Auto Focus Struggles

Just looking at it, it's not a bad shot.

I had no idea what type of bird it was at the time. But apparently it's a Sora Rail. They are apparently pretty secretive so I had no idea I was getting really luck at the time, especially with two little kids as well.

BUT the shot to me is on the rubbish side of things. The stinking eyes are not in focus. They are slightly blurry. The main body of the bird is clear.

So my next task is to find out how to make sure the eyes come into focus every time. 

But here are some I got from the same day.

Again, those blasted eyes aren't as crisp and clear as they should be

This one is my favorite I think.

I've been practicing with my 55mm-200mm lens. I'm already drooling over a 500mm-1000mm lens. But that one is only manual focus so that's going to be a little ways off before I can do that I think.

Easter Portraits

This Easter I tried to get portraits of family at Easter. 

Fortunately most of them allowed me too. 

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate that much the whole weekend.

This one I should have changed to a different lens. I was using the prime lens. Should have switched.

This time I put the camera in Aperture priority mode and let the camera figure it all out. The prime lens is perfect for portraits! It really does a great job.  However for other shots like I mentioned before not as good as another lens would be. At least that's what I'm figuring.

Weekend Assignment 08

Weekend Assignment 08

Get the proper exposure of the sky.

This one took a little while for me to get done. I wanted to wait until the weather was a little bit decent. But that never came. I went out while it was overcast. I had the directions and parameters written down on a post it note to reference. Then after the first photo I looked down into the camera bag and the post it note was gone. The wind had taken it away. So I had to wing it. and winged it badly I did. I botched it. 

They just came out..blah

I went out again and this time it was sunny.

So I need to work on the overcast obviously. 

Teacher's feedbackw as 

"Looks Good!"

Weekend Assignment Review

hehe, looks nice :-) good job on using the paper and cellphone for creative lighting!

 

I told him the same thing about how badly I do at stars. 

Scoooore! Not one bad thing about them this time!

Victory is mine!!

Weekend Assignment 07

So this assignment was so neat! I'm just going to link it here so you can see the amazing example they provided. 

Click here. Seriously see how awesome this can look. DO IT

I was aiming for a elephant to be shooting stars out if it's trunk. I kinda got it. But I stink at drawing stars as it is. I really don't know how I haven't gained that life skill. Really I have no idea. Then cutting it out, oh boy. But for how bad I am at that, I'm not dejected in how things turned out. 

Diffused cell phone light through white construction paper

Cell phone light no diffuser

Cell phone light diffused through green construction paper

This assignment was fun! I haven't gotten any feedback since I just submitted it. I might hear something tomorrow.

Weekend Assignment 6

This weekend assignment was light painting and using slower shutter speeds. :(

I suuuuck!

 Didn't help there were 35MPH winds outside.

Prime Lens

I found a prime lens! 

I drool over it's aperture capabilities.  I've read that this one is great for portraits so I was curious. I've tested it out on the kids since they are the only ones I can play photographer with. I was struggling with this lens though. It kept getting over exposed really easily. The downside with kids is that they don't stay still long enough for you to figure out a shot.

First one isn't one that I'm happy with. It came out over exposed in the end result. I made it look a little bit better end result.  But here you can see how lovely that aperture is!

I think Cole's came out nicer since he was actually listening to the directions...sorta. He was a little easier to pose a little bit. 

I"m still learning with this lens. Either I'm in my head or it's a little more difficult to find the settings for this one. I might try Aperture priority mode to see what that does. Make the camera do the rest of the work.