learning

Only one more day left... Gosh it's gone by fast. It's nice to know we'll be back in about 3 more weeks for christmas, though after that I don't know when our next visit will be.

I've been spending some time reading through Understanding Exposure and it's proving extremely helpful. I'll definitely have to buy my own copy to keep around as a reference. I feel I've had a pretty good, basic understanding of things like ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, but this book has helped broaden and deepen that, as well as give me more insight into the relationship between the three. I realize I've been stuck in shooting mostly with wide apertures, which works great for the vast majority of the shooting I do (Donovan, indoors, less light) but have been completely oblivious to the benefits and uses of a narrower aperture. I also am getting inspired to use the manual setting on my camera more often-- I mostly shoot in aperture-priority, but am realizing that sometimes it may be better to go manual and have more control (wondering if this has been part of the problem I come across when shooting outside, and can't seem to get a consistent exposure level). I'm currently reading the chapter on light and metering, an area in which I have much learning to do. Once we get back home I also need to pull out my camera's manual and sit down to figure out exactly how to work the flash. I prefer not having to use it and will go with natural lighting whenever possible, but there are times when I want to take good photos but am in a darker place (e.g. my parents' house) where I need flash, and while I've done ok so far I'm pretty sure there should be flash settings I can play with but that I don't know anything about.

I've been uploading photos from this week up onto Flickr, have 540 up so far and that's counting through yesterday. I know, that's a crapload of pictures, but some of them are really cute! =P We had a baby shower for my step-brother and his wife today, lots of fun, so more pictures to come from that, as well.