….and I got a 4.o in photography class! My particular instructor is known for being very picky in his grading too. In all I did very well with every photo I turned in through the whole semester but I didn’t do very well on the midterm and final. The photos are what got me the 4.0 though. I am still proud!

What did I learn this semester? I went from using AUTO to using full manual and shooting in RAW. I learned that less is more when it comes to trying to fix a photo. I was always the type to shoot and not use Photoshop. Not because I don’t know how but because I just like to try getting the shot near perfect in camera.

I also learned that I want to be a macro/closeup photographer of food and nature. I don’t like people and animals, they move. I very much love trying new ways to capture things. I like the abstract too. I like it when people are like, what is it?

I did flowers for my final project. I love the last one. I know a lot of you have been waiting a while to see them so here they are!

Well, today was the midterm. We started class normally. I totally screwed up on my assignment of equivalent exposures. More on that another time! But we also did a shallow depth of field assignment and I did well on it. Shallow depth of field is where the subject is sharp and the background is blurry I think I did ok on the exam. The grades aren’t up just yet. I do ok on the fundamentals its the math part that trips me up (no surprise there, if you read my other blog you know I don’t do well with math!). But overall I think its okay. I have a couple things I need to redo because I am capable of doing better. I would love a 4.0 in this class!

My daughter is turning 7 on Saturday so I will be busy but I will leave you with a couple photos!

Ok so in class last Thursday we went over our labs (I got all 5 points woo!) and then got one on one time with our instructor. I showed him the 6 finalists I had in mind for the perspective assignment. Clearly I was going for the wow but always thought this picture would somehow make it to the top. I just don’t know what it is. Even he said its so simple but its so perfect. There is strong lines and texture in the snow so he said hands down I should turn this one in so I did- (The version I turned in was edited better than this but hey)

Swing

Next assignment is Depth of Field. This is MY FAVORITE. I love shooting DOF pictures!

Edited 2-15: Just got my grades back and I got 9.5 out of 10 points on this one! Woohoo!

Ok before I get started I want to clarify that I have a Nikon and only ever shot SLR with Nikons so what I show you may not look exactly the same on your camera! Ok now that we have that straight lets get started.

Flip your camera dial to M and grab your camera instruction book. You will need to know how to adjust your shutter speed and f/stop. As a refresher, your f/stop is the opening of your lens. The lower numbers mean your lens opens MORE. The higher numbers means your lens opening is smaller, letting in less light. Outdoor you shouldn’t need to go below f /5.6 and 400 in the shade or overcast days.

But in the event you need to take a reading to adjust your camera, this is what I did and since I learned, I haven’t went back to auto. Now turn on your camera and point it at what you want and click the shutter half way while you look through the viewfinder. You should see something that looks like this:

When your shutter is pressed halfway it takes a light reading and those numbers from -2 up to 2 are your meter readouts. A dot will show when you press the shutter and your objective is to get that dot under the zero to indicate correct exposure.

How do you do that? Well if your reading is showing your dot to the left of the zero, your photo is going to be under exposed. And to the right of the zero, it will be over exposed. You can increase your shutter speed OR your f/stop to make that dot move back under the zero. You need to look in your manuals. Usually its a button push and a turn of the dial. When you are making those adjustments keep your eye on the viewfinder and you can see the dot move.

When your dot is under that zero, take your shot! In most cases it should be properly exposed.

Next lesson will be how to use the Histogram! I will make sure I use normal person speak and not geeky speak so everyone understands

For my very first photo assignment for class I had to take a picture from a different perspective. Either take it low and aiming up high or vice versa. I took a few shots on this extremely cold day here in Michigan to see if I could get it. In this assignment I am not allowed to clip at all (this happens when you blow out the highlights , overexpose, or lowlights). I had to reshoot all of my first photos because the Histogram in my Adobe Lightroom showed clipping on all of them.

Ok so back to the photos. I asked hubby what he thought made the best shot for perspective. Here are the three I asked him to pick from:

Swing

Ladder

Tree

The one I turn in is going unedited so no watermarks or vignettes. My choice? I chose the second one. If you go to the flickr page for my photos and see the photo larger I think the ladder one is COOL. What do you think?

And here are some more from the shoot:

barn1 by SerendipityMom

sun by SerendipityMom

bwgreg by SerendipityMom

wheels by SerendipityMom

bwclouds by SerendipityMom

mms by SerendipityMom

lyssphotog by SerendipityMom

log by SerendipityMom

barn4 by SerendipityMom

This was my favorite overall shot for perspective but I blew the clouds

I can’t believe it, I have used the camera’s meter for the very first time! Today in class we used Gray Cards to test the accuracy of the meters inside our cameras. Not only did I shoot on manual but I also got the correct exposure! I felt liberated! I am very excited about next week’s class where we will be shooting more and looking at Adobe Lightroom!

Stay tuned folks and get your photos ready, Seagate is having ANOTHER giveaway on my blog and this one is even bigger, this one is for the Dockstar AND FreeAgent Go drive!! This one is different, it will be a photo contest entry but I am still drawing a random number. Basically you will be uploading a picture of your loved one (dog, spouse, kid, etc.) to my Dockstar site so I can show you how easy it is to share online photos!

Thursday’s here are my photography class day. Today we learned about what F-Stops are, what an SLR really is, and some lens information. Next week we are working on metering and checking the camera settings.

So here is my instructor, Art Hanson, he’s been at it for 20 years!

This I believe was taken on Auto but no flash. I spent some time with my camera jacking up the ISO as high as I could and opening that lens so I could get something besides a completely black photo. I came the the realization that the lighting sucks. BUT I FINALLY got a photo of something!

Now its obviously under exposed but hey, I am still learning! And neither of these are assignments but I wanted to share. Speaking of sharing, when I got home from class there was a large box waiting. It turned out to be a review item! Be on the lookout for the review of this on Serendipity Mommy in about 2 weeks!

Those were both shot manually but I put on my warm and fuzzy flash because I will never get any light in this living area!

First and foremost, this arrived today finally! We will be using it excusively in class and I didn’t have it at home but I do now!

Best Friends – They are almost 2 months old. LOVE THEM

These links are lsited in the student resource websites to help with photography-

• Adobe Lightroom Tutorials by Julieanne Kost
• Daily Tips to Improve Your Photography
• LCC Photo Program Information
• Lightroom Killer Tips
• Lightroom Tutorials
• Photo Imaging Educators Association Galleries
• Project Photoshop Lightroom Photo Gallery by LCC Photo Students
• RAW File Format
• The Histogram
• Understanding Depth of Field
• Understanding Exposure, Equivalent Exposures, and Depth of Field (This one is VERY COOL and interactive!)
  
• Understanding Your Digital Camera’s Histogram

I thought for sure that I would be buying Understanding Exposure but for this class I was told to buy

A Short Course in Digital Photography by Barbara London and Jim Stone

Now I am still on chapter one but I love this book because it had really detailed pictures of the stuff they are talking about and full color illustrations. I think its much more user friendly than Understanding Exposure. There is also a suggested book for Adobe Lightroom but since I don’t have that program its kind of useless to buy it. I do know that I have to get a grey card and some special photo paper for class. The first class is more of an intro and to get used to the curriculum so that’s good. I still have to learn the ins and outs of my new d90!