I liked the finch on a flamingo because of the light and background. The flamingos were a birthday present a few years ago from friends. At first I didn’t know what I’d do with them, but they’ve become a highlight of my photos and backyard.
Here’s Red underneath a bench in our backyard.
Mourning Dove loves to rest on top of the same bench. One day he/she was there for hours.
This is a bouquet of glass flowers on our outdoor fireplace. The prior owners of our house left them with us. I like the morning light on the edge of the fireplace and glass flowers. A hummingbird visits the flowers every morning to try and get some nectar.
Red stuffing himself while standing under the flamingo. Those two poles behind him are the flaming’s legs.
Mrs. found a perfect perch on a flaming’s head. She often stops there while grabbing a bite of seeds.
Our skies normally are bright blue. I’ve enjoyed a few cloudy days.
Seriously, Red asks. You’re still taking pictures of me?
Which photos do you like of the ones I posted this week?
This is a photo from our courtyard near the front door. The morning light made the cactus look like it was lit from inside.
I think my photography is improving thanks to an online photography class I’m taking through the local community college. I struggle with the concepts at the beginning of each week. Every Monday there is a new module online. I have to print it out, highlight and reread the material several times. I’m looking for clues for the weekly assignment which is due over the weekend. There’s also assigned reading from our textbook.
Instead of telling us what the assignment is, the professor says the instructions for photos can be found throughout the module.
This week’s topic is aperture, which are the “f stops.”
By putting the camera in Aperture priority, I can adjust the aperture (which is the hole in the lens) to let in more or less light. But the camera decides the shutter speed so the photo has the correct exposure. The module said to use this mode. Whew! I found one clue for my assignment. The instructions also said to use creativity with the depth of field. Plus I need to submit four photos.
What is depth of field?
Depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a photo that appear acceptably sharp. It is influenced by factors such as aperture, distance to the subject, and focal length of the lens.
In the photo above, I focused on my Bird Buddy feeder and the house finch. The bird is staring into one camera while being photographed by me. The background is blurred because the depth of field is shallow. The lower the f stop, the larger the aperture opens, letting more light into the camera. (Nothing confusing about that, right?) It makes the depth of field more narrow.
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to submit the same photo using different aperture settings or not. I’ve decided since this is technically an art class, I’m going for four different subjects using different f stops. I’ve got three so far. I will once again remind myself, “I’m doing this to learn, not for grades!”
I knew my pink flamingos would make it into a photo assignment. I used an f stop of 4.5 which is a low stop, which means the aperture opening is big. The shutter speed adjusted to 1/4000 of a second, which is really fast. That fast shutter speed made for crisp and clear flamingos and barrel cacti. The low f stop kept the foreground and background fuzzy.
Now to find one more photo! I took a ton of photos of my buddy Red. He hung out with me while I was photographing in our yard. Unfortunately, I didn’t think his photos turned out well enough to use for this week’s assignment.
The other day, I spotted Red with a girlfriend or wife. But she was only here for one day. Maybe she’s in their nest?
My buddy Red. He’s a little out of focus. I don’t think it was because of f stops or shutter speeds. He’s a flighty little thing. I think it was movement blur.
What’s your opinion on a shallow depth of field with a blurry background and crisp focused subject? Or do you prefer photos where everything is in focus?
Have you used the different settings on a camera in manual mode? Aperture priority or shutter priority?
What a difference a real camera makes compared to my iphone! Monday, I posted photos of an owl and hawks in my backyard. Those pics were from my iphone. The owl returned so I had a second chance with my Nikon camera. You can read Monday’s post HERE.
It was a bit of a learning curve to remember how to use my Nikon camera. Fortunately, there are lots of resources online. When I got the camera one Christmas from Costco, it came with a DVD with tips on how to use it. I still have the DVD, but it made me realize how much technology has changed since I got the camera 10 years ago.
Yes, the camera still works. But transferring photos from the camera to my laptop has changed. I’ve been through more than one laptop in the past 10 years! The camera comes with a little wireless device that is supposed to send a signal and connect to my laptop. Right. But first I needed to install the software onto my laptop from a CD disk! Funny thing, my laptop doesn’t have a CD drive. I looked online and the software wasn’t available to download.
The solution was purchasing a $9 card reader that is on a dongle that plugs into the laptop. I removed the memory card from the camera. Popped it into the dongle and BINGO! It worked in a nano second.
Here are husband and wife quail outside the casita.
Friends gave me these Flamingos from Costco for my birthday a few years ago. The flamingos like to hang out with the quail.
My favorite owl hanging out in our backyard.
One of several hawks who made a surprise visit yesterday.
I’ve written about how technology has changed throughout the years. You can read a post about how I began working in PR with a IBM Selectric typewriter HERE.
Do you notice an improvement in my photos with the camera versus iphone?
What technology has changed your day to day life the most?
I was singing Paul Simon’s Kodachrome while I wrote my blog post. Enjoy!
