365 Challenge #150

A little bit about aperture, ISO, and shutter speed:

Aperture
When I shoot in Manual, I first set my aperture according to what depth of field I want (blurry background or clear background).
-A low aperture number means:
      ~a larger opening in the camera which let more light inside      
      ~a blurrier background
-A high aperture number means:
      ~a smaller opening in the camera letting in less light
      ~a more clear background
I generally prefer more light coming into my camera and a blurrier background, so I set my aperture at f5.6 which is the lowest aperture number my camera lens will let me use while being zoomed in all the way.

ISO
After setting my aperture, I set my ISO according to how much light there already is in my setting. A lower number lets less light in and a higher number lets more light in, so:
low = less light in the camera and is needed when there is a lot of light in the setting
high = more light in the camera and is needed when there isn't a lot of light in the setting

I just make an educated guess when setting ISO. For a bright sunny day, I set the camera at ISO 100. For a dark room where I don't want to use my flash, I set it at 800. For night time lit only by the moon, I set it at 3200. But I really try not to go over ISO 800 because my camera doesn't handle that high of an ISO very well, and my picture becomes fuzzy (noisy). 

Shutter Speed
I then leave ISO and aperture alone and only adjust the shutter speed (unless the lighting changes significantly and I need to adjust ISO). The faster the shutter speed, the less light can come into your camera. As I'm taking pictures, I adjust the shutter speed dial on my camera according to how light (i.e. how exposed) I want the picture. You'll see in the following pictures that only the shutter speed changes.

ISO: 800
Aperture: 5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80s

See how this picture is well exposed (the sky is almost too exposed, but Nate is lit up nicely).

ISO: 800
Aperture: 5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/250s

Ok, this picture was taken just a minute after the last one. The shutter speed is faster, so less light came into the camera, and the picture is less exposed (not as light). This is a good option if you want your picture to be clearer (the faster the shutter speed, the clearer the picture), if you want a silhouette picture, or if you want the sky rather than the subject to be better exposed (more on sky pictures tomorrow).

Here's the sepia version edited in Picasa.

ISO: 800
Aperture: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/640s

Whew, that's a fast shutter speed....not much light got into my camera, as you can see. Again, this picture was taken only a minute after the previous one.

So, there you have it....I'm still figuring all this camera stuff out....it's very interesting!

"Just give me a second....I'll get the ball through the hoop"

365 Challenge #149

Whew...I just realized I hadn't posted a 365 picture today....and I didn't have any on my camera. So Nate and I ran out to our driveway and got some basketball shots. Here's one for now...more tomorrow. It's late.

ISO 800
Aperture 5.6
1/80s

And the color version....black and white is more dramatic though.

365 Challenge #148

Last day of the photo shoot. We had enough sun, even though it was really windy and cloudy. Whew...I'm glad we didn't need to photo shoot for three days...two was fun, but getting exhausting. Sounds like the ad will be in People magazine this fall!

I took some of these pictures with a smaller Nikon (not mine).

Getting the carrots

 Dressing Joel in his outfit

 Washing the carrots

 The amazing photographer...you can see some of his work at www.rosh.com

 Finishing up the carrots

 It was really windy...but at least it had stopped raining

 Ilona was very good at getting Joel to look at her.

 Mmmm...carrots

 Some of the wardrobe

 Yay! Carrots!

 "YEEEEEAAAAAAAH............I'm in a FIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLD!"

 Joel was really tired of pictures by the end.

365 Challenge #147

My two handsome guys are in a Gerber advertisement coming out this fall. I'm amazed at what goes into just a small advertisement: 3 photographers from Detroit, 2 designers from New York bringing a complete wardrobe--12 outfits for Nate and 12 for Joel, several interviews, all meals catered in, and 2-3 days of shooting photos. And that's just what we're involved in....that doesn't include all the decisions, editing, and designing that comes later.

Today was the first day of photo shooting. It was rainy and didn't go very well (because of the rain), but both wardrobes are ironed and everything is set up, so hopefully we'll get some sun tomorrow.

Nate and I have been highly entertained by so many people from the city who have never seen a farm before. Just watching them go through a carrot field is hilarious. Imagine a Russian/New Yorker accent (if you can imagine that) saying: "GASP! This is a FIELD??? This is a CARROT field??? Are those CARROTS???! Delicious! That's just delicious! Can I pluck one up from the ground??? Please? Gasp! It's orange! It's delicious! Ok, it's dirty....can I just put it back in the ground???? What's THAT field? Peas? What are peas?? Oooooh....the green things?? Delicious!" I guess we country folk/farmers just take fresh air, dirt, carrots and peas for granted.

Oh, and apparently "delicious" is the new "in" word (Joel is delicious, our house is delicious, Nate's shirt is delicious, the fact that we have an ironing board is delicious, etc.).....just so you're aware and aren't behind the times. :)

And yes, that's my man handsomely modeling carrots.

365 Challenge #146

More pictures of the deadly stairs.

Yes, Joel's nose is orange from eating too many carrots and sweet potatoes. He is only allowed peas and green beans and other such green food until after his Gerber advertisement photo shoot next week.

365 Challenge #145

 Joel's method of getting down these two steps is rather concerning.

 He nearly gives us a heart attack every time.

 We've tried to teach him how to go down feet first, but he never does. He then gets stuck in this position for 1-5 minutes and either falls on his head or finally figures out how to get his feet down too.

 Stuck.

 Still stuck.

 Aha! One foot down.

 Other foot down and successfully grabbed the stair to prevent another forehead rug burn and face plant on the floor.

 Last step. This look is a very concerned "ok, I made it. Am I hurt????" look.

 Looks back at the stair to make sure they won't bite him and decides that he is ok.

 And on to the next stairs. These stairs are driving me crazy. A kiddie gate won't fit on the bottom of them, and I am constantly chasing Joel up and down them. He hasn't fallen down them yet, which is good, cause a fall down these would be disastrous. If you fall down the left side, it's almost a sheer drop to the floor. And if you fall down the right side, you are going to hit every one of those railings on the way down. Yup, I think we NEED to figure out a way to block these stairs.

365 Challenge #144

When it's raining, just grill out the living room door.

365 Challenge #143

Oh no! He figured out how to get into the fridge!

"I'll just try this syrup mom"

"Mmmmm.....foooooooooooooooooooooooooood."

"I can SEE the grapes, I just can't get to them."