I walked for around 2 and a half hours today, through woodlands, fields, estates and farmlands. Saw a fantastic butterfly, and several swans, however, being as aloof as swans are, they stayed far away from my camera. I often kick myself for not carrying a telescopic lens on me all the time.
The little piece of string that connected my lens cap to my lens also snapped, which annoyed me a great deal as it's had me used to simply letting go of the lens cap when I take it off, and then letting it hang. I've kept that habit, even though it's no longer there, and take off the lens cap, only to find it rolling across the floor in front of me.
Basically it was a photography experience and I manages to get about 120 shots, about 30 of which I adore. I'm going to show you a few of my favourite ones.
I warn you, most of them are of ducks, so if you have some strange phobia, look away now.
Ok. I'm like currently sat here gazing at the stupidly slow uploading photos on Imageshack. It really is taking forever.
I'm still sat here and its like 5 minutes later.
Maybe I should say something interesting.
Nah, it's only a blog.
These photos may make me looks like a nature photographer, if a photographer at all. If they do, then WHEE, but seriously, I take photos of other things as well. Like money. And pillows. And pieces of paper with heartfelt over used and clichéd messages on them.
And seeing as I can't actually see any of these photos; all I can see are white boxes which it is letting me resize, I'm just going to hit and hope you can see some of them.
I'll blog again later about the failings of technology if I must.
Or shoes.
Or lemon meringue ice cream.
I took on a project suggested by my aunt, who I am currently staying with in Loughborough.
The project is that you blog about something different each day, so I have decided to follow suit.
Today's topic was tips. So. What am I interested in?
Collecting of cans from around the world.
Stamps of the queen.
Annoying my younger brother...
No. Something that others might be interested in too. So here are my top tips on amateur photography (especially in the summer).
Tip Number One.
Take your camera everywhere. End of story.
It doesn't matter what camera you have, but it shows that you have passion. It will be the days that you don't have it with you that something different will happen. For example. I usually live around the Dover area, and the one day that I decided not to take my camera out when I went to visit a couple of friends, the sea was smoking. It would have been the most magical moment to capture and remember forever. On the flip side, I will remember forever that every time I think about how stupid I have been, I think about that moment. So take your camera with you. It's so worth it. My friend took his photo of me, while we were walking home together, and it is probably one of my favourite photos of myself. And it's here because she had her camera. That's it.
Tip Number Two.
Take off those sunglasses.
Simple tip, but really important. Last week was beautifully sunny, so I decided to go outside and take photos of the garden, which I did. Unfortunately I didn't take my sunglasses off and adjusted my exposure settings so that what I was seeing looked good. Maybe that was just me being ignorant, but every photos from that shoot turned out hideously underexposed. So take them off.
Tip Number Three
Unless you have a good filter, don't point the camera directly into the sunlight.
Usually this goes without saying, but in summer you have to be careful where you position the camera in order to get a shot that is not overexposed from too much sunlight, or underexposed and overexposed at the same time. You can easily overexpose a photo in the summer, simply by having your subject in direct bright sunlight. You can also underexpose the photo by having the sunlight directly behind them, which of course will let a lot of light through the filter, but will underexpose the subject's side that safes towards you, especially when using models. Here's an example of an overexposed and underexposed photo, that actually works reasonably well.
Anyway, so those are my top 3 simple-pimple-easy-peasy-should-be-general-knowledge tips for today.
Until tomorrow!
