My Unexpected Everyday, Day 28 | Week Four of Manual Photography

I am in awe with how far my photography has come in the last four weeks. And things are getting easier too. I find myself knowing where to tick my ISO or what the best f-stop might be. Well, okay, maybe it’s not exact, but I am getting closer. And that feels good. I knew at the beginning of these 30 Days that this wouldn’t be a skill I’d master quickly. So feeling comfortable with my camera on manual mode, knowing I can capture the small and important moments feels like real success.

These are the photos I took this week (and one I missed last week). These are straight out of the camera, except for the selfies, which I cropped a bit, and I’ll explain that below because that was harder that I thought it would be, and the photo I converted to black and white.

Tip 19

This is the image that I missed last week. I finally found the best way to get a silhouette shot, even without a beautiful sunset. And I love this moment. Max was so anxious to go outside, in spite of the rain and cold that we were having. He was wearing his construction googles and pretending they were his SCUBA mask. I wish that I’d used a narrower aperture so his hands would be in focus too, but contrast in a photo like this one makes me so happy.

Tip 21

This tip was all about capturing your child’s favorite toy as another way to mark the age my kids are right now. And so that’s why you get this awesome picture of Max’s shark. It actually swallows things, and then you get to dig them out of the cavernous stomach. He sleeps with it, and if that’s not proof of his pure boyhood, then I don’t know what is. I like that the teeth are the only thing in focus, and the blue background (my kitchen wall) supports the notion that this is a real (scary) shark.

Tip 22

I wish I lived in one of those houses that had amazing light. I wish. I wish. And if I ever move again, that will be as important as a garden tub on my list of characteristics my house will have. I love photos that are backlit, and that’s what I was going for here. There’s a little noise, so I know that my ISO was too high, but I was trying to compensate for the dark room. I’m working on it, though. And the good news is that I shot this in my den where things are usually yellow. So I know I got the white balance right.

Tip 23

So this is a big photography lesson that I’ve learned from Courtney at Click It Up a Notch. Your subject should have room to look through the frame of the photograph. It seems simple, but I’ve been noticing it everywhere, seeing it in other people’s photographs. And Julia was thinking hard, which makes her look up, and I snapped this photo. Julia looking up makes you look up too, doesn’t it? I love that.

Tip 24

Max is really fast. It comes with being a superhero. And I love that photography can capture it. Thank goodness for tripods, or all of everything in this photo would’ve been blurry with a lower shutter speed. This isn’t so much the kind of photo that I would hang up in my entryway, but I do like knowing that I know how to take a photo like this one because it shows I’m learning how to control the shutter speed while keeping the rest of the photo in focus and well exposed.

Tip 25

Photography is such a great and visual way to tell a story. This is the story of a gymnastic birthday party we went to last weekend. There was an obstacle course and a balance beam and trampolines. Oh. The kids had such fun, and I’m a fan of a big collage.

Tip 26

I did edit this image to convert it to black and white because it places the emphasis on the dark and light contrast in this photograph. The effects are dramatic and lovely. And I love the focus here that you can see in Julia’s hair. It’s really a lovely effect. Don’t you think?

Tip 27

So I don’t know if I would say that I nailed these selfies. I took about a kerbillion shots before I settled on these two, and I cropped them both to make the subjects more the focus of the image than the window, curtains, or corner cabinet behind my chair. I rocked my homemade camera beanbag for theses, so that’s proof that it works. (Here’s how I set it all up.) So settings are a little off here. They’re kind of contrasty, and there is some noise. But I do think that all those moments are made up for with the fact that they are photos of me and my children. I am in these pictures, and they’re beautiful. Plus, look at Max’s smile, and try not to smile back.

Tell me, what have you been up to this week? Have you switched your camera to manual mode yet? If so, I want to see what you’re shooting!