Spohr Gardens

One of my favorite spots in Falmouth to take landscape photographs is at Spohr Gardens. Six acres of gardens are tucked away on Oyster Pond. April brings peaceful walkways full of daffodils that lead you to the pond. Great place to sit on the dock and take in the beautiful scenery all around.

Photography Class

I have always loved taking pictures. I was the one on the 8th grade field trip with the camera, high school, college with all of those shots of friends that I love to look back on. My first SLR was the Canon AT-1. It gave up on me years ago, but I still hang onto it. Even after all of the years photographing anyone and everything that I can, I always find it easier to use the automatic setting. So when I heard about a class whose theme was to teach us how to get our cameras off of AUTO, I knew it was time to take the leap. It was a great 6 weeks of emphasising how much more creative we can be by knowing how to use everything our cameras have to offer. We had homework every week to practice our new knowledge of our camera settings.
One week was to show stopped action. I take a lot of sports photos, so when I was driving along Surf Drive in Falmouth, this kite seemed like the perfect subject for a change.

First shot shows the kite frozen using 5.6 for the Fstop and the exposure at 1/400. The faster exposure time freezes the action.

The above shot you can see the movement in the tail of the kite. This was shot at F22 with an exposure time of 1/50. The slower exposure time left the aperture open longer and captures the tail fluttering.

Another week the homework was to try panning and zooming. I was really excited to finally have someone explain and show how to hold the camera and move with the action. I had read the "how to" numerous times,but could never get it quit right.

Below is my attempt at zooming. I had never even heard about how to get that affect. Not the greatest-it is pretty tough to master-but I had fun trying!

My favorite lesson learned was getting control of making use of all of the settings. So easy to set on automatic, use a flash and settle for whatever the result is. But by thinking about just a few points before hitting the shutter button-what kind of lighting you are photographing in-setting the correct ISO; is there action-choose your exposure time; or do you need the aperture to allow more or less light in-choose the Fstop-can make all of the difference in your photo.    

First photo was taken using AUTO. It was in a sunny window, but I wanted to shoot really close to capture the details of the flowers. Because I was so close to the flowers, it seemed to misread the amout of light that was needed and shot it at F5.6 with a 1/160 exposure time and an ISO of 100.

                                     

The next photo I set using all manual settings. Best shot was using F7.1 with 1/60 for an exposure time and an ISO of 200.

 

It was a great class and I am really enjoying putting everything I learned into practice!

Falmouth VS Nantucket 27MAR10

 It was a great start to the season for the Falmouth High Boys Varsity Lacrosse team. Classically cold March day in New England, but that did not stop a great game. Defeated Nantucket 13-5!

Where to start?

If you are starting your search for a new camera think about the options that are important to suit your needs. There are so many choices when researching cameras today. If starting a new hobby there are a wide range of point and shoots available. I have always favored Canon's products so we can start with a couple that are on both ends of their point and shoot spectrum.
There is the:
Canon PowerShot A3000 IS:
10 Megapixels
Focal Length 35-140mm
4X Digital Zoom
Maximum Aperture 2.7-5.6
Shutter Speed 1-1/1600 - 15-1/1600
ISO Sensitivity 100-1600
$149.00
Or:
PowerShot G11
10.4 Megapixels
Focal Length 28-140mm
5X Digital Zoom
Maximum Aperture 2.8-4.5
Shutter Speed 15-1/4000
ISO Sensitivity 80-3200
$499.99

I listed just a few of their specifications to give you a start on what are some of the important details that should be the deciding factors. Things to consider would be do you simply want a dependable camera to capture memories, do you need something with more options so you can grow into your camera, do you need the expanded features with faster shutter speeds to keep up with children in sporting events or quick moving animals. Or if lighting is an issue you will need the larger ISO range if shooting inside when you do not want to use the flash, or shooting indoor sports like in low lit hockey rinks. After a little research of the features of a few cameras, it is always fun to go to your favorite camera retailer and get a feel for a couple of your favorites, seeing if you like the layout of the controls and viewfinder.