Adventures into Amateur Photography

Weekly Photo #14

nmoody — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:00:46 +0000

Also taken in the development I live in. I found the flower vine and clump of flowers nice so I blurred the background to draw attention to them.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 55mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/40s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 100

Weekly Photo #13

nmoody — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:03:02 +0000

Taken in the development I live in. These flowers bloomed the other day and really caught my attention. Especially since its early February.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 22mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 100

Weekly Photo #12

nmoody — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:37:30 +0000

This is an edit of last weeks picture. Still playing around with editing, I think its better but I need a lot more practice.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
Focal Length: 70mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/800s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400

Weekly Photo #11

nmoody — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:56:56 +0000

Yet another trip to Vasona Lake County Park in Los Gatos, CA. Trying to work on my composition and this was one of them. Lighting is blown in places.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
Focal Length: 70mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/800s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400

Weekly Photo #10

nmoody — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:42:38 +0000

This photo was taken on top of Communication Hill a month ago. I tried my hand at editing in Lightroom 4 with this photo, never done any editing before outside of the ViewNX 2 software that came with my camera. Leveled the horizon, played with the colors a little and cropped out the freeway as well as the left side out.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
Focal Length: 100mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: OFF
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/4.2
Shutter Speed: 1/125s
Scene Mode: Auto (Flash Off)
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: Auto (ISO 500)

Weekly Photo #9

nmoody — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:32:15 +0000

Taken at the San Jose Japanese Friendship Garden at 1:02pm. The single dead branch in a sea of green ones added some nice contrast against the aged wooden post.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 48mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/5.3
Shutter Speed: 1/20s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 100

Quick Review: Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Box set

nmoody — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:19:11 +0000

This set of books was one of the many reading materials suggested to me on thephotoforum.com for someone starting out in photography, looking for a refresher or moving from film to digital.

First off the author is an accomplished photographer but is more well known for his teaching abilities and books. Needless to say these books are extremely easy to understand and can been used with any digital camera although its examples are with both Nikon and Canon models. It is important that you read these books in order as the information builds on the basics learned in the previous. Scott flows information to you effortlessly making it very easy to take in and not feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount there is to know about each aspect he covers. The books are written in a tone as if he is there helping you with the task you are working on instead of shoving facts in your head.

The books start out with a lot about the language of photography, equipment, options of the DSLR cameras and how they all come together and work. It brakes down different situations of photography and explains what you need to think about and do to achieve the desired result in each photo you take.

Once you have the basics and are well rounded it dives into more details on different aspects such as landscape, composition, equipment use ect… As mentioned above its all about giving you little bits of information and then expanding on each later once you have a good understanding of it.

You can find the book set here on Amazon. A kindle version of the set is also available: http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Kelbys-Digital-Photography-Volumes/dp/0321678737/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326126644&sr=8-2

A fourth book is in this series will be releasing at some point. Amazon doesn’t seem to have a date as of yet. I will be getting this when it comes out because I enjoyed these books so much.

Weekly Photo #8

nmoody — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:54:12 +0000

A lucky profile picture I took of Wheatley my cat. This was taken indoors in horrible lighting but I really liked his posture and expression.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 55mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200

Weekly Photo #7

nmoody — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:47:06 +0000

Taken on top of Communication Hill in San Jose at 7:50 in the morning. The morning was cloudy and the winds kept moving the clouds which constantly changed the view. This was my first time using the Tamron 70-300MM F/4-5.6 lens.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 70-300mm F/4-5.6G
Focal Length: 70mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: OFF
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/500s
Scene Mode: Auto (Flash Off)
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: Auto (ISO 220)

Weekly Photo #6

nmoody — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:53:20 +0000

This was taken at home on Christmas morning of our cat Peanut. Was more just testing out a UV filter to see how it affected pictures. This is one with the UV filter on.

Camera Info
Device: Nikon D3100
Lens: VR 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 34mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:

Exposure
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400