Practicing in Eagle Heights Woods

What a wonderful morning I had practicing with Heather! She had so many great insights and advice to share with me. I swore I could never take a good picture with my measly kit lens, but Heather gave me some pointers, and I got some good shots!  (Although, Heather, I'm still jealous of your 50mm and 300 crazy close zoom lens-- fun fun fun!)  I took everything at 55mm and kept my ISO at 200.  Then I altered my f stop and shutter speed according to the light.

 Here's Heather in the shade (but on a very sunny day).  ISO 200, f 5.6, 1/100.  The left photo has the lake in the background, the right I stood up taller so as to only get the ground in the background.  I think I like the right better.  I'm zoomed in all the way- at 55 mm.  And then I slightly enhanced the contrast- but not very much (plus, I don't know how to work Photoshop-- I'm not very photo savvy, let's be honest).

f 5.6, 1/125.  I just love boys in hats. Perhaps I should have used a flash to get his eyes in more light- since the brim covers up his eyes.  Plus, in that third photo there's a tree banch grazing the top of this hat.  You have to look hard- but it's there.  In the future I'll be more careful about looking out for hanging tree branches and the like.  But I do like these shots because they show his cute little personality- belly button and all.

Geez, the kid looks so grown up here- to me.  The sun is above and to the left, so I liked how the background is well lit.  And I kind of like the GQ look in his face.

The above are also f 5.6, 1/125.  Again, sorry there are so many of him- that's what happens when you hang out together all day everyday.

So, here's what I learned.  Keep the fstop open (smaller number) for more light- however, the smaller the number, the less depth of field you'll have- so you have to be careful about how much of the picture you want in focus.  Heather told me that when taking pics of kids, keep the shutter speed faster than 1/100th.  And I even think 100 is pushing it, especially for very wiggly, hyper toddlers.  I used 1/125 for Lane, which is fine for a small print, but if you click on the photo and zoom in, you can see that it's not very sharp. In the future I'll speed up the shutter and try for more light, somehow.  Of course if your aperture is wider, then you can have a faster shutter speed.  You just have to shoot and see what kind of light you have to work with.  Happy shooting!!! Please post!