Thursday, August 16, 2018

Pushing past stupid

     Last week was our annual family vacation in the Adirondacks around Old Forge, NY. It is one of my favorite places on the planet. I signed up for a sunrise photo class with the absolute best photographer, Kurt Gardner. He also does sunset classes. I have admired, and bought his photos which he gets printed on aluminum. This gives the photos an appearance of floating on the wall and the colors are just brilliant.
     The class started at 5:15 am in the fog. In fact, it was the heaviest fog that Kurt has seen. After a while, the sun wasn't showing through, so Kurt piled us all in his truck, and took the dirt roads and stopped at various spots. I had not used anything other than automatic in my SLR camera for years. I had forgotten all I had learned in photo class in college. Kurt worked with us on tripods, changing shutter speed, white balance and exposures- all of which are on even the cheapest cameras. Learned how to use the manual mode when I need to shoot close up. I had to think hard and try a lot of different settings. Having control of what the camera takes and how it takes it is monumental. I have lots more photos when it finally lightened.
     Why did I let myself get so stupid? I can take better photos of my work and garden with some thought and effort with what I already have. Where else have I let myself get stupid? (I sew on vintage Singers, so it is not there!)
Where the sun was supposed to come up
In Black and white












Learned how to use manual mode to focus on spider webs






9 comments:

The Joyful Quilter said...

You got some great shots!! Sounds like you enjoyed your vacation. Lucky you!!

Debbie said...

Love those spider web photos...you got great detail! Among your photos.....the railroads tracks is outstanding. I know nothing about the light speed, manual mode, shutter, etc. only recognize a good shot when I see it.
I get lazy and take a photo of a quilt on the floor, when I need to go hunt down a place to drape and create a scene.

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I have never learned all of those things about a camera. My dad was a photographer, my son and grandson are photographers but I just couldn't understand F stops, etc. I applaud you for getting back into the finer points of photography.

JustGail said...

I think we've all heard the old saying "use it or loose it". I prefer to think that what I knew and no longer use is not lost, but has been buried by knowledge that is in current use. Sort of like the pile of unfolded but clean laundry that you keep pulling garments off the top to wear. The other knowledge is still there but might need some digging to find again. In other words - no, you didn't go stupid, your camera skills simply got buried by other smarts that have gotten more recent use.

I like the fog photos in black & white better - somehow the color seems to be a distraction to me. Love the 2nd railroad and the 4th spider web photos.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Great spiderwebs. I'm clueless about photos. I have a cheap camera, since I don't even know how to use it, other than to point and shoot. I did finally learn how to crop photos online. Not good with any of the rest of the stuff.

Quiltdivajulie said...

BEAUTIFUL photos -- DH has always been into photography with a great camera. I get so confused on the F stops that I stick to my point and shoot (and now mostly my phone). I don't think you let yourself get stupid - I think life gets busy and we can't do it all so we simplify as much as possible (which results in the loss of the extra effort you describe for your class photos). I love black and white photos and yours are fabulous.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

These are gorgeous photos! I would consider myself lucky to be able to get these unusual pictures and something beyond the commonplace sunrise pictures. I too have gotten lazy with my camera and need to learn its inner workings. The last set of photos I took had a macro on and it took me a long time to figure that out and how to stop that.

Dre in PA said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mystic Quilter said...

Fabulous photos Linda - the closeups of the spiders web are amazing! Good for you getting back into the swing with your camera.