Thursday, December 08, 2016

Dear Kerby,

I am not here to brag. I have had my setbacks most are my fault. Sad, but true. I am picking myself up and moving on.

I got back to tracking my weight, food, and exercise again by the beginning of November since I had been out of work for a few weeks. As soon as I started I hit a heavy downward spiral. I did try to keep myself sane food wise. By the end of the day I was always wanting more food – left hungry. Part if the problem was having the wrong calorie settings in the apps tracking my intake. I thought by eating less calories and exercising 75 minutes a day and getting in 11,000 steps I would be fine. Not true for me.

My main goal is to go hard with everything in the month of January once the holidays are over - jobs, exercise, and relationships. I find it difficult to do anything major till the end of the year. I am still going to watch my weight and make sure the holiday parties to not destroy me.

I was talking to a good friend and I told him about my camera situation and how things are taking a long time. I asked him, "What happens if the batteries for my camera are sent to me and I am still not satisfied with my camera? Is it fine to sell the camera and get something new?" We both agreed that I must be happy with whatever I have since I will be using it quite often. The reason I got the cameras was because I thought it was going to be something I would love since I liked all it had to offer. Part of the reason to find a job in January is to: continue investing in my future, saving for my short term goals, and just living everyday life. Don't worry, I budget things. Finding a new camera will be a short term goal but it will not be that short. I am not going to let this camera situation be a setback for me.

Relationships took a downfall. Not much to say in that department. I am glad I have some good friends to talk to even though we do not hang out as much as I would like.

What is something you tried recovering from this year?

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Move On

Saturday, December 03, 2016

Dear Kerby,

In the past month I have been taking some photos of anything an everything. Anything can be photographed. No need to wait for the moment when the moment is now. Now is all around us. On this journey of snapping and not thinking I fell more in like with the photos.

While on the journey I found a black an white style that I have become more comfortable with. This lead me to shoot the photos in black and white. I have been shooting in color for so long that I would like to get back to black and white. I was told that I do good photos in black and white. If only I did more! I can see a good amount of my photos from this upcoming year being shot in this black and white style.

I shot the photos with a depth of field f/4 or lower. A few of them have a slightly out of focus look which fascinate me. Take a look at the trees in the woods. I am not saying that every photo has to be out of focus (the rushing water). Somehow, I like the grain added to the mushroom. I like a grain that adds to the photo but is not overpowering. Even an out of focus photo with grain still looks good to me.

I have a few photos I need to produce for some upcoming events this next year. I can not wait to produce more photos if they are as fun to take as these photos were.

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh






The Journey

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Dear Kerby,

For a few months now I have had a problem with my new (digital) camera. I sent it in with the battery and charger so that they can find the problem and get it repaired. I did not get the charger and battery back when they sent me the camera. This can be a problem. Not having my new camera made me want to take time to shoot some rolls of film. Yes, I did have my older digital camera I could use which I have been using sparingly. I have been watching/following some advanced photographers on YouTube as they talk about film photography. These photographers have some lessons I can relate to. The topics they talk about can be translated to digital photography because the techniques go above boundaries.

I have been with a local camera club for quite a number of years now and I have learned a number of lessons about how to handle a camera in manual mode as well as things on my own. I know about film speed/iso, aperture/depth of field, and shutter speed. These three things can be summed up as the exposure triangle. With my first digital camera I never thought about any part of the triangle. I let the camera do what it needed to in full auto mode. By my second digital camera I started to learn about parts of the exposure triangle. I have not quite mastered all three parts.

Shutter speed keeps giving me problems. In my mind I do not know correct timing for the right exposure. I always relied on the few second image review after taking the photo. I could then gauge if I needed more or less time so that what I was photographing would become correctly exposed, in my eyes. This is not an accurate way to take a photo because I lose time when reviewing and might miss something perfect. If I was to set the camera up like it was a film camera I would not have the advantages of instantly reviewing the shot. Film cameras sort of have the all or nothing feel.

The other day I came across a photography term called sunny 16. If you do not know what the term is then take time to watch this video. After having the video explain the technique I discovered a new way to look at the camera. I am slowly trying to find the correlation between the items on the exposure triangle. I like a shallow depth of field (F/4 or lower) for most of my photos. If I use a shallow depth of field to take my photo with a low iso (400 or less) then I try and calculate the correct exposure time. The sunny 16 gives me a jumping off point on how to calculate for the correct exposure.

I am going to keep a small notebook in my camera bag from now on so that I can have the sunny 16 rule with me as well as write down things that work or do not work for me when correctly exposing photos. Not everything works the same for every photographer. It all depends on your individual artistic style of taking photos. Sometimes you just want to take a correctly exposed picture and other times you want something more artistic. I find myself in a happy medium between the two nowadays.

Hoping to share with you what I learn along the way.

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Exposed

© letters from bluelaugh 2008 Dapinder