A vintage walk through the mountains

In the fall our family went on a hike through Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.  I see it from most vantage points in my everyday errands and running around town and drive through the mountain weekly.  I used Lightroom to give the photos a vintage feel.  I love the way they turned out. Enjoy

Aperture - Examples to help you understand

The Aperture setting can be confusing.  It's also called the f-stop. I hope I can dispel the mystery. While the shutter speed affects the duration of light hitting the sensor, the aperture affects the amount of light hitting the sensor. The aperture is the part of a lens that decides how much light is let through to the sensor - if it's wide open, lots of light gets through. If it's closed down, not much light gets through. 

Think of it like this,  it performs the same as the pupil of an eye. If you are in a dark room, the pupil is open, in the sunlight, the pupil is small.

As you look at the photos, scroll down, and compare the first photo with the photo below, and the next photo below. As you scroll down you can see in each photo the aperture number increases and the amount of focus becomes clearer and clearer.

Comparing the f1.8 pine cone and the f22 pine cone photos I bet you did not even know there was a table an an arm of a chair in the photo taken at f1.8 but as you scrolled the images came into focus with the larger number aperture, and the wood in the measuring tape photos becomes clearer and clearer.  Confusing I know, but you'll get!!  Take some photos just like these and it will become second nature, promise.

Here is a little tip

Use a small number f-stop f1.8, f2.0, f2.2 (small aperture =  large opening) for portraits so you get your subject in focus but not the stuff behind him or her.

Use a large number f-stop f5.0, f7.1 (large aperture = small opening) to maximize the amount of stuff in focus.

All Photos taken with my 50mm 1.8 lens

Food Photography - My Passion

These photos are from very tasty places around Atlanta, GA

Tip me Tuesday - White Balance

What is White Balance?  White balance is basically a way to “measure” the temperature of light and to “balance” out the colors of your photography for the desired results. Ideally, the goal of a conventional photograph is to attain an ideal White Balance where the white color is as close to true, neutral white as possible and all of the colors in your image are true to life.

As you can see below the shades of color in the photos under the exact same conditions.  A simple change in the White Balance manually for each of the 5 photos gives completely different results.  So this setting is so important.  Especially for Moms taking photos of their kids at school under florescent lights, you must change the setting, try it, and you will see an improvement in your photos - promise!!

The first row is inside in front of a window, row two is on my porch under the overhang in the shade, the third row is in the daylight sun. Look how the White Balance settings change the photos.

What is White Balance on your camera? White Balance refers to how your camera reads and adjusts to the temperature of the light.  Every light source has a different “color” or “temperature” to them.  Our eyes adjust to this fairly well, but digital cameras need a little help, with the White Balance function.  If you’ve ever taken a photo and the colors of the image are not the same that you see, maybe everything looks blue or reddish-yellow, then you are seeing an incorrect White Balance.  Most digital cameras have functions for Auto White Balance and a setting to manually set your White Balance (Daylight/sunny,  shade, cloudy, tungston,  fluorescent, etc…), and a Custom Preset that you can set yourself.

Here are some of the basic White Balance settings you’ll find on cameras:

• Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. You’ll find it works in many situations but it’s worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.
• Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos.
• Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots.
• Daylight/Sunny – not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings.
• Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.
• Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.
• Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little.

Below are two photos I took on Manual Mode setting the camera myself 

and not using any of the auto settings.

Hoot Tip me Tuesday - Focus Points

Tip me Tuesday is focused on the focus points within the viewfinder of your camera. When I look through my camera (I never use the digital screen to view the subject when taking photos) there are many dots in somewhat of a clock circle. For my Canon they are at 12, 1:30, 3, 4:30, 6, 7:30, 9, 10:30 and back to 12 noon. Each of these are focus points that can be manually set for each and every photo you take ~ I use this tool all the time.

Right out of the box your camera most likely was set on auto and what that means is your camera is making the best guess as to what “it” thinks you are trying to focus on in the picture. You are able to set this focus point manually. For my Camera a little red blinking light will light up as I gently push the shudder button showing where the main focus point is set. Using the buttons on the back of the camera I can move the red dot to any of those points and click set and that’s where the camera will focus, leaving the rest perhaps out of focus and maybe creating a great bokeh effect, depending on the photo being taken.

Below is what my screen or through the viewfinder looks like.

Here is a photo of the points of focus changing as I changed the focus point.  Everything is blurry because the objects are not on the same plane.  So if your subjects are not in a straight line across you will have some people in focus and some people out of focus, as shown below! And if the person you want to photograph is in the left position and your camera chooses right, or somewhere else, your person may be out of focus and you will be unhappy with your photo(s).

Here is a photo of all animals in a straight line and everyone is in focus weather I choose left center or right focus!

 

iPad case and a Cup Cozy - Tara Rex

Blogging is............shall we say AMAZING!  I have had a personal blog Hoot Designs (new look coming this week) for a little while and just started with my Hoot Photography blog.  Along with my goal to start blogging, I also started tweeting (@chrissy217) and I have met so many people in such a short time. 

I met Tara (@Taramadeit) on Twitter and she tweeted something about her shop and I clicked the link and visited, and immediately fell in love with her things and the fibers she used.  I also remembered that I had a Ziploc bag full of some of the very fibers she is using.  So I sent her a message and asked if she would like them.  And off they went to a new home to be made into something great by Tara.

Then a few days later Tara listed the her new iPad case.  She tweeted "new listing" and I again clicked the link, then promptly purchased the beautiful iPad case below.  And Tara also included a cute Cup Cozy too that matches the iPad case.

We would have never met if not for twitter and I may or may not have found her great shop and beautiful things.  The detail is amazing.  Please visit her shop at The Big Cartel or her shop on Etsy, I know you will find something just right for you.

In the first photo, that's Tara with her Etsy page showing on my iPad!!

Thank you Tara!

{Click the photos for an up close look at the detail}