Simple things

ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec

Day 2 of

Capture Your 365

!

It has been so cold here in the mornings! From our kitchen window, we can look out and see our frost covered glass patio table. This morning, there just happened to be a couple of leaves on the table and it hit me...I just had to take a picture! I probably should have attached that 50mm lens that I am borrowing, but I really didn't want to have to go back out into the cold to take another picture.

We really didn't have to go anywhere today and I am thinking we are going to wait until next week to resume our school schedule. So today, Kelsey and I watched all of

Anne of Green Gables - The Sequel.

It was such a nice, lazy day together, just us girls. We also learned that it was

National Cream Puff Day

, so Kelsey made cream puffs this afternoon and they were amazing! I may just count today as a school day after all :o)

Adjusting Aperture

Today is the first day of my participation in the

Capture Your 365

project. My goal for this project is to take at least one picture everyday to improve my photography skills. Last week, I reserved a few photography books at the library and was reading through

Understanding Exposure

today. Our library only has the 2nd edition of this book, which is still proving to be very helpful.

So I decided to do a little experiment with some chess pieces. This is something that is easy to set up. I made sure my camera was sitting on a stable surface since it would be impossible to get an in focus shot while hand holding the camera at the shutter speeds I was using.

 ISO 100, 50mm, f/5.0, 1.6 sec

 ISO 100, 50mm, f/8.0, 4.0 sec

ISO 100, 50mm, f/22, 30.0 sec

When I adjusted the aperture, I needed to adjust either the shutter speed or the ISO to get a proper exposure for the photo. Since I decided to leave the ISO alone, I had to adjust the shutter speed each time. Notice the difference between each of the photos? In the near future, I would like to try this same 'experiment' with moving objects to compare the results.

In this experiment, I would have to say that my favorite photo of the day would be the middle picture. I like that the snowman pillow in the background is not quite in focus,  but you can make out that it is there. Which one is your favorite?

A little photography experiment

Today, I did something I haven't done yet with my photos...I shot RAW! This morning, I formatted a memory card (which basically erases

everything

on your memory card). This way I was able to start with a fresh, empty memory card since RAW files take up a lot of space.

Then I went into the shooting menu on my camera and changed the image quality to RAW. According to my 'Nikon D3100 for Dummies' book, shooting RAW will give you 'greater creative control', 'higher bit depth', and the 'best picture quality'. Shooting RAW requires you to edit them since you can't share them like you can JPEG images.

When you first import your RAW photos into Lightroom, they will look very flat. So after a little bit of editing, here are some photos I took today:

 1/10 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, 55mm

 1/6 sec, f/3.2, ISO 100, 50mm

 0.4 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 200mm

0.8 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, 200 mm

I wish I could show the before photos on each of these! Once I figure that out, I will try to post the before and after photos so you can see the difference also.

The January photo list has been e-mailed for the

Capture Your 365

challenge. I am looking forward to it! Will you join me?

December Photo Project - Day 24

Going to be playing a little catch up on my

December Photo Project

posts. This picture happened completely by accident! I am borrowing a 50mm f/1.8 lens from a friend. I was intending to take a picture of our tree, but didn't even have time to readjust the settings on the camera before I pushed the shutter button. After doing a quick edit in Lightroom, I have to say that I just love my accidental picture!

One thing I am considering doing in 2013 is a

Capture Your 365

challenge. It is not really a challenge, but in a way it is. It will be a way for me to challenge myself to take at least one photo everyday. It will give me a chance to try some new things with my photography. After all, if I can accidentally capture pictures like the one above, I am thinking the challenge will be a lot of fun!

December Photo Project - Day 23

This year, we changed up the traditional Christmas

chocolate fudge recipe.

Kelsey thought it would be a good idea to experiment and try to make cookies and cream fudge.

We started out with the basic fudge recipe: sugar, butter, and evaporated milk. So just follow the recipe for heating up those ingredients. I have always used the stove top version of the recipe, so make sure you have a candy thermometer on hand. Make sure you have a bag of white chocolate chips, one jar of marshmallow creme, vanilla extract, and about 16-20 crushed up oreos ready. Once the sugar, butter, and milk mixture has reached the right temperature, take the pan off of the stove top and add the whilte chocolate chips. Stir until the chips have melted. Then add the marshmallow creme and vanilla. Once the mixture is nice and smooth, stir in the crushed oreos. I like a pan with aluminum foil to make it easier to remove and cut up the fudge.

You can leave the pan on your counter to cool, but I really like a nice cold piece of fudge, so I put the pan in the refrigerator to cool.

Hope you enjoy the recipe!