Viewing entries tagged
Landscape photography
I woke up this morning to freezing rain, super icy conditions, and almost busted my bum when I decided to "test" the road. It's still pretty gross out there and since I live on a back road, it's taking a little while to clear up. So while I enjoy my hot coco and snuggle with my kitties, I thought you might enjoy the beautiful sunrise that I experienced yesterday morning.
It's hard to believe that today is the first day of September. Fall is upon us and I don't feel quite ready. I love September. It's my favorite month...also because it's my birthday month, and well, quite frankly I LOVE birthdays. Especially mine. But this year it has snuck up on me, and I'm not quite sure what to do with September.
I woke up Saturday morning at my parents house, to a foggy field view. (Thus all the pictures.) To me, it's a magical time when the seasons begin to transition. Everything changes, and seems full of mystery...and there is fog. I love fog, it reminds me of fairy tale books for some reason.
But I woke up, eyes still blood shot and exhausted from the day before to this beautiful view. I stumbled out of bed...found my shoes...mumbled something about photos as I passed my Mom and went out the back door. While I shot, I began to wake up. The cool crisp air made me realize that summer is gone...and somehow I feel like I missed it.
I am determined not to do the same with September. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be a busy month. I have two, possibly three, weddings to do with Rebecca Claire Photography. I have to get my tonsils removed. And I have several senior portraits lined up. Not to mention just the day to day working. Speed Racer also has a ton of travel ahead of him this month, so that just makes us busy. So I already feel like I'm letting it slip by.
Usually by now I already have my birthday list sent out (at times I have sent it out in July...yeah, I'm that kid). But I haven't done it yet, and each time I try to I just seem to get discouraged. Speed Racer wistfully asked what I wanted for my birthday this year, and for once I said, "I just don't know."
Unlike most people who say that who are modest and not greedy people, I did not say it because I don't want presents, I think I said it out of exhaustion. There are MANY things that I want, but none of them seem to come in gift form...or affordable gifts at that. I want time away. Just for me and Speed Racer. I want to buy practical things that make dumb presents. I want to figure out things. I want to be surprised. Stuff like that.
But the great thing about fall is that it always seems full of new prospects to me. Unlike Spring, fall to me is a time to hunker down with a good book outside, and spend some quality time. Even if this fall is busy, I know it's going to be a good one. I'm taking fall back.
E is for Elephant. I don't know how many times I said that this morning. Learning the alphabet is an important part of children growing up, but it can also be a helpful exercise for photographers. Not just because, "Me photographer, me need to know how to speak and write," but for many reason.
The other day I went out and about Knoxville and tried to find letters. I had a specific word in mind because that helped me focus a little bit more.
But you would be surprised how hard it is to find letters, "in nature."
I love this exercise because it makes you look at the world differently. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be.
I encourage you to try this, even without a camera! It really helps you "see" objects not just how they are but as how you would like them to be. (Deep, right?) So in the end I ended up with the word I wanted.
I'm still going to play around with the letters more, and also try to find some more letters. Feel free to share what you find!
The day after coming back from vacation is always a rough one for me. I have a sense of "coming back to reality"and trying to play catch up, while really all I want to do is go bask in the sun.
There are good things about coming back from vacation though. It's always good to realize you're home, to be kissed hello by a husband who maybe, (maybe) missed you, and to sleep in your own bed again. But even then, I usually spend the first week back, thinking about my vacation and smiling at all the great moments.
This vacation my family and I spent at Pipestem State Park in West Virginia. We stayed in a cute little cabin at The Resort at Pipestem, and were fantastically isolated in the woods. It's always hard, for me, to find a balance between activities and just being lazy on vacation, but this time I think we got it right. We usually got about one activity in a day, whether it was cards, playing life, archery, hiking, boating, swimming, or horseback riding. There was even a little mini golf...I won't tell you my score, because I would just hate to brag that much. And between it all I was able to get some couple portraits in of my Brother Jack and His wife Pockets, but more of that later.
If you've never been to Pipestem State Park, I highly recommend it. The park is clean, there are a variety of places to stay from the lodge to tent camping, and the staff were all really nice. So without further ado, here is a lovely mix of our activities. Sorry there aren't more of the swimming, archery, etc type activities...I had my hands a little full.
