Portrait Week - Day One

Quite a while ago I did a Landscape week (and since then a number of photos have crossed over, surprise surprise) so it's only fitting that I do a portrait week now!

Photo Phriday!

I've really been deviating from my weekly themes in Photo Phriday haven't I? Eh, that's alright. No one I know has ever complained at seeing photos of flowers!

Co-ed Soccer Week - Day Six

Co-ed Soccer Week - Day Five

Co-ed Soccer Week - Day Four

Co-ed Soccer Week - Day Three

Co-ed Soccer Week - Day Two

Merry Christmas!

Co-ed Soccer Week - Day One

Men AND women playing soccer together??? A whA???

Photo Phriday!

To be fair, I warned you of exactly what you weren't getting on Photo Phriday this week. So you can only be mostly mad this isn't a fountain.

Water Fountain Week - Day Six

Water Fountain Week - Day Five

51mm, 1/800 sec f2.8 @ ISO 320

Alright, let's try for another truncated lesson - For those of you not interested, stare at the pretty picture and move on! Deal!

K, so like in the previous lessons photos, you might notice something distinctly different about the water in this photo versus the water in the photo from yesterday. Today, you can see practically every drop of water as it falls, whereas yesterday the water looked more "misty", more "blurred", more like our eyes see it as it comes out of the tap. This effect in photography is caused by the shutter speed/it's exposure time or, in other words, how long the camera is "seeing the image for".

Now compare the exposure time of this photo (1/800 of a second AKA 0.00125 seconds) to the exposure time from yesterday (1/4 of a second AKA 0.25 seconds) and it may start to make a little more sense. The difference is that 0.25 seconds is a 200x longer exposure time then 0.00125. This is like the difference between you staring at a flower, right now, for 1 second versus you staring at a flower for 3 minutes and 20 seconds. That's a pretty huge difference in time. Ergo if your subject has any motion in it, like water, or fast cars, or athletes you are going to want to take into account the exposure time. Because the longer your exposure time the longer your going to see every bit of motion that is happening.

SO hopefully that helped. I won't be talking about ISO anytime in the immediate future but I will someday. Until then, I'll just go back to posting photos without commentary. See ya tomorrow!

Water Fountain Week - Day Four

51mm, 1/4 sec f22 @ ISO 100

Dare I bore you again tomorrow with useless photo facts? Dare I have the energy and drive to do so? Dare my sentence structure ever improve? Only time will tell!

Water Fountain Week - Day Three

54mm, 0.6 sec f22 @ ISO 125

Alright people! For todays very truncated lesson we're going to learn some of the importance of aperture or f-stop. If you aren't aware of what aperture is, in the world of photography it is one of three settings that you can adjust to get different results. These settings are: The lens aperture, the cameras shutter speed and the cameras ISO. All of these I will talk about some day but today I'm only focusing on aperture. Aperture is also conveniently highlighted above!

As you adjust the aperture-setting you are primarily adjusting the depth of field. By changing your depth of field you can change how much of your picture is in focus. SO, take a look at the photo above and the photo from yesterday as well as the f-numbers provided. (Remember, "Aperture" and "F-Stop" are more-or-less interchangeable here). Notice how as the number is increased (from 2.8 in yesterdays photo to 22 in todays photo) the amount of photo that is in focus increases as well. In other words, the lower the f-stop/aperture, the less that is in focus in the photo. Ergo, if you want to just get a single subject sharp with a blurred background you'll wanted a lower aperture number, whereas if want to see as much as possible you'll want a higher aperture number. Ta-da! Knowledge!

Feel like you've learned something today? Yes? Great! Next time I'll probably tell you about shutter speed. Then someday I'll tell you that these're related and you're going to need to take that into account... In the meantime though, feel better knowing you can see the difference between apertures and why you would want to use a smaller f-stop over a big one. Yay!

Water Fountain Week - Day Two

54mm, 1/125 sec f2.8 @ ISO 125

If I'm really ambitious tomorrow I'll write something which may end up teaching you something useful and new about photography. Just beware the multiple qualifiers in that sentence!

Water Fountain Week - Day One

It's mid-winter right now... so yeah, as a heads up don't expect one of these photos on Phriday. Otherwise, enjoy!

Photo Phriday!

Why take a photo of an NDP politician (especially when they aren't really "in season" right now) when I could take a photo of one of my statues illuminated by a candle? I mean, really...

NDP Week - Day Six

If there is one thing politicians are known for it's shaking hands...

NDP Week - Day Five

NDP Week - Day Four

NDP Week - Day Three

One might note that Jack Layton is the only politician I'm identifying by name here. My reasoning: I figure that all other politicians that I post here are going to get enough name recognition and support on their own without my help. You might say that the same can be said about Jack Layton and I would agree but with one major difference: These photos are in memory of not in support of. It's an important distinction and one that I'll continue to make here.

NDP Week - Day Two

NDP Week - Day One

Now there's an interesting though for you. Over six months into this little endeavour of mine and I've almost completely avoided politics in the photos I've posted. Almost. Well, no more! Behold a week dedicated to a party that is completely despised in Saskatchewan on a provincial level and not quite accepted on a federal level! The NDP!

Photo Phriday!

Yep, another Women's Soccer Photo Phriday. I seem to be taking a lot of them. c'est la vie, say the old folks...

Macro Week (II) - Day Thirteen

In the Top Five for my favourite photos (that I've taken) at the moment. Also really deserves a colour label, doesn't it?

Macro Week (II) - Day Twelve

This lovely photo falls into the category of "I like this photo but I'm not happy with it". It was a lamp post out by an old abandoned farm that Corey and I went out scouting a while back and I felt strong potential for this photo. I still do feel strong potential for it, actually, which is part of the reason I like it but looking at it I know in my gut it hasn't reached that full potential yet. Of course, if my gut instinct was always right then I'd probably be uber-rich in the stock markets.. so who knows!

Macro Week (II) - Day Eleven

Macro Week (II) - Day Ten

Ah, Risk. Has there ever been a better multiplayer game?

Macro Week (II) - Day Nine

Dare I start labelling by major identifying colours? 'Cause this photo is pretty darned red...

Macro Week (II) - Day Eight

Photo Phriday!

Awwwwww, no new Women's Soccer photo.. ah well, next week!

Women's Soccer Week (III) - Day Twenty