Green!

About This Photo
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure: 1/40
Focal Length: 200mm
ISO: 100
Lens: 70-200mm f/2.8 IS

Water droplets are among my favorite things in the world to photograph. What in the world is it that makes them so endlessly fascinating? Every time it rains, it's like they're little jewels making everything they touch glitter.

When I processed this one, I sharpened the heck out of it. I figured I could afford to since the ISO was set nice and low and the aperture was open wide as it could be -- I wasn't really afraid of it getting too grainy-looking. Then I enhanced the greens. And that's pretty much it.

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Lessons Learned or Affirmed:

• A photo need not have anything especially complex about it to be beautiful.

Nom, nom, nom, nom ...

About This Photo:
Aperture: f/1.4
Exposure: 1/50
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 1000
Lens: 50mm f/1.4

If I could change one thing about this photo, it would be to have a slightly narrower aperture -- maybe f/2.5 or 2.8. But if there's one thing I've learned about babies, it's that they move at their own speed. They don't respond to "Do it again!" or "Hold that pose!" as well as I'd like.

I could have adjusted the aperture and then adjusted the shutter speed and/or ISO to compensate, but then we probably wouldn't have had this photo -- the moment would have been gone. And you know that I had to get one of her nibbling on her toes, right? We have to have something to show that future boyfriend. :o)

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Lessons Learned or Affirmed:

• Especially when you have an aperture open as wide as f/1.4, it's important to be sure your focal points are set where you need them. Because she was moving more quickly than I could adjust my settings or my positioning, a lot of potentially good photos came out too blurry to be good. Having m focus points set made this one a winner.

Fire & Water

About This Photo:Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure: 1/2000
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Lens: 50mm f/1.4

What, no baby picture?!

I know, I know. Occasionally it's good to share something other than photos of adorable babies -- even if she does supply seemingly endless fodder for her photographer-mother.

After church and a nap yesterday, we all walked to a park that is happily situated about half a mile from our house. The sun was out, there was not a cloud in the sky, and it wasn't too humid to be out.

Since there was SO MUCH natural light available (obviously), I put the ISO at the lowest setting, bumped up the shutter speed (as in waaaaaaaaay up), and set the lens at a smaller aperture than the maximum permitted by the lens. I experimented with different shutter speeds (I tried 1/2500 and 1/4000) and apertures (going as wide as f/2.0) to see what worked best, and this was the winning combo.

When I was taking the picture, I wanted the water to have a kind of softer look (meaning I couldn't have too tight an aperture), but I still wanted to capture the brilliance of the sunlight reflecting off the water, capturing the way it sparkled and seemed to create a starburst effect on the water (meaning I couldn't have too fast or too slow a shutter speed).

Take a look at the detail on the water in this zoomed in (100% resolution) version.

It took some trial and error with my settings, but I got exactly what I wanted. Look at those reflected starbursts of sunlight. Gah!! I love it!!

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Lessons Learned or Affirmed:

• Try the same shot with a variety of settings to get the effect you want. You just might be surprised!
• Playing with the camera is fun!