. These things play into the overall exposure of a picture. I am learning that a photo that is overexposed is kind of washed out looking. An underexposed picture would be on the dark side. Sometimes, a photographer might choose to over or under expose a picture for artistic purposes. As I have been learning about this, I have begun to notice exposure in other photos. I am really loving this learning process! Before, I might have seen a photo and have been disappointed in the result or quality but not have known why. Now, there have been a few times that I have thought, 'Well, that doesn't look quite right.'-- but then I realize it has been overexposed or underexposed. 


When lighting is questionable, and manually playing with settings in the moment isn't preferable, there is a neat setting on my camera that I was able to experiment with yesterday. It is called Bracketing. Bracketing refers to over and under exposing a picture by a certain degree. So, I can turn on the bracketing feature, set the value of exposure (I don't really know what that is called at this point, but basically you can adjust how far out you want to camera to over/under expose to different degrees), and then shoot your picture three times. One picture will be a normal value, one will over expose to the set degree, and one will under expose to the set degree. Pretty cool! At this point, though, my mind hasn't fully grasped what the camera is doing to meet those exposure variations. I like to understand the why of things so I plan to keep reading about that. 

Under Exposure
Aperture Priority Setting
F5.6, shutter 1/1250
ISO 400, WB shade
Value: -1.0
July 16, 2012

Normal Exposure
Same settings
Speed: 1/640
July 16, 2012

Over Exposure
Same Settings
Speed: 1/320
Value: +1.0
July 16, 2012


Notice how the the slower shutter speeds allows for overexposure-more light. Makes sense, right?

Image 347

Under Exposure

Shutter Speed Priority

F29, Speed 1/100

ISO 400, WB Cloudy

Value: -1.0

July 16, 2012

Image 349- Normal Exposure
Same Settings
F13

Image 348- Over Exposure
Same settings
F14
Value: +1.0

Playing with Aperture

I have much, much more that I still need to play with and discover on my lesson about aperture priority and shutter speed priority. I had just a few minutes to try a small f-stop on these beautiful grape vines near sunset.   The lower light required a slower shutter speed, especially when I was trying to get a greater depth of field with a whole row in focus. I didn't have a tripod with me, and couldn't get an image that wasn't blurry. Now, in review, I am wondering if I should have tried the shot with a higher ISO setting as well. So much to learn here.... more posts on this subject for sure! And, a new lense with even lower f-stop capabilities remains at the top of my wish list!

It is frustrating a little bit, to be at this stage of the game. I seem to be such an impatient person! It reminds me a little, of when I played French Horn in college. I loved the rich, middle sounds of the french horn and enjoyed playing. But, I wasn't as good as I wanted to be--couldn't execute the level of excellence that I desired without spending most of my time in a practice room! In the end, I decided I didn't want it badly enough to prioritize the work.  Well, in this case I so badly want to be able to produce excellence and am willing to work, but in juggling the facets of daily life, it is difficult to prioritize the time. Patience is needed. 


The top photo needs a better focal point/subject. I do like the line of the post on the edge and the color of the light.
Bottom: I could take it or leave it. I like some of the shadow/light happening on the fruit and leaves and to some degree, I did manage a shallow depth of field to get the grapes in focus and background leaves unfocused.

Learning White Balance and Composition

On my walks with my friend, Wendy, we pass this fence line on each lap around our track.  Each time we pass my eyes are drawn to these wispy flowers bending,reaching out of the vertical fence line. A couple of days prior to this shot, the flowers seemed to be in their glory as with the surrounding varieties. I was a couple of days too late to get the flowers at the height of their beauty,  but needed to experiment adjusting the white balance for an assignment so I decided to try it out on this scene. 
Image 285
White Balance set for "sun"
Speed: 1/200
ISO 250
F 7.1
Taken: July 01, 2012 

This shot was taken at basically the same time. The White Balance was adjusted.  I like splitting rays of light and the silhouette of the windmill. I also notice the curve of the planter contrasted with the vertical lines of the fence and the oblique/curved lines of the flowers.
Image 283
White Balance: Cloudy
Speed: 1/400
ISO 250
F 10
Taken: July 01, 2012

Same deal with this shot. Only adjusted the white balance. I'm still deciding on which one of these I like best.
Image 282
White Balance: Shade
Speed: 1/320
ISO 250
F9
Taken: July 01, 2012

This is a near sunset shot of the pond I am also blessed to walk past lap after lap! Again, here just playing with the white balance setting. I like the reflection of trees and setting sun in the water. I like the contrast of light and shadow. There is also an element of foreground, middleground, and background in this composition (I think)-- although I would have liked to move up about 3 ft to make the foreground smaller. But, I would have fallen off the dock!
Image 289
White Balance: Cloudy
Speed: 1/400
ISO 250
F10
Taken: July 01, 2012

It is amazing me to the how the color changes with just that change in setting. I still don't understand the how and why behind white balance. That's bugging me. I have a good website to follow up with and that I think will give me a better understanding, but I haven't been able to get back to it during a time where my brain could focus on something complicated for an extended period of time. Once I get the understanding, I hope to add a little summary to this post.
Image: 290
White Balance: Shade
Speed: 1/500
ISO 250
F11
Taken: July 01, 2012

So, this will be my last photo for this entry. This was not a white balance study, but again, trying to capture whatever kept drawing my eye to those flowers/fenceline on my walks. I'm not satisfied with this photograph, but I think it still might be my favorite among this group-perhaps, just because of the potential held here. This one has some composition elements that I like. Vertical lines, as mentioned before, but this time the strong vertical lines are retreating at an angle. I was attempting to use the Rule of Thirds by placing my subject (lower right flower bud) on a point of intersection.  I also like the contrast of strong fence line with soft, bending flower stems and the contrast of white flower blossoms against wrought iron, light in the sky vs. shadowy building in background. I wonder if I had used a macro setting or a tripod if I could have gotten the subject into clearer focus? It was windy that evening so maybe it would be impossible to avoid all blur of a moving subject while trying to maintain a soft focus in the background. Lastly, there is something about the color of the light that bugs me in this one. I wish that I had had time to wait out the color changes in the light as the sun went down.
Image: 275
White Balance: Shade
Speed: 1/200
ISO 250
F7.1
Taken July 01, 2012