Sometimes you have to look deeper to find interesting things to photograph. This just appears to be a shed, but I found it really fascinating. How it was placed in the middle of nowhere, and the curiosity of whats inside? I also liked the compass on top of the shed.

*Cameras Don't Take Good Pictures - People Do

where are the army men now?

My brother always finds an interesting place to line up his toy army men: In the fridge, on the couch, the kitchen table, his bed, and the deck. For my 4-H photography project I had to take pictures of objects in focus and out of focus. I also had to make objects in the front appear blurry, and the back objects more sharp. This task can be very difficult, but I managed to capture it in this photo.

The camera is off center, and the picture appears to be "lop-sided". Sometimes, pictures are ment to be off center, but in this case it doesn't work. I liked the sky in the background and how you can tell it is windy, and about to rain.

Kent State

I recently visited Kent State University. I uploaded some picures from my visit!

Technical Tips:

1. Use a tripod

2. Polarize your lens

3. Experiment with your white balance settings

4. Underexpose your shots slightly

FALL

I love Autumn photography, but sometimes it can be hard to capture. So what are some tips of capturing the beautiful colors?

1. 1. Shoot in the golden hours.
2. - shoot at the end of the day just before sunset when the light is golden. This accentuates the reds and golds even more than normal.
4. 2. Look for contrasts
5. -Think about framing your shots in such a way that the different colors contrast with eachother.
7. 3. Avoid shooting into the sun
8. -Shooting into the sun will will result in shadows, lower saturation, and lens flare.

Another action shot

Action photography is a way capturing and conveying motion. The world around is in motion, and we have to find creative ways of capturing movement in our pictures. Some obvious ways are subject placement, and timing. Another tool that helps to convey motion is shutter speed. *Shutter speed is the main tool photographers have for controlling motion capture and blur. Shutter speeds needed to freeze action differ greatly based on the subject and the subject's relation to the camera. For example, to freeze splashing water you may need a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second.

Above are two exampled of action photography. In both of them I was freezing obvious motion.

bad weather continued..

My last post I talked about photographing in the rain, and showed some of my pictures I have taken. I started to get curious about how to take better bad weather photo's, and I did some research online. I found a lot of really neat pictures in the rain. So, here are some for you to enjoy:)

*Please note that these pictures are not taken by me!

rain, rain..

Taken in my driveway, this picture shows my road and the corn/bean field behind it. It had just rained, and this gave the picture an "eerie" feel. I really like how you can tell the road has been wet from the rain, because it is normally very hard to capture. Unfortunately, this is one of my best attempts I have had photographing in bad weather. Below, is another attempt...

In the picture above (yes, it is a moose) you can see the rain hitting the water. I was at the zoo and the weather decided to be difficult; So most of my pictures ended up looking like this. I also will point out the way the water rippled while the moose was drinking.

Here is a blog site that I love:

http://maggiemcdonaldphotography.com/blog/

Nature hates calculators. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have to say, one of my favorite objects to photograph are flowers. Nature in general always seems to produce a wonderful picture. The first flower I believe is an Orchid. I found it on the side of the road near the bike path. The second flowers are just your everyday Pansy. But they had the most beautiful vibrant purple color to them. It was really fun to try and capture their color on camera. I had to try different angles, and lighting effects.

"Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are." ~Osho

guessing game

Now, can you guess what this picture is of?

For one of my 4H projects I had to take a picture of something up close, and have someone guess what it was. When I showed my family this picture only my Dad got close to guessing a bird feeder. The point is, how you take a picture matters a lot. A lot of things come in play, for example: Lighting, focus, clutter, vertical vs. horizontal shots, the Rule of Thirds..etc..

nature

When I took this picture my mom told me it looked like it belonged on a post card. But the truth is, I captured this at the bike path. I stood on the railings of the bridge, and took the picture through the trees. The river you see is the Kokosing. This picture reminds me that beauty is everywhere. Even if you aren't in Hawaii, or some vacation spot, you can find beauty in your backyard.

Dont take what you have for granted.

sun&sand:)

These photographs are from our family trip to Myrtle Beach. #1 In the first picture my dad and my brother were attempting to feed the seagulls. Lets just say, not many seagulls wanted fed that day. I love the sky in the picture, and how I caught the motion of my dad's arm throwing bread.

#2 If your wondering what the second picture is of, it's turtles. haha. My grandma found turtle sand toys at one of the local beach stores.

Casio Exilim EX-S10 Review

I just recently got my Casio Exilim as a gift from my parents. I have been using it for awhile now, and I have to say i like it a lot. My model is a EX-S10. The S10 is the "smallest and thinnest 10.1 megapixel model" Casio makes. It fits right in my hand, and the performance is great. Here are some facts about the S10:

• EQUIPPED WITH A 3X OPTICAL ZOOM LENS
• iTUNES-COMPATIBLE H.264 VIDEO
• COMES IN 4 COLORS: BLACK, RED, BLUE, AND SILVER
• IT HAS AUTO, MANUAL, AND MOVIE SHOOTING MODES