Thanksgiving 2010?

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice" - Meister Eckhart
All these photos were taken on Thanksgiving day, but really do not have much to do with the holiday itself!

 

2nd Issue of Belle Inspiration Magazine

As you may remember, in the premier issue (last issue) of Belle Inspiration Magazine, my photography (as seen here) was featured along with an article my mother (www.theparishouse.com) wrote. Well, this issue, not only were four of my photos featured, but one of them was the cover photo of the entire issue! The photo below is the cover photo!

Sony DSC-W55
f/7.1
Shutter 1/160

Inspiration Around the House

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free" - Michelangelo

Camera Equipment

I put the equipment in an order as to what I think are most important. Lets run down the list.

1 Obviously the camera is the most important thing. I have a Nikon D3000 and what you most recently  see on this blog is mostly the product of that. 

2 Most would not agree, but a tripod is so important to have especially when you are shooting in low light and with a low shutter speed and aperture. Basically any tripod is good to have (don't really have a favorite brand), just make sure it can be adjusted in various ways and note how high it goes.

3 The lenses that you have are very important as well. The standard lens that come with the Nikon D3000 is good, but to adventure into other territory, you may want to consider getting a macro/micro lens for close detail, a wide angle lens for landscapes, and a telephoto lens for far away objects. Amazon sells a lot of these for great prices.

4 Next on our list is an external flash. This is much more powerful than the built in flash on Nikon's models. You can also diffuse the light through a variety of ways. Also on most Nikon models, you can actually use the flash wirelessly and not even have it attached to the camera!

5 Umbrella lighting is also a good source of external lighting. It is really good for studio photography like family portraits. These lights will also flash wirelessly with most Nikon models.

All images are from Google Images.

Elements of a Photograph

So I don't have any new photos to share so I just thought I would talk about a little photography insight. Are you familiar with the three functions of a camera that are used to produce your image? You may have seen something like an "exposure triangle" such as the one below.

On your SLR camera and with some non SLR cameras, you probably have noticed on the top dial that there are some different settings. These settings vary between the different camera models. For Nikons, the "S" stands for "shutter speed priority" and the "A" stands for "aperture priority". When you are on either of these modes, you can change either the speed at which the camera take the photo (shutter speed) or the size of the hole in which the photo is shot through (aperture or f-stop). With a low shutter speed, the camera 's shutter is held open for how ever long you set it. This can result in light being stretched out. If you have ever seen a photo of a car's headlights that are stretched out behind it, that is the result of a low shutter speed. A hight shutter speed captures things quickly, exposing the camera to little light. A wide aperture or f-stop can cause a subject to be in focus while the rest of the photo is blurred (f/5.6). With a more narrow aperture of maybe f/32, the entire photo would be in focus.  ISO or ASA controls how much "noise" or grain is in a photo. This is usually found either on the settings dial or in the camera's menu. ISO of 100 is usually for good light. In less light, it is better to increase the ISO to about 1,600. It is always good to be controlling the shutter speed as well, usually 1/15 of a second.
All Graphics belong to Google Images.