Life Inside the Doll House

I have taken a lot of bad photos today. A lot of bad photos.  I had some free time during Bear's nap and I used it to read a couple of interesting tutorials from Click it up a Notch. The first was on the subject of metering and can be found  here . This is one of those "a-ha" experiences when you think that you have found one of the missing parts of the puzzle. I have had my metering mode on Evaluative for years and I often find that my pictures come out underexposed even though the camera argues that it is not. Naturally I was delighted to read that changing the metering mode to Spot Metering would solve the problem. I changed it immediately expecting a miracle, but I am not sure that it didn't make things worse. I am excited to play around with it some more over the next few days to get a better feel for it.  Next, I was very excited to read this tutorial on white balance. Now I know that this is a problem of mine. There are some rooms in this house ...

We have been enjoying freezing stuff around here. It started last summer when the boys asked if they could freeze little toys (Go-Gos and Moshi Monsters) inside ice cubes. Then I saw  this  post a few weeks ago and that got us started again. Except that this time we went bigger!! We have been freezing large bowls and balloons full of water. Sometimes we add food colouring or glitter. It good summer fun. ISO 100 ; SS 1/200 ; f/3.5 The have to wear goggles because they mostly like to hit it really hard to crack it open or chip away with a knife to make a hole in the centre. ISO 100 ; SS 1/80 ; f/3.5 ISO 100 ; SS 1/250 ; f/3.5 Toes out of focus. *rolls eyes and tuts to herself* Roo was exhausted after his long bike ride with his dad yesterday and a swimming lesson this morning. ISO 400 ; SS 1/125 ; f/2.8 He still managed to have enough energy to make some more loom band bracelets... and to stay up very late to watch the World Cup final. Come on Germany!! ...

Day 7!! I have completed my first week of this project. I am starting to get into a rhythm with it now and can feel that I am slowly learning something. Today was Saturday and I had the two littlies while the husband and Roo went out cycling for the day. I enjoyed having a bit more light at my disposal today, but I am still grappling with the focus issue. Practice, practice, practice!! Bear had her morning milk in our bed as usual. She is such a delight to start the day with. ISO 1600 ; SS 1/160 ; f/2.8 Once we got going, we had fun pretending to be cooks. Bear was feeling extra affectionate with her little customers. ISO 800 ; SS 1/80 ; f/2.8 ISO 1600 ; SS 1/100 ; f/2.8 ISO 800 ; SS 1/60 ; f/2.8 As I put those numbers in, I still feel unhappy with them. I have decided to experiment with being pretty rigid with keeping the SS above 125, unless the subject is being very very still. Until I have more control over my focusing skills it i...

It was a horrible grey wet day today. I decided to accept the poor light and just bump the ISO up high. This left me with a little more wiggle room with my SS and aperture. Even so, I found focus and blur to be a frustration with today's pictures.  The boys were at school today, so Bear and I had a little photo shoot on our own. I have decided that photographing kids is super hard. They often don't want to go where you need them to, you are trying to play with them at the same time as concentrating on what you are doing with the camera, they move very fast, and they pull all sorts of crazy faces. On top of that, I often find that the clutter in the background is distracting. Here are the best of today's bunch.  ISO 800; SS 1/125; f/2.2 ISO 800; SS 1/125; f/2.2 ISO 3200; SS 1/100; f/3.5 ISO 1600; SS 1/50; f/2.2 ISO 800; SS 1/40; f/3.5 ISO 800; SS 1/40; f/3.5 How I wish that the last one was more in focus, and that the red T...

Goodness me! We must have taken a 100 pictures today, most of them beside some window or other. I now have fantasies of living in some open plan space which has light pouring in for most of the day. At least we have photo editing options to brighten things up a bit. This is Rexy's favourite book right now. We got it at the school fayre a couple of weekends ago. It is called Skippyjon Jones and it is in fact hilarious! It is all about a Siamese cat who thinks that he is a chihuahua dog. Too funny! He has a fabulous Mexican accent and everything. ISO 1600 ; SS 1/125 ; f/3.5 I am a little frustrated that Rexy is out of focus here, especially as the SS is 1/125 and he wasn't even moving. Also the f/3.5 should have given me more wiggle room. To be fair I was balancing on top of a chair arm so I guess a little camera shake can be forgiven.  Roo got really into the lack of light problem and is generally starting to take quite an interest in photography.  ISO 1600...

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to do some reading. Given my frustration yesterday, I decided to do some research on the basics of shooting in manual. A quick Google search brought me straight back to Courtney Slazinik at Click it up a Notch. I read over this very easy to understand tutorial on  How to Shoot in Manual - the Basics . It helped me to feel that I am not way off track with what I am doing so far. I loved how some of the numbers on her photos don't adhere to the "rules" either :) Then, as if I wasn't loving Courtney enough, I received this tutorial in my mailbox today -  8 Tips to Take a Sharp Photo .  The cherry on the cake is this one -  11 Tips for Completing a Project 365 .  Thanks Courtney. I seriously couldn't do it without you!  My favourite tips in this article were: - there are no rules (I can use my phone camera if I can't manage the DSLR some days) - taking a photo or more a day will make you a better ph...

I found the project tough going today - and it's only day 3! The kids and I were searching all over the house for some light but no matter where we settled I had to keep cranking up that ISO to 1600 or above. We were all tired after a long day at work and school. As hard as it was today, I am thinking that the winter months will be very challenging. I need to get a better handle the basics of shooting in manual. Looks like I will be doing some research this weekend. Anyway after many pictures, acrobatics to find a good composition and an exhausted left eye from squeezing it shut.... this is what we got. ISO 400; SS 1/50; f/2.8 Just look at how low that shutter speed is! I cannot seem to get it much higher without racking up on the ISO.  At this point, the only thing I feel I am progressing on is finding more interesting light. There is a long long way to go. Like many households across the world, we have been invaded by loom bands. My boys really lov...