The Diary of a Novice DSLR Photographer....

Whoop!

2009-10-14T11:55:00.001-07:00

64/365 Stand by Me (Explored #491)
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

My fourth pic in explore!
I've not been particularly motivated in the last few days as Chap and I have been poorly. But this was a particularly nice day that we had together at the beginning of this week. This was just before sunset on a crisp autumnal day. Beautiful.
I love this pic, I think it's one of my faves. I hope you like it too.

Let there be Light! (explored # 447)

2009-10-08T15:27:00.001-07:00

58/365 Let there be Light! (explored # 447)
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

I don't know why this is starting to happen now but this is the 3rd photo of mine that has appeared in explore in 1 week.
I guess that once one picture has been explored it opens the rest of your photostream up for comments and views.

I am taking part in a photo scavenger hunt this month, the theme is Monty Python. Unfortunately I'm not the biggest fan of Monty Python but I have to take a picture or use previous pictures that I have taken to depict the catchphrase. Today I have been taking pictures of cheese...... "Tell me, have you in fact got any cheese here at all?"

Another One!

2009-10-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Really chuffed, another of my pictures was 'explored' on Flickr, entering the top 500at #343. Its a beautiful sunset that Chap and I went to see in the fields behind our house. I was pleased with this shot so am glad that it has generated alot of interest!

Explore!

2009-10-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I have finally taken a picture that has made the 'explore' pages on Flickr. It made #167 in the top 500 pictures so I am really pleased.

So, here is my first ever 'Explored' picture. It's called 'Crunchy Leaves Beneath My Feet' and it was my day 54 photo for my 365 project:

2nd Month Completed!

2009-10-01T14:59:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged much in the last week. Chap and I have been poorly and I haven't felt like writing much! I have still managed to keep on top of my 365 project but still haven't taken my self portrait for the week....lacking motivation in this area! Must.Try.Harder.

This week I have been a little less lazy when it comes to trying out the different functions on my camera. Especially the last couple of days I have been using aperture & shutter priority. So that is a step in the right direction! I'm finally getting to grips with the exposure triangle and understand what setting I need in what situation. I'm pleased with my progress.

This week I was contacted by an e-magazine called 'Schmap.com' saying that one of my pictures on flickr has been shortlisted to appear in its october edition. This is the picture, its one that I took in July at the Harbour Festival in Bristol. I don't know whether it will be printed but I'll get I'll look out for it!

Anyway, I have managed to create a mosaic of my 365 project pictures for September, this is how it looks:

Sunset 24/09/09

2009-09-24T14:17:00.001-07:00

Sunset 24/09/09
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

Today I took Chap up onto our fields for a run around before bedtime & there was a gorgeous sunset. I particularly like this picture because of the clover in the foreground :)

45/365 Morph Gone Bad....

2009-09-23T15:06:00.001-07:00

45/365 Morph Gone Bad....
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

Really struggling to come up with an idea today for a picture but eventually I got Chap's playdough and started playing around....

Hope you like it!

Herds of Snails

2009-09-22T13:51:00.001-07:00

Humbug Mint
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

Today the weather was miserable, really drizzly rain. Chap and I went out for a walk and he enjoyed stomping in the puddles.
The rain had brought out herds and herds of snails, no kidding there were loads of them. I think we counted 15 in total just along one side of the street!

We met Daddy from the bus stop, so when we got home I managed to slip out for 5 mins to go back and get some pictures! The light was failing but I managed to get a few shots.

Chap calls them Naynoos - cute!

My favourite 'Selfie' so far...

2009-09-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

I thought that I should share this on my blog. I took this in Tuscany at the start of our second week. This is for week 4 of my 52 week project, its called 'Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf'. I hope you like it too, its obviously loosely based on Red Riding Hood....`````````

Its been a while...

2009-09-21T08:38:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been slack and I've not written a blog for almost a month! Shocking!

We had a lovely holiday and my 365 days & 52 Weeks projects are progressing well, you can see my progress here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennifleur79/collections/72157622266077373/ I am now on day 43 of my 365 days project & week 7 of the 52 week project.

