The Fourth Picture

The first picture was good, but the fourth picture was better ;-).  Less distracting sunburst and better composition.

    

Evening light is my favorite.  Evening in general is my favorite.  Everything seems to take a deep breath and slowly exhale.  Some days it's the nice end to a good day.  Some days it's just a we made it to the end.  One of the few good parts of summer is the soft evening light after a long, too bright day.  

The trick to these pictures is waiting until the sunlight is perfect.  Or happening to notice the sun is perfect and grabbing your camera and running out.  It doesn't stay perfect for long.  The Golden Hour doesn't last quite an hour I've found.

Once the sunlight is perfect, you still need to work a bit.  It helps to filter the bright light through some trees.  Move around and watch how your camera reacts.  If it's too blown out, change your angle just a little.  Too dark?  Again, move around, put the sun behind a bigger tree...

If you want to get more technical, read up on metering so you'll better understand how your camera is thinking.  I also set my white balance to cloudy.  White balance and exposure compensation are two very basic camera tools everyone should learn to use.  Read your manual or look online.

The always photogenic Count Chocula.

This is too sunset-y, but I like the composition.  Daniel, Liddy, Kaala.

Muuufin :-)

This is Baaxter with the sun shining from the side...

...and now shining from behind.  I like the little bit more definition of the first picture, but the soft light of the second picture.  The background of the second picture is more interesting as well.

And this was my favorite picture of the evening.  Kaala with the light balanced just right behind the filtering trees.  It's also a new puzzle :-).

The First Picture Tonight

I took a bunch of sunset picture this evening. This happens to be the first one. I like it. It might not be the best one...but it might be. I'll look at the rest tomorrow.  In the meantime, enjoy a new puzzle :-).

So Hot. So Humid.

It was this hot and humid yesterday.

It's going to be even hotter next week!

Big Moose has the craziest eyes.  Always perpetually startled.  They make him easy to spot, but you don't need to see his eyes to find him.  He's always right in front of you :-).

The First Picture

Just a random observation and probably of no interest to anyone but me, but it includes a sweet picture of Kate and B. Willard, so I'll share.  This is something that almost always happens and I think it's interesting.  

When I see something that is a potentially good photo, I take the picture and then take several more trying to make it a better picture.  I move around a little or adjust the aperture or exposure or what I'm focusing on...  I come in with a camera card full of pictures to choose from...and almost always pick the first shot I took.

I wish I'd had a different lens attached so I could have zoomed out a little more to include more of what Willard and Kate were looking at...but I probably would have still picked this one ;-).

Captain Obvious

I've been trying to put up a blog post for a week.  I couldn't think of anything to write.  I couldn't find any pictures in any recent files that I wanted to share.  I actually looked at the camera (twice) and thought "I wish there was something good on there to download."  

Um, how about you try putting something ON the camera.

So I took a picture of Maisie.  She's always good for a photo op...and a new puzzle :-).