After a long day of editing and writing, Speed Racer and I just absolutely had to get out of the house last night. We didn't want to spend money, and we wanted to just talk and relax, so we headed to the mountains. It wasn't as relaxing as planned (there was a lot of traffic) but we did manage to get some photos!
We headed up to Cade's Cove, which as you know from previous posts, is one of my favorite places to go. As Speed Racer pointed out last night, it's also always kinda hard going there, because it's so similar to where we use to live. It does make us a little home sick at times, but it's also nice to get some fresh air.
The rest of his turkey friends were too fast for me, sneaky sneaky turkeys.
It's like being on safari! I'm not lying, half the time I'm in Cade's Cove I expect a T-Rex to come attack our vehicle like in Jurassic Park.
You can't see it, because I didn't have a long enough lens, but there were two beautiful bucks in this field.
We had a little company.
It was a gorgeous night.
I was kind of in love with this tree.
There are lots of pictures of it.
Lots.
I'm sorry.
I....
Love...
It.
It's official. It's going on my wall.
I miss the beach. This is a fact that I cannot ignore. For over a year now I have been living in a landlocked state, for the first time in my life. I grew up near or on the water, and I miss the smell of salt in the air, the heat that is so close it's like a hug, and the soft powdery feel of sand beneath my toes.
Unfortunately with the way the summer is looking, I don't think Speed Racer and I will be able to make a beach trip this year. We have always gone to the beach at least once in the summer, it's a ritual, it's a need, it's a raw animal desire...see? I start to get a little dramatic when I don't get some beach time.
The day the above picture was taken of me, was a day that my parents will never forget. At that time we only lived about 30 min away from the beach, and on the weekends in the summer, it was a fairly common ritual to hit the sand. This day in particular the beach was packed. When I was that age, I never really went farther than the water front without my parents, and after some lounging in the tidal pools I decided it was sand castle makin' time. One of my favorite parts of sand castle makin' time was collecting beach items to decorate my sand castle with. My Mom started getting the buckets together and asked me to collect a few shells to put on the castle.
I started collecting and I guess got a little farther away than planned. But what really did me in was that I lost our blanket in the sea of blankets and passed it on my way back. I have no idea how long I walked. But it was long enough that eventually I started to get scared, very scared. Finally in frustration I just sat where I was and started to cry. Luckily I was right in front of a lifeguard station. The lifeguard came down and asked me if I was lost. Being told so many times to not talk to strangers, it took me a while to warm up to him. But he showed me all his official uniform items, and his radio, and said that he was a good stranger and that he was going to help me. He took me up on the lifeguard stand, gave me some crackers and some water, and radioed down the beach for my parents.
I can't explain the relief I felt when I saw my parents (or now that I'm older, the relief I'm sure they felt when they saw me!). They took me back to our blanket, where my two brothers explained they thought I had drowned...and may have been a tad happy about it (no annoying little sister, yay!). All kidding aside, they hugged me and explained how worried they were and how hard they had searched the beach. It was a great reunion, and that's where that picture was taken.
With such a traumatic experience you would think I would be afraid of the beach or the water, but no. If anything it strengthened my love for the beach. For me it is a place to be alone, a place to get lost in the roar of the waves, and a place where the ever changing scenery is all I need. It is a love that Speed Racer and I have always shared.
Here are some of my favorite beaches and watering holes. Some of the pictures are not mine but hopefully the people who took them won't mind sharing. They are all family and friends. Hopefully this will give you a taste of the beach, even if like me, you can't get there this year.
On our last camera basics post we talked about camera settings and Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual. We lightly touched on what aperture is and depth of field, as well as shutter speed. Today we're going to talk about how aperture affects your depth of field and how depth of field affects your pictures.
Depth of field is literally, the "field" in your photograph that is sharp or in focus. Your aperture is what determines your depth of field. Smaller aperture number 2.8 means the larger the opening in the camera is (I know it's confusing it's backwards!), the higher the number like 22 the smaller the hole and the more that is going to be in focus. Let's use some pictures to illustrate, that always helps me figure it out a little better, and after all this is a photography site!
For example if your aperture is set at 2.8 (wide open) you are going to have a shorter depth of field, meaning the things closer to you will be in focus and the background is going to be soft and out of focus. Here is a prime example of that. The red circle highlights the area that is in focus while the background is out of focus.