I have been getting on ok I think, some days I am more pleased with my pictures than others & sometimes I am more lazy with taking the pics than others! I have been trying to use the settings on my camera so that I use S or A settings on the DSLR but sometimes I am in a hurry and just want a quick shot. I need to work on knowing what setting to use in which situation so that I can use the settings in a hurry too!

I can't possibly post thumbnails of all of the last 4 weeks photos but I'll post a few of my highlights :)

Week 2 completed!

2009-08-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, my 2nd week of my 365 day project is over. I have struggled a bit this week because I had a horrid cold and our holiday prep has been taking over. But it has been fun and I like not knowing what I'm going to come up with for my photo on a day by day basis. Anyway, I am off abroad for 2 weeks tomorrow morning so won't be around to update my blog but I will update you all when I'm back!

Anyway, here is my week in thumbnails:

I think that my favourite pic from this week is from day 12 'Tickling the Ivories'

Poorly Sick

2009-08-20T14:32:00.001-07:00

11/365 Cue the Violins...
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

I have been feeling really full of cold all week but I have kept going with the thought of our family holiday next week! Today was my last day in work before our break but I came home with a migraine :(

Spent the early evening asleep and almost forgot to take day 11's photo!

Next few days will be filled with holiday preparations so expect a few related photos :)

My Tomatoes Have Blight.

2009-08-19T15:10:00.001-07:00

10/365 'My tomatoes have blight'
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

I have been trying to grow tomatoes this year and I have been really disappointed as none of them seemed to want to ripen.
Then a week or so ago some started going red but no sooner had they started to get some colour they would rot and go black - Mum says its blight :(

We all spent some time in the garden this afternoon and harvested all the un-blighted looking tomatoes today and am hoping that I will be able to salvage and use them for something.
Fried Green Tomatoes anyone? The cat likes them & they make quite a good photo! I took a semi self portrait with them this evening for my day 10 picture.

My 2nd Attempt at a Self Portrait

2009-08-18T08:33:00.001-07:00

8/356 'A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.'
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

So, for day 8 I attempted my second self portrait with my new tripod and remote control. It's not particularly imaginative but I am hoping to get more inspiration over the coming weeks.

We are off on holiday next week so my next attempts probably wont be posted until we return to the UK at the beginning of September.

Lets see what I can come up with!

Week one of my 365 days project completed!

2009-08-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

So, week one is complete! Today I am going to try and take my second self portrait - I still have no idea what I am going to come up with yet!

The last week has been interesting, day 2 was hard because I left my camera at work (!?!) and my friend dropped it off at my house but not until the evening so I had to try and fit in a picture between then and bedtime! I got some good night driving slow shutter shots (P was driving by the way!) and I had some good feedback on what I came up with.

My overall favourite shot of my first week is my Day 6 picture which I have called 'If you go down in the woods today...'

On Saturday we went for a walk in the woods, Chap had such great fun running along the leafy paths & was really good at keeping away from the mud! I had to shoot this on quite a high ISO so its a bit grainier than I'd hoped for. I still love the picture though.

Here's my week in thumbnails:

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-08-10T14:53:00.001-07:00

Today I turn 30 which is a huge milestone in my opinion. We have had a lovely weekend, celebrating in various forms but today was the big day. P took the afternoon off so we had some family time this afternoon which was lovely even though the weather wasn't great.

I had some fantastic presents but my camera related gifts were the best by far! I was given a tripod, remote control & some filters for my camera. Brilliant.
As I wrote in a previous post it was my intention to start a project or two and today I have started those. I have started a 365 day project where I intend to take 1picture a day for the next 365 days & within this take 1 self portrait a week. Because I am intending to take the self portrait once a week I have joined the 52 week project too. I appreciate that it is a big commitment but I am a determined lady!

Here's 1/365 watch this space!

