My photography class wrapped up last night.  (Yay! I can finally mark something off of my Resolutions list!!!)

I had a great time in the class.  I love that I finally know how to operate my camera in Manual mode rather than Automatic.  As the instructor says, “Now you’re taking the picture instead of the camera taking the picture.”  Which is a cool feeling, except that I also realize that makes me responsible for the bad pictures, too.

Here’s some of my class work:

Metering a light object

metering2

Metering a dark object (with a plug for our family friends at Circle S Vineyards, if you’re in Houston go see Uncle Dave. :) )

metering1

My favorite, playing with the f-stop to blur the background.  It’s like erasing all the busy distractions from the background, so that the focus is on one simple thing.  I’d love it if I could figure out how to do that in my day-to-day life.  Imagine how peaceful life could be if you could tune out the neighbor’s barking dogs, the children arguing over who knows what, the general noise that just seems to takes over.

hummingbird

More with the f-stop

playing-with-f-stop

Blurred Action vs. Stop Motion

stop-motion

So that’s what I learned in a nutshell.  Now, I probably can’t explain it or teach it to anyone yet.  But I’ll get there – slowly but surely – I’ll get there…

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9 Responses to “Photography Class”
  1. kris says:

    WOW that F stop pic of the bird feeder is fabulous! I would love if you could explain that one! I just need a class!

  2. kris says:

    ohm PS, I’m in Houston, will visit Uncle Dave! I’m also a wino!! ;)

  3. TexasTanya says:

    Oh, Kris – When you go visit Uncle Dave, tell him I sent you. He’ll be so tickled.

  4. Weird Old Guy says:

    Great Pictures. We’re heading to Uncle Dave’s tonight!

  5. TexasTanya says:

    WOG – thanks :) Give Uncle Dave a hug for me. :)

  6. Esther says:

    What kind of a camera do you have? I’m really interested in that F stop. I have a Nikon P90. I’ll have to check out the manual and see if I can do that. The rose picture is my fave.

  7. Rachel says:

    I live the bird feeder and the clarity of the fountain. I got a new point-and-shoot camera, but was disappointed that there aren’t any manual settings on it. It’s great otherwise.

    We’re moving to Houston sometime this summer – maybe we’ll have to pay Uncle Dave a visit! :)

  8. D... says:

    Awesome pictures! You’ve learned a lot. I’ve been trying to take pics with f stop, but yuck on me. I really need to learn how to use my manual settings. And the stop motion? Amazing!!!

    I’m in Houston. I should visit Uncle Dave sometime. :D

  9. stacey says:

    love them! i hope to take a class one day!

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