Playing with Pictures

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I caught the morning light in this photo yesterday. It was taken in the shadows of our pergola. Although it’s a bit dark, I like the way the light made patterns on the Barrel and Moroccan Mound cacti.

I turned in my week nine photography assignment last Friday. Then I spent a lot of the weekend practicing and playing — using my macro lens I got for Christmas and my telephoto lens and tripod.

Red has been avoiding me lately, but he finally showed up and I managed to get some pictures of him in focus.

Without a homework assignment — which I’ll have later today — I was able to play and experiment. I tried different lighting, different settings, and waited patiently for Red to make an appearance.

While I shoot, especially out in the sun, I don’t know what I’ve got until I put the memory card into the card reader on my laptop. Then I use Adobe Bridge to look through photos and rate them. It has a zero through five stars labeling system. I put a star by ones I like for future reference. Adobe Bridge is a great tool to organize my few good photos from the hundreds that don’t turn out. I was excited with the photo of Red above! It got two stars.

Here’s another Red photo I thought turned out. Funny (not funny), the next time Red showed up, every photo I took of him was blurry. I think it’s because it was early in the morning and the low in the sky sun was shining right into my eyes. The final photo session of the weekend with Red, the photos were all dark. I had the shutter speed set too high and not enough light was getting into the camera.

Here are honeysuckle blooms I caught in the morning light.

This is called a Fairy Duster.

I know this is an aloe bloom. From what I learned online, the common name is Lace Aloe.

Here’s Mrs. Red with a House Finch buddy enjoying what is a called a Cardinal Block. I bought it at the hardware store and it came complete with a picture of a Red Cardinal on the wrapper. How could I refuse?

This is one of the photos I took of Red that was too dark. I was able crop and lighten it up a bit digitally. I understand the reasoning behind my photography instructor to learn how the camera works and how to make better images — without digital touchups. It’s helped me improve tremendously. I’m also thankful I could rescue a few shots of Red with the help of technology — while playing with pictures.

What were you playing with or enjoying that was fun or creative this weekend?

33 thoughts on “Playing with Pictures”

  4. Absolutely adore that last picture EA- Red and his friend – two very different birds. I was much like LA- moved a large storage cube to a different location and then reorganized my main closet space. Still have to go through all the cube bins and manage the toss or keep piles.

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    • Thank you. The last picture was so dark you couldn’t make out the birds. Amazing what a little digital tinkering can do. I went through my closet this weekend, too. I’m going to the Dream Center, the residential facility for sex trafficked victims, this week and bringing a donation of clothes from my closet.

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  6. Love these pictures. The amount of light difference you must have during a day in AZ must be astounding! I wouldn’t have a clue about how to change up my camera so I admire you for all that you are learning (and teaching)!

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    • Thanks! It’s been an interesting week with one day bright and sunny followed by a gray day. I found out in my week eight assignment grades that I had some weird setting on that changed my exposures. I have no idea what it was, or how I changed it. I’m afraid my photos I posted Friday had that button pushed, too. So, I’m still learning! And I have to remind myself that I’m not doing this for the grades!

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    • That is true. Our instructor asks us to write about our photos and what we like about them as well as what we could improve. I went online through Maricopa Community Colleges to find this class. You could check out your community colleges for digital photography classes.

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    • Thanks! I’m glad you like them. I get so many “bad” shots that have a Red blur crossing the photo. I love it when something turns out. Such a nice surprise!

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  11. That cactus photo is awesome!

    I wish I could say I did something fun and creative this weekend, but alas did not. I’ve been doing a LOT of reading and journaling.

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    • Thanks! The honeysuckle blossoms are the only ones on the entire plant. I’m sure there will be more to come. I love to take photos in spring of all the plants with blossoms. This year is more exciting with my class, rather than with my iphone.

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