Bristol Balloon Fiesta

2009-08-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well, like I said in my last blog, I was really keen to see the balloons at the fiesta which took place at Ashton Court in Bristol. We were pretty busy at the weekend, I was out on Friday night celebrating my birthday with work friends and we had friends to stay over on Saturday night so time was limited. But I was determined
to go so yesterday chap and I got up before sunrise at 4am to travel the 12 miles into Bristol to watch the early morning 'mass-launch'.

I don't know how many balloons went up but the announcer said that 95 balloons had launched the previous morning. It was magical and I have to say the highlight of my summer so far! Breathtaking.

After catching up on some sleep after the fiesta (we were home by 8.30am!) we went to Bath as a family for the afternoon. We had a picnic in the park and Chap chased the pigeons! P and I lived in Bath for a few years and we always like to go back and re-visit it every now and again. Its nice to view it as a tourist would do on occasion!

Buzzzzzz

2009-08-06T08:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the chap and I went for a walk around Chew Valley Lake, we had a lovely sunny afternoon which was a break from all the rain we've been having! There were lots of insects around and they were obviously thinking the same about the lovely sunshine!
There was a bee really enjoying some of the pretty purple flowers around the lake and I managed to snap a few good close up shots. Here's the best of the bunch.

I feel like I have got to grips with exposure levels today, I was quite pleased with the results in some of my pictures.

Its raining again today but the weather forecast looks good for the weekend ahead so I am hoping to go with my family to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta. I really hope to get some great photos but we'll see how it goes.

Been a busy Bee!

2009-08-03T13:53:00.001-07:00

I just realised that I haven't written a blog entry for over a week! I have been caught up in a lot this week but have made time for plenty of photo opportunities and taken a lot of snaps. I do feel I have made a lot of progress this week, I still feel like I am floundering a bit as far as the settings are concerned on my camera. I tend to get into a bit of a panic when trying to decide what setting to use in what conditions. The thing I struggle with is being patient enough to work it out slowly when composing a shot...I get impatient and shoot without thinking meaning that the picture doesn't come out how I want it too. I MUST work on this over the coming weeks because I really want to get to grips with this.

Next week is my birthday and my husband has ordered me a tripod and a remote control to use, I am really looking forward to practising with them! I am hoping to use them to do some more stylised shots and self portraits.

Over the last week I have been all over the place, firstly I met a friend for lunch in Bath, scouted out some striking graffiti and street art in Bristol, went for walk around Pensford Viaduct & waded through Wells in the pouring rain and sought shelter in the Cathedral Chapterhouse & spent a lovely sunny day at Bristol Harbour Festival yesterday! A fun-filled week!!!

Here are the highlights of my week :)

Explore Somerset

2009-07-26T13:52:00.001-07:00

This weekend we had family to stay so on Saturday we took a picnic and went off exploring the Somerset country side. We started a walk from Stockhill Forest near Priddy and set of up the public footpath to find the Nine Barrows, which are a series of 9 burial barrows from the Bronze Age. The barrows are on private property although public footpaths do run close to them & the farmers seem to allow walkers on their land to visit them. The Priddy Barrows are so unspoilt and mysterious, there is no signposting for them at all really which means that they are relatively untrodden and magical.

We took our kite and flew it from the barrows before enjoying a picnic and soaking in the view of the barrows. Here are my favourite pictures of the weekend:

Bristol Photos

2009-07-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

Totterdown, Bristol
Originally uploaded by thornj

Over the last few days I have been seeking inspiration for some Bristol pictures. This is the picture that inspired me to go and find a great vantage point to get some snaps of my own.

Here is my attempt, I liked the way this photographer had oversaturated the colours to make them more striking. Here's my attempt at it. I think the blue sky is great but I do wish I'd managed to get up a bit higher in the park to get the higher levels of houses.

I have seen some wonderful pictures of street art or graffiti around Bristol so I am going to take this as my next challenge, to find some lovely vibrant graffiti to photograph. Its a shame really as there was a Swimming Pool just down the road from my work that was covered from roof to floor in graffiti but the council have had the paint removed. I'll have to have a scout around.

How you doin'?

