Signing Off

Seeing is as tomorrow is the last day of class, it is time to wrap up this blog. Through the close call of falling into the Shiloh Conservation pond to extremely cold fingers adjusting settings in the Beartooth's, I rather enjoyed the class. There are three major things that I will keep with me in the future. The first is to keep all of my corners clean. At first I did not think that it was super noticeable in my earlier pictures, but looking back on them now, I realize that none of my corners were clean. The second tidbit that I have picked up is that every camera has an autofocus button. Up until four weeks ago, I was shooting all of my pictures with a manually focused lens. Now that I have been using the autofocus button, my pictures as of late have been slowly getting clearer and clearer. The third thing that I have picked up is to not be scared of shutter and aperture priority modes. I was always taught not to use them because they were the "cheaters way" or the "easy way" to get good pictures. These modes are amazing and produce beautiful photos. Overall, I enjoyed taking the class and I think that I will keep doing it as a hobby and see what the spring and summer bring to the photo world.

Final Twenty Five

The settings for each picture is the information above the photograph. Also, up until four weeks ago, I had no idea that there was an autofocus button, therefore the pictures that were taken beforehand with manual focus will be labeled. 

ISO-3200  -- Aperture- ƒ/11 -- Shutter speed- 1/4000s

ISO-400 -- Aperture- ƒ/11 -- Shutter speed- 1/200s

ISO- 800 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed - 1/2500s -- manual focused

ISO-200  --  Aperture- ƒ/5 -- Shutter speed - 1/500s

ISO- 400 --  Aperture- ƒ/5 -- Shutter speed - 1/1250s

ISO- 400  --  Aperture- ƒ/5 -- Shutter speed - 1/800s -- manually focused

ISO- 800 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed - 1/2000s -- manually focused

ISO- 800 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed - 1/2000s -- manually focused

ISO- 200 --  Aperture- ƒ/6.3 -- Shutter speed - 1/1600s

ISO- 400 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed- 1/2000s

ISO- 800 --  Aperture- ƒ/9 -- Shutter speed - 1/4000s

ISO- 100 --  Aperture- ƒ/22 -- Shutter speed - 1/100s

ISO- 400 --  Aperture- ƒ/22 -- Shutter speed - 1/125s

ISO- 400 --  Aperture- ƒ/5 -- Shutter speed - 1/4000s

ISO- 400 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed - 1/2000s

ISO- 3200 --  Aperture- ƒ/13 -- Shutter speed- 1/800s -- manually focused -- With the knowledge of the autofocus button now, if I were to go back and take this picture I would put the camera into aperture priority mode and adjust the ISO and Shutter Speed accordingly -- The ISO on this picture is also a little high due to the overcast on the day the picture was taken. 

ISO- 32 --  Aperture- ƒ/2.2 -- Shutter speed - 1/3968s *this picture was taken off of an iPhone 6

ISO- 400 --  Aperture- ƒ/8 -- Shutter speed - 1/2500s 

ISO- 3200 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed - 1/4000s

ISO- 200 --  Aperture- ƒ/20 -- Shutter speed - 1/60s

ISO- 200 --  Aperture- ƒ/6.3 -- Shutter speed - 1/1600s

ISO- 800 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed - 1/2000s -- manually focused -- The shutter speed on this picture is higher than it should be, if I were to go back and to this again I would definitely lower it.

ISO- 800 --  Aperture- ƒ/5.6 -- Shutter speed - 1/2000s -- manually focused

ISO- 3200 --  Aperture- ƒ/9 -- Shutter speed - 1/4000s -- manually focused

ISO-1600  --  Aperture- ƒ/5 -- Shutter speed - 1/200s

Wooden

This photo was taken at Duck Creek yesterday morning. I am absolutely in love with the pattern in it. It was taken at an ISO of 400, a shutter speed of 1/200s, and an aperture of ƒ/10.

Lightly Snowy

This past weekend, my honey and I went out to Red Lodge so I could get some good shots for this class. I had the idea that we should leave home by 6 am to catch the sunrise. Needless to say, he's not a morning person, so we hit the highway about 7:15 and made it to the Beartooth Pass around 8:30 am. This was perfect timing because there was enough light to not have to crank my ISO up super high and there was still frost on the trees as well. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a lot of pictures with perfect focus so I only got a few usable shots. I believe that we are going to go back this weekend so I can try and retake the unfocused shots. Of the pictures that I do like, these are the better ones of the batch. 

Snowy Grass: ISO 400 -- Aperture ƒ/5 -- Shutter speed 1/1250s
Tree lined creek: ISO 3200 -- Aperture ƒ/13 -- Shutter speed 1/500s

Share Two and Critique #3

 ISO 400 -- aperture ƒ/5 --  shutter speed 1/4000s

ISO 200 -- aperture ƒ/7.1 -- shutter speed 1/640

Icy

This picture was take at Riverfront Park in Billings with an ISO of 3200, an aperture of ƒ/5.6, and a shutter speed of 1/4000. These are common settings for me because I tend to either go in the evening or find interesting things where there is not a whole lot of light shining down on my subject. The subject in the photo is the icy edge. I thought that with a shutter speed quite high, I could catch the water in still but it was moving a little too fast. I was surprised that I was able to catch a rippled reflection which added an interesting flare to the picture in my opinion. 

Benefits of a 75-300mm Lens

So I am using a Canon EOS Rebel T3 which I rented from the library at Rocky. It came with a 75-300mm lens which I never though I would want to use. Once I used it, I couldn't figure out what I loved about it so much other than the ability to zoom in. So I did a little digging and found out some interesting reviews of the lens. After looking at the lens I noticed it is a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III. When looking at the review posted on The Digital Picture ( https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-75-300mm-f-4-5.6-III-USM-Lens-Review.aspx) I am unsure if I really want to use it anymore.

The review said it is cheap, lower sharpness, and you need a lot of light to obtain great handheld photos. I can say that I have noticed that once you zoom in to anything past 100mm, the sharpness does tend to go out of the window if you are attempting a hand held photo.  On the cheapness side of things, I guess it is a good thing that I baby the entire carrying case. I would be petrified to fork over $300 to replace the lens even if it isn't the best.  Luckily for me, my schedule typically only allows for me to shoot photos during the times of day with the most light. Yeah yeah, "get up earlier" they say, when work starts at 5am you don't have an option for that. Regardless, since I am a beginner I think it does what I ask it to do with the skills that I have and I can't complain a whole lot.