Here is another example. In this photograph my aperture is set at 5.0, shifting the depth of field more towards the middle. Now I am highlighting the corner of the lantern (yes it's a funky lantern, oh the things we use for examples). This allows the closest part of the object to go out of focus, while also keeping the background out of focus.
Again, as we continue up the aperture numbers, this is at about an 8.0.
And all the way up. Now, even though aperture controls your depth of field, the point on which you decide to focus on is obviously also going to change what is in focus and what is out. For example if I were to zoom out in this photograph but keep my aperture at 12-22, then everything would be in focus, not just the back ground. But I am choosing to focus on the background. But I am also able to do that because of my aperture being set at the higher setting. Confused yet?
Sometimes it helps if you take your camera lens off of automatic focus, set it to manual and then set your aperture. See when you move the focus what is in focus and what can't be in focus at that setting. That will give you a little better idea of what I mean.
Most of the time I prefer a short depth of field, meaning I keep my camera at 2.8 a lot. I think it just adds an intimate feeling to the photographs. But even in this picture I should have paid attention a little bit more and got his little antennae in focus as well. Focus and depth of field help you tell the viewer what is important to you.
Like pretty flowers...
And tomatoes...
Here is another example of changing the depth of field within the letters on the truck...
A little bit farther out on the focus...
More over all in focus.
Although I prefer the shorter depth of field, there are times when having everything in focus is nice. Like for large sweeping landscapes, or group shots, or big honkin' trucks. If you take a landscape picture for example at a shorter depth of field (but you want it all in focus) it may look all in focus at the time, but then you'll get it home, put it in photoshop and go, "why is that mountain back there fuzzy?" Same with group shots, it will look wonderful but then you'll exclaim when poor ol' Uncle Bob is all fuzzy.
The only last thing to remember is that as you're changing your aperture, remember that you have to adjust your other elements like shutter and ISO to compensate for your lighting. So, if you're in Aperture Priority (AV) your shutter will adjust for you. But remember to change your ISO if you're going from inside to out, or sun to shade. If you're in Manual, remember to keep your eye on that light meter in your viewfinder and change your shutter speed when you adjust your aperture. Now go out there and have some fun with depth of field!!
So I realized today that after all this time of posting about places I like and the rural area around my house, that I haven't posted any downtown Knoxville pictures!
I really do love downtown. It has the feel of a small town main street but with a lot more to do. So without further ado, here are some of my favorite downtown pics.
It's funny, Speed Racer always seems to sneak into my pictures. Weird huh?
Ever since I was little I've felt comforted in rural areas. My family use to go on a retreat every summer at Oak Hill Academy, and they had a beautiful barn on campus. I would get up early in the mornings and go watch them feed the cattle, help brush the horses, hang out in the barn, and do a little horseback riding. I absolutely loved it. When I moved in high school, I moved to a more rural area and would always find my escape in nature. So when Speed Racer told me we were moving to Knoxville, I was a little hesitant. I had seen downtown Knoxville once in high school and swore I would never live here. Careful what you say, right? But when Speed Racer took me to see the house, I was immediately at peace. Where we live in Knoxville, is surrounded by rural farms, holding out against the sprawl of the city. There's even a cattle farm just down the street. Early in the morning on the weekends, Speed Racer and I will climb on our bikes and head into the heart of this rural area, and it's especially beautiful in the morning light. So today, I thought I would go out and try to capture a little of that.
So that title isn't completely accurate, the boys were back in town and have now left again, is a little better. While I was catching up on girl talk and celebrating Father's Day, Speed Racer was out having a "Boys Only" weekend. There was canoeing, there were guns, there was mockery, and there was laughter...sounded like an overall good time. Wish I could have stuck around a little bit longer before they kicked me out, I love being one of the guys, but alas, they needed to talk man talk. But here are some pictures I snapped before I left.
Obviously you know Speed Racer...
Mr. B...
The Preacher...
Gumby...
And hiding back there is Mr. Hokie.
After a crazy weekend, we high tailed it back to Knoxville. But before Mr. B left the next morning we got a chance to show him Norris.
All in all it was a fabulous weekend! It was great to see so many old friends, both Speed Racer and I miss them a lot.