2009-07-23T13:32:00.001-07:00

How you doin'?
Originally uploaded by Jennifleur79

Caught my cat Domino on the window sill this morning having a good old preen. When she looked up I snapped a shot - she had her tongue sticking out and was winking. Genius

Colourful Bristol

2009-07-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening when I went to pick up P from the train station the sun was shining after such a horrible, wet day so I thought I would take the opportunity to take some shots of Totterdown and Temple Meads. I put some up on Flickr and have had some nice feedback. This is my favourite, I love the way the wispy clouds and gorgeously blue sky form a great backdrop for the cutesy coloured houses:

It makes you realise what an interesting and ecclectic city Bristol is, I'm used to working in what I would consider to be a really horrible area of the city, yet I have beautiful parts of Bristol like this a stones throw away!

I have found some great shots on Flickr of the same area of Bristol and they have inspired me to go and scout out some more locations - watch this space for more Brizzle pictures ;)

Its been a few days...

2009-07-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well its been a few days since my last blog, I've been snapping pics at every opportunity to get some practice in. I have found that the better pics I take are usually on shutter priority, with a high shutter speed. It means that I can capture a crisp image relatively quickly. I have also been playing around with ISO and exposure, meaning that I have had much more success with indoors/night time photography. I will share some of my pictures over the next few days, I can't upload anything to Flickr at the moment as I have exceeded my uploads for the month but I am going to upgrade tomorrow so that I can have unlimited uploads & be able to put more into my blog - Hoorah!

I am also contemplating starting a 365 project or 2, I am interested in the self-portrait one. I like the idea of coming up with different ways of capturing a shot of me. That sounds quite vain, I don't mean it to be, its just I am hoping to lose a lot of weight this year and this could be a good way to capture the changes to my body. If I am going to embark on something like this I think my 30th Birthday would be a good time to start. Another few weeks to go then!

If I do start a second I will have to choose whether to start another project based on Chap, or to make it more open and take pictures of whatever I decide to at the time. I ideally want to get into portrait photography (at the moment anyway! LOL) so I guess focussing on Chap would be a good start in this area. Lots of practice on photographing children!

Anyway, a bit of a garbled, boring post this evening but I felt like letting you know how I'd been getting on!

Yesterday I ordered a remote control for my camera, I'm really excited about getting it! Next thing on my list of 'must-haves' are a tripod & some Macro filters for close up shots.

Trip to the park...

2009-07-15T14:22:00.001-07:00

Had a long and tiring day at work today but managed to fit in a trip to the park with Chap. Got some lovely pics but these were my favourite, I was playing around with close ups on aperture priority.

Happy Birthday to P!

2009-07-14T08:35:00.000-07:00

Today is my husband's 30th Birthday and I have spent the afternoon making a cake and wrapping presents whilst Chap napped. I have been playing around with the camera in between and took a few shots of the cake and some balloons.

ISO

2009-07-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend just gone we were staying with friends in Solihull in Birmingham, my friend (F) is notoriously into her minimalist living and her house was an ideal location to practice shooting indoors. She has a lot of lovely pieces & the pure blank canvas-like walls were ideal backing for photographing these.

As they are only recently settled into this house the spare room has no curtains so Chap awoke as the sun came up at 5.15am! As it was P's turn for a lie in (why oh why?) I got up with Chap at day break, but actually this was great photographing time! It gave me great opportunity to play around with the ISO settings & exposure level to get the right light level in my pics. I managed to get some good ones.

Yesterday afternoon we met our adoptive nephew for the very first time, it was his 2nd Birthday and the family had a picnic to celebrate. Another great opportunity to practice with some quick snap-shots of the kids. I took most of them on fast shutter-speed on shutter priority but they came out well. My favourite picture of the whole is weekend is a picture I managed to snap of a lovely old chap on roller skates making his way around the lake in Cannon Hill Park. Priceless.

I've realised where I was going wrong!

2009-07-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, a break through! I got a whole load of help from the forum I post on this afternoon. I posted a picture of mine that I had taken on the Aperture Priority setting & the EXIF data (the info that tells you what aperture size, shutter speed etc used to take a pic) on the site & asked for guidance on how to resolve the problem. It turns out that I have to adjust the ISO setting too, I don't know why I didn't think of this.

