Self Teaching Achieves Success

With a major in Nursing, I didn't get the chance to experience much art along the way. Even though I have always had a passion for arts & crafts, and especially photography, I didn't pursue it much besides on my own time. When I decided to get serious about my photography, I didn't have the opportunity or the desire to go back to school for it. At least not right now. So that left me to utilize my resources and basically teach myself whatever I wanted to know. Since then, I have spent hours online googling definitions of words from my camera manual that I didn't know, looking up photography techniques, equipment etc etc etc. The list continues. In the process, I have discovered a lot of very helpful resources that have been irreplacable along the way. I have discovered photographer's blogs who have explained the information in a simple and easy to understand way. The main ones are Angella's blog and Pioneer Woman's blog. Those who sites have explained things about photography and about post processing that I never understood. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan of both.

I have reached a milestone in my photography career that I am really proud of. In the beginning, it was all AUTO settings for me. Green at first, pure auto. Then I moved into the preset settings such as Landscape or Portrait. Where am I at now? I can function [and comprehend what I am doing] on fully Manual settings. YES, I have conquered the aperture and the shutter speed controls! Finally, I feel somewhat at ease in fiddling with the two aspects of a a photo's exposure, and I know how to manipulate each in order to get the desired photographic result. I am there finally.

If you are using a DSLR and don't feel like you'll ever be able to function in full manual, Do Not Despair! You will get there! I promise! It is not as complicated as it seems. At first, I needed to google the definition of aperture. Now, I understand the paradox that is aperture [smaller number means larger hole - boggles the brain at first!]

I have debated writing a tutorial on the basics of exposure and on how to control each aspect, if only for my husband's benefit. He will take the camera from me and not know that it is set to manual. He starts to click away, only to find out later that all of the photos are totally blown out - completely white - and the photo moments are ruined. I know he is fully capable of conquering manual too, and he will sometime. But he needs a tutorial.

Those types of tutorials can be found all over the internet though, and there is a fantastic one on Angella's blog that I linked to above. If any of my readers on this site would be interested in reading a tutorial of my own, please, let me know. I won't spend the time writing it if it won't help anyone. Connect with me and let me know if it would help you!!

Now that I've divulged my husband's secret of not having conquered manual setting yet, I want ot post a photo that he took on our recent bayou tour in Louisiana [we're on a cross country road trip for any of you first time visitors.] These vultures were relentless and he caught one right as it flew over our boat. Pretty wicked, eh? I'd say so.

Thanks for visiting, and please, let me know if you think you'd benefit from a written tutorial on how to work a dslr in its manual settings. If it will assist anyone in their photography journey, I'll get typin'. If not, check out Angella's, because she is awesome.

Thanksgiving is coming, ENJOY your blessings and your families!

Love & Faith,

Laura