A Year With My Camera - The Adventure Continues - Lesson 1

  Two weeks into this class and I am already taking better photos. If you like to take pictures and want to improve your photography skills, you will want to participate in A Year With My Camera. The best part? It's a free class! 

   The first lesson deals with exposure. Ok, this should be an easy lesson. Most of us usually have our camera set on auto and let it decide how much light comes in through the lens. Well here's the thing, when you have your camera set on the auto mode, it is programmed to assume the overall tone of the image is 18% grey. So how does that affect your photo? It means that white will turn grey and black will turn grey. What?! Sounds crazy but it's true. That's why photos of with a lot of  white in them will look grey. And photographing a dark object in a dark room will turn grey. Don't believe me? Get a white piece of paper and take a picture of it. Make sure the whole frame is white. Do the same with a black piece of paper.  You'll probably have to put your camera on manual focus to take the picture. Compare the two photos. Can you tell which one was which? As you read this you're probably thinking "Of course I'll be able to tell the difference. One will be white and the other black." Are you sure?

    Here's what happened when I did this experiment using my Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lens. My camera was set in the auto mode with manual focus. When I tried use auto focus the lens couldn't lock on anything.

Black Paper - F/4.5, ISO 800, Shutter speed 1/10 sec

 

White Paper - F/4.5, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/80 sec

  So can you tell the difference? No? I didn't think so. Don't feel bad. I couldn't tell them apart either. The only way I knew which one was which was I knew which color I photographed first. This lesson was a real eye opener for me.

  Last year I was doing the Capture Your 365 class and one of the prompts was White on White. I took a white pitcher set it on the snow. Did my photo turn out White on White? No it sure didn't. I was on auto mode and my camera automatically adjusted my picture to grey. It was awful. I had to edit the picture in PhotoShop Elements to make the photo work for the prompt and even then it was still underexposed.

 

   

F/8.0, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/250 sec

  I'm doing Capture Your 365 again this year and when the White prompt came I was ready. This year I made the adjustments I needed to get a white, not grey, photo without having to edit. My subject this year is a white bowl with brown eggs. I use white foam boards for the table top and the background. I took my camera off auto and set in aperture mode. I didn't know what F Stop to set my camera on so I started at the lowest. The result was super overexposed. So much so that all I saw was white. So I adjusted my F Stops a couple setting higher and tried again. Still overexposed but I could start to see details in the photo. I took the F Stop up a couple of more and that time my photo turned out perfect. What a difference between last year and this year!

F/4.2, ISO 1600, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec

   I did have to adjust my ISO to 1600 because I didn't have good, natural light. The white is white and the detail of the bowl is crisp. I was able to complete this prompt with a great photo without editing!

    The aperture mode on your camera means that you determine what F Stop the camera will use and the camera determines the other settings. The aperture is how much light the lens lets into the camera. When the light is bright, in auto mode the lens will allow just a little bit of light in by closing the opening in the lens to get that 18% grey it's programmed for. When the light is low the lens will widen the opening to allow more light in. The camera lens is like our pupils - constricts when we're in sunlight and expands when we're in the dark. The confusing part is the wider the opening in the lens the smaller the F Stop number and vice versa. So that means a very small opening in the lens for sunlight has a high number, like F/16 and when the lens is opened wide for low light the F Stop could be a low as F/1.4 It can get confusing but once you start playing with the settings and taking pictures this will become natural to you.

   I want to be able to take photos that need little editing. Am I still going to have to edit my photos even after finishing this class? Of course. There will be photos I take where my main goal is to just capture the memory. Those photos will be taken with my camera on auto. It's the photos where I'm expressing my creativity, the ones I plan and set up that I want to be almost perfect. These will be the photos I take with my camera off the auto setting. These are the photos that will be the most fun taking. And the most challenging. And the most frustrating. And well, you get the idea.

    I hope this helps a little bit for you to understand your camera better and improve your photo taking skills. If you want to learn more about your camera and become a better photographer take A Year With My Camera. Fo.r a boost in your creativity sign up for Capture Your 365.

Thanks for visiting with me at

Down Home at Dee's

Goals 2018 - Making and Achieving Them

   The beginning of a new year always brings our focus to goals. What are we going to do with this new year that is before us? What changes are we going to do to make our life better?  Everyone has these thoughts in one way or another. Some of us have clear goal in mind and commit them to paper. Others have a vague intention floating around in their head. Well, I'm no different. Every year I set goals for myself. I set big goals and small goals. Sometimes I stick with them, at least for part of the year, other times these goals go by the wayside before I even get through the month of January. Then I deal with the guilt of failure. Which isn't a feeling I want hanging around. Do you? No, I didn't think so. This burden weights me down. I get overwhelmed and the result is I get paralyzed and I give up on my goals. I become adrift, floundering each day to try to figure out how to get back on track.

