5:30 Sunrise

I got up at 5:30 just to take these sunrise photos for my dear blog readers.

No, not really ;) I was up for other reasons. But I saw the clouds and the sun rising outside, and I knew I had to go take photos!

(all photos are SOOC...I was proud of myself for resisting the temptation of editing ;) )

Rising above the tree tops...

Do you see those black lines running through the bottom of the photo? Electrical wires. I'm about ready to go cut them down. Except..... I wouldn't have electricity if I did that. *sigh*

The sun rises so quickly!

I love the clouds in all of these photos :)

Cirrus clouds?

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Spikey Flower

Yes, friends, it is more flower photos today :)

I found these while I was wandering around with my camera, just looking for something to take photos of... They were very interesting!

Bright pink/red, spiky... they had a tropical look to them.

And the buds were beautiful too! :D 

Have a lovely week :)

Creek Caution

Yikes.

I had no idea what might be down in that creek.

Crocodiles, piranhas, jellyfish, stingrays, sharks, killer crabs....

I didn't want to find out. I did walk carefully.

Illusions

Here are three photos I have taken recently.

I like them but they didn't really fit in any other post...

Trees reflected in a river.

Illusion: It's not really trees :) Just water that is reflecting them! Easy.

This needs a little more explaining. I took a photo looking up through a clump of leaves, but I purposely "unfocused" the photo, so the light looks like little round circles, and the rest is a blur.

 (This trick can be especially beautiful on Christmas lights....I can't wait 'til Christmastime!)

Illusion: Hah! I'll bet you didn't even know what the photo was! *wink*

Whenever we have flowers around the house, I take photos of them. Once, I was taking photos on the railing of our deck, and the flower fell into the stone gutter about a yard down. Now I drop flowers down there just to photograph them because I love the surface. ;D

Illusion: Now, this one isn't completely fair, because I didn't do it with the camera. I did it on the computer. :S The rose was originally yellow, but I was editing the photo a bit, and to my great surprise, the rose turned PINK! Hm. I liked it better than the yellow one.

I know this was kind of a strange post. My apologies.

Hope you have a good day anyway. ;)

Quarter's End

Well, the first quarter in school is almost up... that means that I am halfway through my photography class.

*sniff*

   

It's been wonderful learning how to take a photo manually... you change anything to make the photo look the way you want it! 

I remember trying to take photos manually just 2 or 3 months ago... I got so frustrated because I understood almost nothing about changing the settings, and all my photos turned out blurry, or dark, or overexposed... It was kind of sad, and I was discouraged.

But after just 2 months of studying and working to "get it," I can finally take photos manually. (and understand what I'm doing. That has been one of the most rewarding things in my class so far.

 I'd like to mention this resource:

click button to visit...

This series has been a huge help to me so far! The author, Darcy, writes so clearly and explains everything very well. (Her photography is also amazing!) I highly recommend this for beginner photographers. Or any photographer for that matter. :D I now understand aperture, ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and histograms thanks to this website!

31 Days to a Better Photo has been my "textbook" for this course. I've basically gone through two posts each week, and done projects and photography that correspond with the concepts I learned from reading the posts.

There were 3 settings that I learned about that really helped me to understand photography. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. If you study anything about photography, study those 3 concepts. They are really useful. And essential if you want to get a good photo!