Anyway, I re-read some information that I'd found about the 'exposure triangle' and it is starting to make more sense. The less light there is the higher the ISO required. So this evening I have been taking a few shots in 400 ISO and adjusting the aperture and this seems to be working much better!

Getting a bit frustrated

2009-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have been practicing alot with aperture size and shutter speed over the last few days, I have been having a lot of fun! I have been having some success with the smaller aperture size to get the background blurring that I like but this is always when I am outside, I am really struggling with indoor pictures that are not taken in automatic & I'm getting a bit frustrated with it to be honest! I am hoping that the chaps on DPS will be able to give me some advice.

Here is one of my successes, I am really pleased with the depth of field in this picture:

24 hours WITHOUT my new camera!

2009-07-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well, what a weekend!

Spent a lovely Saturday out and about with family and had a nice evening with friends in the evening. Got lots of practice with my camera and had some pretty sucessful shots, with shutter speed and aperture size. Pleased with my progress actually.

Sunday I went to London to see Take That at Wembley Stadium so I was too scared to take my brand spanking new camera so I left it home with P. I had my point and shoot, which I love for a quick snap shot here and there but I was really missing the lovely quality image that I can get with my DSLR! I got a few good shots though so I'm pleased!

First Proper Outing!

2009-07-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went out to Wells as a family, I had some fun snapping some practice shots out and about. I got some practice with aperture size and shutter speed that day. I am still finding it difficult to know exactly what settings to use but again, I suppose this will come with time. We went into Wells Cathedral and I managed to get a few lovely shots inside and out. My favourite shot is of Chap knocking on the big door of the Cathedral.

On Saturday evening we had some friends round for a BBQ, I got to practice using shutters speeds on our friend (J), he's a martial artist so I got him to do some break falls whilst I snapped away. Poor P was doing the BBQ....

My favourites are these:

Exposure Triangle

2009-07-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

Its been a funny day here weather wise, raining and grey in the morning and now it is blistering sun! Anyway, because of the strange weather I haven't really taken many picutres today. But I have been doing some more reading & practising with the settings on my camera.

Today as I was playing around with the modes that I was reading about yesterday I kept on coming up with a message saying 'subject is too dark'. This was whilst I was on the S (shutter) mode. I couldn't work out what on earth was happening with this so I posted a message on the DPS forum and I had lots of help from much more experienced photographers. Basically they were suggesting that I would need a slightly slower shutter speed than the one I was selecting (absolutley no idea which one it was now!) because the faster it is the less light it lets in - of course it all makes perfect sense now! They also suggested that read up on what they called the 'exposure triangle', which is what I've been doing this afternoon.

ISO, Shutter Speed & Aperture Size are the 3 elements that you can play around with as a photographer and each changes the way that light enters the camera & interacts when taken a photo.

ISO

Now, as a complete beginner as far as SLR photography is concerned I had absolutely no idea what ISO meant. I did vaguely recognise the term but couldn't work out why, but when I was reading I realised that I had seen it written on the camera films that I used to put in my automatic film cameras. On these films it was an indication of how sensitive the film was to light - the lower the number the lower the sensitivity & the finer the grain in shots.

With digital photography ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor, the lower the number the less sensitve the camera is to light. Higher ISO settings can be used in darker situations to get a faster shutter speed.

If subject is well lit & stationary and picture should not have grain then a low ISO should be used. But may want higher ISO for concerts, churches, birthday parties etc where a flash would not do the picture justice.

Aperture

Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken. The larger the aperture the more light is let through. On the camera the aperture is measured in f-stops, the lower the number the larger the aperture.

If you use a large aperture this will DEcrease the depth of field in your picture & a smaller aperture will INcrease the depth of field. So, if you want a large depth of field you need to use a larger numbered aperture setting & smaller numbered for a smaller depth of field. When taking a picture with a small depth of field the background of the picture will appear more blurred so that the main subject of your picture stands out in focus. A large depth of field focusses on more of your picture.

