The newbie - illuminate parts of an object

Our local council held a competition to take photographs of local landmarks in the evening. A great opportunity to learn about using torch light to enhance parts of a picture taken in the evening.

What else would you do at Christmas?

Bright lights, twinking lights, background light
ISO 1000, 20mm, f16, 2.5 sec exposure

It's Christmas.  It's hot.  The photography club will be taking a break for the month.  The obvious thing to do is to use our last session to take some photos of Christmas lights.

The Newbie - Painting with light - follow the path of a light

We got pretty enthusiastic about this painting with light idea.  The internet is full of great how to videos.  We decided to use torches to paint some light trails.

The Newbie - painting with light

Eileen's photo of light painting

Eileen had shared one of her "painting with light" photos for the facebook page for the Phoenix Park Neighbourhood House where we meet and we thought it would be a good idea to try some painting with light.

The Newbie - flying children

Feet a little flat - should have stood on tippytoes

You know how it is - you see something on a website and you want to be able to do it too.  So it was during the term holidays when I saw pictures with children flying - there are lots of websites with flying kids and they look really cool.

http://rachelhulin.com/pictures/flying-henry/
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-your-baby-fly-petapixel-166730

So my grandchildren are a little bit older and easier to arrange in a photo.  So here's how we went about it.

A new way of looking at panoramas

Light and shadows on everyday objects

Jiarong had a small portable camera.  Her photographs reflect her creativity and new ways of looking at old techniques.

Experimenting with Camera shake, ISO and speed settings

Can you guess what settings were changed for these three shots?

Eileen gave us a demonstration of her experiments with camera shake and measuring her limits with handheld shots with her camera and lens.

Comparing cameras

A wide range of cameras for the group

Just thought that we would post a photo of the range of cameras that our photography group are using.  Whatever the camera, the main task is to learn all the controls and the limitations of the camera.

The Newbie - Aperture

So this month we are having a look at aperture.  We talked about pictures with fuzzy backgrounds and pictures with sharp backgrounds.

Urban Forest Field Trip - March 2014

Eileen

Cameras at the ready we wandered down to the urban forest in Malvern East.  This was a good chance for Trevor to remind everyone to concentrate on their posture and camera grip but also gave us time to compose our pictures and look for the things that most interested us in the forest.

The Newbie - Things I didn't know No 1: Posture and camera grip

Testing out the camera

What am I doing here?  People are talking about how deep their fields are and how many stops on their camera?  They have shutters up and they can expose their pictures.  Should have done a class before I came?  Will I look foolish? Do I have to do anything on the first night?

That was where I started.  This is a generous group and I have learnt a thing or two since I began.

Not all tripods are created equal

(Reposted) I’ve often told my students that sometimes a cheap tripod is better than no tripod at all, but I’m starting to rethink that philosophy.  A few years back a well-meaning lady friend bought me lightweight tripod from Aldi as a gift.  From memory, I think it retailed for around $25 at the time.  It is lightweight and easy to carry and came in a neat little sleeve with a carry strap.  I have used it a few times, mostly indoors or on still days and I always thought it was adequate with my small Olympus C-750 bridge camera.