Thursday, May 29, 2014

Photography Field Trip

This week was the end of my photography class.  I will have to say that I learned a lot and feel that I have lots of new information to enhance my skills as a photographer.  Our last two sessions included a field trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden and then a classroom session to go over the photos that we took during the trip.  I thought I would take this week's blog post to share with you the photos that I took on the trip and a few tips I learned along the way.
purple iris photo by mbgphoto
The Irises were at their peak when we visited the garden so I was able to get several nice shots. This photo of the purple iris was taken with my 50mm lens using aperture priority at F1.8.  This lens was new to me so I used it the entire trip to get myself comfortable with the lens.  You will note how when I focused on the main iris it put it in focus and gave a soft focus to the rest of the photo. I used the same lens and aperture for the daisies that you see in the photo below.   In this case I was closer to the daisies in the foreground so I got an even greater blur in the background.
yellow daisies photo by mbgphoto

I had a bad habit of using my screen to look at when I took photos instead of the viewfinder.  I worked hard at trying to break this habit during this field trip and was successful for the most part.  My instructor encouraged the use of the viewfinder in taking photos and after using it I could really see the difference.

The other tip that I learned from the instructor during the trip was to turn off my automatic ISO setting.  I am not sure how I ever got in the habit of leaving it on but it was interfering with some of my close up shots and I found my problems were taken care of when I used the manual settings for the ISO.  I kept it at 100 for most of this trip.
flower photo by mbgphoto
Here is another flower using the F1.8 setting.  In addition to photographing flowers we also photographed a waterfall using different aperture settings in aperture priority.  What this does is changes the speed the camera is using and gives you a completely different look to the water.  In this photo I used the F4 setting and you see the more distinct water in the photo.
waterfall photo by mbgphoto
For getting the smooth flowing look in the water I changed the aperture to f22 which slowed down the speed of the camera.  The result is seen in the photo below.
waterfall photo by mbgphoto
I hope you have enjoyed my series of posts on my Nature Photography class.



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4 comments:

  1. It really is amazing how much difference the settings on the camera can make. That is something I have rarely played with myself, but you have given me much to work with. I have always preferred the viewfinder on my camera, although the new little point and click camera doesn't have one. However, all of my other cameras still do :)

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  2. Both the waterfall photos are delightful and I love the daisies too. It's great that you've learned, and apply, so much through your photography class! Will you be taking another class?

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  3. It sounds like you have learned a lot with your photography class. The photos are beautiful and your explanations superb.

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  4. Love those tips! I am good at looking in the viewfinder instead of the screen. I'm not at all good at getting my camera off of the automatic settings. I purchased a great book to help me learn that...but I haven't taken the time.

    Love your photos!

    ReplyDelete

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