Friday 30 October 2009

the M mode on my camera!



Today I turned 49. I have just 365 days left before I can wear a red hat!  Do I feel my age -  NO! ..well I did this morning when little man woke me at 4am to wipe his snotty nose and get him a glass of water .. but asides from minor inconveniences like this I feel good. I need to loose more than a few llbs of course and I would love to loose the jowls if I was game-enough for a face-lift but I am, for the most part, quite happy with my aging process. I am happy, have my health and thankfully an enquiring mind!  The day I stop wanting to learn or try something new will be the day I hang my boots up. 


Todays learning experience was how to shoot photos in manual mode!  My husband who is a keen armchair photographer asked "why ? " when I had a perfectly good Auto mode on my camera?  Well auto just doesn't hack it for some shots I am told and anyway I have never used the manual mode on my D90 before. Actually, I have never shot a photo in manual on any camera. Before digital I used an instamatic - which definitely proves I am of a certain age!  Thankfully, DH who knew better than to interfere with my 'mission' was keen to extract and pass on a plethora of useful knowledge from his vast data banks.  He set about explaining the ins and outs of F stops, depth of fields and aperture settings and yep you guessed right - it meant absolutely nothing to me at all!  All of his carefully worded explanations went right over my head! 


I am a hands on person it seems and there is only one way for me to learn, and that's to get on and have a go! Well, the beauty of a digital camera shooting in manual mode is of course that you can ditch the crappy photos straight away and try again! Good job too but after more than a  few failed attempts it didn't take very long for me to grasp a rudimentary understanding of aperture and f-stops OR how much light you allow to reach your cameras senses and how big a hole you allow the light to pass through!   


My choice of subject matter was probably not for the beginner though but no one told me that until after my workshop!  A fresh bouquet of flowers for said DH and a self-portrait!  












What did I learn ?   1.  I had fun!  2.  You don't need to use flash 3.You can isolate certain parts of your subject  from the background 4. you can create different moods by allowing more or less light in  5. I had fun!


You really should give it a go!  One final word - if you haven't already ....READ YOUR MANUAL!







p.s the hat was a gift from dh - its green!

4 comments:

Diane J. Evans said...

Great photos, Tracey! And I personally love your subject matter! I'm taking your advice and giving this a try -- I know my pictures could be better.

Diane

Trudi said...

They are great photos, it's been many ... many years since I've done that sort of thing, I'm particularly fond on the macro setting on my camera! But I'll try it all again and see how I do! And a belated Happy Birthday!

BilboWaggins said...

MANY HAPPY RETURNS! You don't look 49, and I know you don't feel it (BTW, what the heck is 49 meant to feel like, I've been pondering that since May but have not got an answer yet).

Great photos, but I am not surprised, you have such a creative eye.

Love what you've done with the blog header - yes, you are so much more than "just a mum".

Sorry not to have written recently, been in a bit of a funk, will try and catch up soon.

Christy Amular said...

Belated happy birthday, Tracey! Thank you for the birthday greetings too and visiting my blog today! Hmm, when in doubt, press P for program ;)