Little Red Teapot

Morning Motivation

A shot of the foam on my latte this morning. I catch some great natural light in my kitchen between 11am and 3pm.

Who You Gonna Call.

I was walking by the new Police digs behind Verdun City Hall and snapped a couple of pictures of the sign out front. Finally photos are starting to turn out like I see them in my head. Exactly the depth of field and amount of shadow I wanted.

Reed Detail

This is a close up shot of a reed blowing in the wind. There is some blurring due to the movement, but I still like the composition of the image. The contrast against the green is much better than in the last post, so there was no need to adjust the color in Lightroom.

The Rebel Leaf

This bush made me laugh when I saw it. All the leaves on the whole plant were drooping and green, except for one strong dissenter who had to further point out his individuality by turning red. Some leaves just need to be the center of attention.

Depth of Field When You Don't Want It

This image was a mistake. I was shooting in full manual mode and had the aperture all the way open. When I realized that i shifted to Av mode and took a couple more. Even though isn't what i wanted it is a little interesting with everything focused on her nose. It almost looks like one of those late 40s early 50s pictures where the camera was in too close to the subject.

Wild Carrot Seed Head

Here is another picture of a Wild Carrot seed head before it dies and dries out. The greens blend in a little too well with the background, but it is still a stunning image just for it's clarity. I was tempted to color the background, but I don't think I am up for that yet. If I do get proficient with it this is a photo I will revisit.

The Marble Game

My in laws have an interesting coffee table game. It is a game called Solitaire that is played with marbles. it's official name is the Duke of York Solitaire game and the rules are explained here.

I have always wanted to get a nice photo of it because the marbles are really colorful and the contrast with the wood and glass is nice. A couple of weeks ago I finally got the shot I wanted. Taken in Aperture priority mode with the camera sitting directly on the table next to a set of sliding doors for lighting. Another one that makes me happy. Click for a larger view.

Depth of Field

One of the things that has always amazed me about photography is depth of field. Once I had a handle on how to manipulate the different elements of the camera in Manual mode, my goal was to to learn to take depth of field photos not just by accident, but on purpose. The first couple of pictures are examples of getting depth of field pictures in Auto mode by getting a tight focus on an object and hoping it turned out.




By the third month with the camera I was ready to start trying to take some shots in the AV mode, adjusting the aperture value to get the desired amount of depth of field.
This little bird turned out OK, but the color is washed out. I should have gone up a couple more stops from 8 to 11 or so.


And finally five months in, the first Aperture priority shot that turned out exactly as I envisioned it. Not the most interesting subject matter, but it made me happy.





Now that this last element was in place I was ready to start taking photos confident that I knew how to tell the camera what I wanted them to look like.