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! 

to Paradise

We went to the beach today.

Yes, I'm afraid the title is a bit misleading.

The beach we went to is called Paradise ;)

We took a boat over to the island where the beach was... about a five minute trip. The floor of the boat was blue. :D

Nothing like, um a friend, uh, to hold your head in place!?

I have no idea what they are doing.

This is the boat we rode in... cool, isn't it!?

Palm trees as seen from the boat...

And here's the beach!

We rented a couple board/boat things to play around on for awhile... and did a little splashing around in the water. (Okay, a LOT of splashing around. We had fun :) )

Lunch was barbecue pork sticks and rice... (YUM!)

Some friends of ours ordered this weird desert. *shiver* I tried it once, and have no desire to try it again.

We took the boat back home a couple hours after lunch, and are enjoying a quiet afternoon now!

Moths and Butterflies

These butterflies and moths were extremely cooperative.

I couldn't believe how close they let me get to them to take their photos. And they were very photogenic too. 

;)

I got close to touching them with my camera lens a couple times, but they still didn't move. (No, they weren't dead!)  I guess one of them was more skittish than the others. But the moth in the second photo just sat there as cool as a cucumber! It was great :D

Have a wonderful weekend!