Shutter

Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter stays open whilst taking the picture. With digital photography it's the length of time that you 'image sensor sees the scene.

In most cases you'll be using shutter speed of 1/60th of a second or faster otherwise it may result in camera shake being evident in pictures. When using slower than 1/6th of a second a tripod will be needed.

When deciding on shutter speed you need to work out how you want movement to be shown, do you want to freeze the motion or blur it? To freeze it you need a faster shutter speed and to freeze it a slower one.

I'm looking forward to having a play around with these things over the next few days.

MASP

2009-07-02T14:13:00.001-07:00

This afternoon I have been reading about MASP settings on my new camera. It all seems very complicated at the moment but I'm sure that once I have had a practice with them all it will all start to become clear.

My understanding is that the MASP settings allow for manual adjustment of shutter speed and/or aperture settings to reflect personal preference in photos.
M - Manual setting A- Aperture-priority S - Shutter Priority P - Programmed Auto.

Today I have also learnt about what impact different shutter speeds or aperture sizes would have on a photo. On S mode you can change shutter speed to slow for suggestion of motion by blurring or a high shutter speed to 'freeze' the motion. On A mode small apertures increase depth of field & bring the main subject into focus & a large aperture would soften the background details. Over the next few days I am keen to start trying these modes out to get some idea of what impact it does have. I'm intersted to know how my pictures will turn out!

Today my SD card and camera case arrived (hoorah!) so when P got home from work we put the chap in his pushchair and went out for a walk around the village. I managed to take a few shots whilst out and about but most were on the auto mode as I was too nervous to try whilst walking around!

This is my favourite shot from today:

More Practice

2009-07-01T14:13:00.001-07:00

I was reading some 'tips for beginners to digital photography' last night and it suggested that I keep a notebook to make notes and keep track of my progress, thoughts, ideas for photos etc. So today I bought a swanky notebook - it has jelly beans on the front (yum!)- and I have started jotting things down.

I still haven't read the manual (oops) but I have been having a play around and taken some more pictures, cropped a few on the laptop and to be honest, I really pleased with how they've come out! I mean, I'm sure that more experienced photographers would spurn my attempts but I am pretty pleased for some early attempts.

I had a dispatch note from Amazon today to say that my camera case is on its way, so that should mean that by the end of the week I have my case & I can FINALLY take the camera out and about for some more exciting shots!

Anyway, here are another couple of pics I have taken today:

My new Camera!

2009-06-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

I have wanted a DSLR camera for ages and have been secretly eyeing them up when P hasn't been looking! So I finally decided that turning 30 would be a great opportunity to treat myself and finally invest in one!

So this week I got one, it's a Nikon D60 and it seems fantastic! Of course I have absolutely no idea how to use it properly yet & I still have to start reading the dreaded instruction manual, but I'll get there. I am just having fun practising at the moment, I have a willing model - The Chap - he is always an interesting subject & I can't stop snapping pics!

I have joined and online Forum called Digital Photography School and it seems like just the place for me, they are a mixture of beginners & more experienced photographers who are more than willing to share hints and tips with rank amateurs like me!

Its so exciting, I can't wait to get cracking. Here's one of my first pictures:

How it started...

2009-06-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

My husband (P) calls me a photo-holic, which is true & as Mummy to my 18 month old son 'The Chap' I have the perfect model. He is at such a wonderful stage at the moment, everchanging & every second he does something marvellous & in my opinion something worthy of a photo.

I have been using a Casio Elixir point and shoot camera, which I love & will continue to use but I have always wanted to expand my hobby and get into SLR photography. My friend Ruth leant me her standard SLR camera which I had some really fun getting some shots in with but I missed the digital aspect & knew that I wanted to go the next step in digital photography.

I turn 30 (!) this year & when my husband asked me what I wanted for my Birthday I knew that the only answer could be a DSLR.

I am going to write this diary (when I remember) on my progress in the world of digital photography :)

Thanks for reading.