   This year I've decided to set my goals but plan them out differently. Many are the same that I've had every year but this time I'm breaking them down to manageable sizes and steps. I'm taking my big goals, my stretch goals, and dividing them into small pieces. I'm setting my goals by the year, breaking them down to monthly, then weekly and finally daily steps. After all, I can eat an elephant one bite at a time. In the past I've set my goals then tried to shove the elephant down my throat whole. You can imagine just how well that worked!

   Well, how am I breaking them down? And what is my plan if I don't meet my daily and monthly goals? What is my plan if I DO meet my weekly and monthly goals? Well I'm glad you asked.

   Most times a goal for the year is a vague idea. I'll use the example of getting healthier. Yes, this is one of my goals for the year. It's been a goal of mine every year for as long as I can remember.  I'm sure it has been or is currently on your list too.  So how do we take this goal from a vague idea to a solid commitment? Here are the steps I'm doing to make this happen for me.

Big Goal = Be Healthier.

Break down to smaller bites -

Monthly -

Walk daily

Drink plenty of water

Exercise frequently

Improve my eating habits

These are really vague but I have a guideline of where I want to start.

So now I create weekly steps.

Walk 5 miles every day

Drink daily recommend amount of water

Exercise weekly

Eat more fruits and veggies and less sugar.

   As you can see my monthly goals are still somewhat vague but can be refined and the big goal has been broken down.

Let break this goal down even further to become more specific.

Daily -

11,000 steps a day - equals a little over 5 miles a day and if I don't look like I'm going to achieve this goal I will hop on my treadmill until I do.

Drink 64 oz of water daily - that's 4 -16 oz bottles a day.

Exercise 3 times a week - I have set aside a 30 minute block of time in my calendar to exercise Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I found a quick circuit training program online.

Eat healthier - basic meal planning and keeping track of what I eat. Logging what I eat has really opened my eyes to the areas to my "trouble" foods and eating habits. I'm not dieting but I am watching my calorie intake and output using a fitness app.

   I have a Fitbit Charge 2 I love and it keeps track of my steps, water, exercise and calories. There are many apps available that will monitor this activity for you if you don't have a Fitbit. There is RunKeeper and My Fitness Pal that link together.  I used these before I got a Fitbit and they work great. But I also write my steps and water in my planner. I use the Get To Work Book to keep track of my life. I find that I am more accountable when I can see each day's result written down. I also put all of my goals on a graph chart where I color in each block with fun color pens on the days I met my goals. But that's what works best for me. Design your accountability system with what works for you.

  

   Now for the fun part. Setting rewards for myself if I achieve my goals. Yes, you must reward yourself for a "job well done". But here's the catch, your reward can't be something you would do anyway. It has to be a special something. I do advise if you decide to use the reward of food, like a favorite treat, you plan for it in your diet/calorie intake and only do if you have the self discipline to only eat the amount you determine ahead of time.

   Well how am I planning on rewarding myself for a "job well done"? With fun things of course!!

Meeting my step goal for 75% of the month (that's 23 days out of the month) - Pedicure

Drinking 64oz water daily for 75% of the month - Manicure

Exercising 3 times a week for 85% of the month (that's 10 day out of the month) - I haven't figured out what is a good reward for this one.

Eating healthier - not sure about this one either.

   I decided that I would be easy on myself and not set my goals too high where it would be difficult for me to reach but at the same time I didn't think want my goals to be too low where it wasn't a challenge. I also decided to give myself a buffer by allowing for days/weeks where I didn't meet my goal. By doing that I won't be as likely to quit moving forward if I mess up a day /week. As time goes on I'll adjust the amount I have to meet before getting my reward.

   So how am I doing so far? Well, I met my step and water goal every day last week but didn't exercise at all. This week I've met my step goal one day, have hit my water goal four days and exercised once this week. I still have today and tomorrow to finish out the week.

   I've reached the end of the second week of the month and I am reevaluating my goals and my reward system. Life happens and we have to be able to adjust. After looking my goals over I've decided to keep them as they are. I don't think that I've chosen goals that are unobtainable but they are a stretch for me. I've restructured my reward system and broke it down by the week then month. This way every week I can start fresh.

New reward system -

Meeting my step goal 5 out of 7 days a week for 3 weeks of the month - Pedicure

Drinking 64oz water daily 5 out of 7 day a week for 3 weeks of the month - Manicure

Exercising 3 times a week - exercise at least once a week for the month - still don't have a reward decided. Maybe a treat from a bakery?

Eat healthier - eating healthy 5 out of 7 days a week for 3 weeks of the month - not sure about this reward either. 

   The two reward systems are basically the same just worded differently. The fist one allows for 7 days to be missed but that's any 7 days of the month. The second reward system allows 8 days to be missed but only 2 each week. The second reward system requires more accountability. I'm going to try them both and see which one works better for my personality. That's the key with goal setting and rewards. Knowing yourself and what is the best way to make yourself accountable.

   Setting goals and meeting them is a day by day activity. Be flexible. Evaluate. Try again. Reevaluate. Start again. Keep moving forward. Remember progress not perfection.
 

Thanks for visiting with me at

Down Home at Dee's