I have recently been lacking either motivation, or inspiration to get my camera out and take some pictures. I don’t know if it is the overwhelming drabness of my current location, or just a general lack of photographic inspiration around here. Truth is there are several “Things” around here that I’d like to get pictures of, but I am not allowed…Oh well! There are some beautiful sunsets around here, and I have been trying to get some decent shots, but not been having much luck. For those of you into sunsets here is a tutorial I found that might be helpful to you:

http://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-photograph-sunsets

I did finally receive my 18% gray card in the mail. I have spent some time working on  my next project which involves determining the dynamic range of my camera. I have discovered that at ISO 200 my camera has a dynamic range of 10 zones See insert below). I know “Blah blah blah” I can see your attention turning to anything else right now, and I understand. I’m hoping in the grand scheme of things this knowledge will be useful. This whole exercise is really to help understand the way your camera meters reflected light from a surface, and to help understand the varying shades of gray. I do believe it will be helpful when trying to compose for black and white shots.

The form above lists the amount of light being reflected to the camera sensor from the gray card. The R, G, & B stand for percent of Red, Green, & Blue being reflected. As you can see by the actual exposures snapped Zone -1 reflects no light back to the sensor, whereas Zone VIII is reflecting 100% of the light back to the sensor. You can barely see the exposure for zone VIII since it blends with the white background.

I have also been searching the web looking for inspiration from other blog sites, and researching ways to get people to come to my site. There really is more to this than I thought. I am trying to figure out what to write, what are people interested in, how often I should update, etc., etc. Please feel free to give me any input you might have to help make this a blog that people want to visit. I will of course, add photos on a regular basis…that’s the easy part.

I am just about less than 10 days from arriving home for some time off. I am looking forward to get home and seeing everyone, and I am also going to use this time to practice doing some portrait photography. Of course that requires more equipment, so I was nice enough to get online this morning and buy a few things that I will be needing when I get home They should all be waiting for me when I get there. Darlene if you’re reading this…yes I did buy more stuff…LOVE YOU    If you are not reading this you’ll be wondering why the UPS guy keeps showing up…and you of all people should be reading this!

That’s about it for this posting. I need to get my next assignment completed and turned in, I will keep you posted on that. I am also hoping for input from all of you on how I can make this blog better. Any, and all suggestions will be helpful…especially ways to get more readers.

Until next time…Happy Shooting!

Well, I went public with my blog yesterday. Pretty good feedback. Thanks everyone for your support. Trying this new way to post from my phone, we’ll see how it works.
Not much going on today as far as photography. Still waiting on my 18% gray card to continue with my assignment. I did see some good tips for taking pics of fireworks, I will post that when I’m back at the computer.

So, I am two days into developing this blog site. It is a bit overwhelming at first, but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. I have added a few pictures, and I am about to go public with the site. It appears that this blogging is a very dynamic endeavour. I find that I am always wanting to make changes, so I anticipate this site looking very different six months from now. So keep checking back, and offering suggestions if you have any.

I am also staying busy with work. I hate that working cuts into my photography time, but I guess I will need to deal with that until I can make Photography, my “Work Time”. I do tote my backpack full of camera gear with me everyday to work, just in case. I usually get an opportunity to get some pictures during our downtimes at work.

As for my online class, I am currently on Module 3, which deals with “Exposure and Metering”. I have read thru the materials, but I am currently waiting for an 18% gray card, which I ordered from Amazon.com to arrive (is it gray or grey?). This looks like a somewhat complicated module, so I will update you once the card arrives…which I hope will be soon.

I have completed Module 1 (Cameras & Lenses), and Module 2 (Shutters, Aperatures, ISOs & Their Relationships). I have posted a cheat sheet that is very helpful for any of you that are interested in how all those “Scary” settings work together on your camera. I probably took a couple hundred shots trying out different combinations to see how one setting affects another. I also posted a few pictures in the gallery “Assignment 2″ to show some of the samples. I was mainly working on “Depth of Field” which is what keeps your main subject in focus, and blurs out the background. I will add the camera settings under the photos soon, so that you can see what settings were used.

Well, I could probably ramble on forever about this stuff, but I will keep it short today. If anyone has any questions on how the “Cheat Sheet” works, let me know and will try to help you out (or just baffle you with BS).

Happy Shooting (with your camera that is….where I am at, I get nervous when people are shooting)

This is my first  foray into the world of blogging. As many of you know I am often away from home, and at times with a lot of spare time on my hands.  I have decided to use some of my free time to hone my photography skills, and pursue a long time dream of becoming a “Professional” photographer. I intend to use this blogging space as a place to update my progress, mistakes, post photos, and just share my journey with others. As my wife always says “Life’s a Journey, Not a Destination” (actually, I’m pretty sure it’s Aerosmith that says that). So, here is my Journey.