One of my goals for this year is to work through a couple of photography books, continuing to educate myself on how to be a better photographer. Right now, I am reading through 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. The first section of the book covers 'Defining Exposure'. Since my freesia bulbs have started blooming, I took my camera out to the backyard and took these four photos:

I had my camera (Nikon D3100) set to manual mode so I could control the aperture and the shutter speed. You can see a big difference between the first photo and the last photo.

In the first photo, you can see more details in the whole photo (including the weeds that are now growing with all of the rain that we have had!)

In the last photo, the center flowers are in focus and the surrounding area is blurred. This last photo would be a great one to add a Bible verse to along the top (hmm, just might have to do that!)

Do you typically shoot in manual mode? Which photo is visually appealing to you?

This week I am making a dismal showing in the Capture Your 365 Challenge with only 3 photos. Not that I didn’t take a lot of pictures over the past week, just didn’t have a chance to really focus on the prompts for this week. So here goes:

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.5, 1/160 sec

Day 79 – Plant Something: I love freesia! These bulbs have been coming up in my backyard for a couple of weeks now. They are so fragrant and colorful. The best part is planting them in the fall and waiting for them to come up in the spring. Such a treat!

ISO 800, 50mm, f/4.0, 1/13 sec

Day 80 – Hiding: Last year, I found this Mama & Me journal idea on Pinterest. Kelsey loves to write notes, so I thought this would be a fun way to keep in touch with each other. My husband and I went away for a couple of days and I found this when I got home. She left me the sweetest note! I just know this journal is going to be a treasure for both of us!

ISO 100, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec

Day 85 – Color: Now I know these freesia are white (and I had just taken another picture of my freesia a few days ago), but I had just watered my garden and couldn’t resist taking a picture with all the water droplets.

Are you following along with the Capture Your 365 challenge?

What did you photograph this past week?