F-Stop Challenge

Do you know what an f-stop is?

If you are a photographer, I am sure you know what an f-stop does.

For those of you who don't know, basically, f-stop is the aperture setting which controls what is in focus when you capture a photo.

A small number like 1.8 means that only a small area of your photo will be in focus. Smaller numbers are great for shooting portraits and details. This is when you can achieve some cool bokeh1

A large number like 8 and above give you more areas of focus in your photo and work well in landscapes or portraits of large groups of people.

You can find better explanations of f-stop and aperture in many books, photography classes, and online articles. Just google f-stop or aperture if you are curious.

One of my goals earlier this year was to pick up my DSLR on a regular basis and shoot photos.

Well, I have done a terrible job of keeping up with that goal!

This week, I stumbled across a Facebook Live event on the B&H page about 'What to Shoot When There's Nothing to Shoot'. 

You see, the thing is, I am not a professional photographer. I am not even sure I want to be a professional photographer.

It is something I enjoy doing and would love to do it enough to get paid to do it!

So I thought, in order to push myself to pick up my camera on a regular basis, I should give myself some challenges.

This morning, I had my 35mm 1.8 lens on my Nikon and went in my backyard to see what I could shoot.

Here is what I found using f/1.8 only as my aperture setting:

Settings: 1/50 sec at 1.8/f, ISO 100

Settings: 1/320 sec at f/1.8, ISO 100

Settings: 1/500 sec at f/1.8, ISO 100

Settings: 1/125 sec at f/1.8, ISO 100

Settings: 1/250 sec at f/1.8, ISO 100

Ok, so I didn't just 'find' my 50mm lens in the backyard, but I thought it would make the best first photo for this challenge.

As I walked around my backyard, the only setting I had to change to capture all of these images was the shutter speed. At f/1.8, this setting lets in the most light available because the lens is open at its widest.

So what do you think? Which image is your favorite?

If you are a photographer, have you ever done an f-stop challenge?

I am thinking I should challenge myself each week with a different f-stop. What f-stop should I shoot at next week?

My Daily Life in Black and White

Are you on Facebook or Instagram?

Most people have an account on one of those social media channels, if not both.

Have you been tagged in the recent Seven Days, Black and White photo challenge?

My friend Kendra tagged me on Instagram to participate. Since I love photography, I decided to join in on the challenge.

Not only did I post seven days worth of black and white photos on my Instagram account, I decided to use my DSLR to capture similar images also. And I kept to using my 35mm lens.

So here is a glimpse of my daily life in black and white:

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I have to tell you, that photo with my contact lens case and my glasses was a little interesting to capture.

Why?

Well, I am super near sighted, and I didn't even think to just go ahead and put my contacts in my eyes before attempting to take that picture. Ha!

Have you completed a photo challenge recently? What type of photo challenge do you like to participate in?

More Fall Photos

Practice, practice, practice...it is the one thing we should do to get better at something, right?

I am making an attempt to pick up my DSLR every day this month and photograph something, anything really. The things I have been photographing are pretty random, and most of them are things around my home right now. Here are the things I captured this past week:

Settings: f/2.2, 1/40 sec, ISO 1600 with 35mm lens

Settings: f/2.2, 1/160 sec, ISO 100 with 35mm lens

Settings: f/2.2, 1/40 sec, ISO 400 with 35 mm lens

Settings: f/3.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 800 with 35 mm lens

Settings: f/2.2, 1/125 sec, ISO 1600 with 35 mm lens

Settings: f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 100 with 35 mm lens

Settings: f/2.0, 1/200 sec, ISO 100 with 35 mm lens

Along with trying to take a photo every day this month, I have limited myself to using my 35mm lens. Since I shoot with a cropped sensor camera, this lens works more like a 50mm lens would work on a full frame camera. 

What is your favorite lens to shoot with?

Fall Photos...so far

Today, I have done a whole lot of nothing.

For some reason, this year has been incredible busy.

I don't want to complain about how busy I have been because I have had some amazing opportunities this year.

But today, I really enjoyed staying home. Which gave me the chance to edit a few photos.

This week, I was able to take my camera with me to a couple of our favorite California locations, and take some photos at home.

Golden Gate Bridge

Pizza My Heart at Capitola Beach

Capitola Pier

Homemade Vanilla Bean Scones

Strawberries

Thank You gift

3Strands bracelets from Mercy House Global

What photo is your favorite? And what have you been taking photos of?

Fall Photo Challenge

My daughter recently purchased her first DSLR.

She has quite a good eye for photography and is already using her camera on manual mode, which took me quite a while to learn.

The first day she had her camera, we drove around our town looking for a couple of good spots to attempt to capture sunset.

Since I have done a terrible job of keeping up with the Capture Your 365 photo challenge this year, I decided today would be a good day to start taking pictures every day for this month. I might not post them every day, but I will commit to pick up my DSLR and take pictures with it every day this month.

Since today is the first day of October, I found a couple of orange things around my home to photograph.

I really want to practice portrait photography. But in the meantime, I can practice with objects around my home.

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something in an ordinary place...I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." - Elliott Erwitt