Flying Photo School- Week 2

In Week 2, I learned how to shoot in S Mode (shutter-speed priority mode.)  For the first half of the week, nearly all of my indoor pictures in this mode came out almost entirely black.  Very frustrating.  I had some success at the Discovery Gateway, where we celebrated Kaden Olson's 3rd birthday.  I can't wait to experiment with this mode more outside when it's a little less bone-chilling!  

I also brushed up on Program mode for practice.  

S-Mode action shot!  Balloon badminton.

Slower shutter speed than I wanted because of little available light, but it still came out okay...

Party time!  I had a hard time with auto-focus shooting in the advanced modes...

I was loving the natural light in these three as Aiden played the longboard xylophone thingy.

S-Mode attempt #537.  Can't see the ball he's throwing.  This was typical of my Week 2 S-Mode shots.   

These needed a point of reference; something stationary on the ground to show the difference in height.

The lady behind the lens.

The pint-sized grocery store was my favorite part of Discovery Gateway.  I swear this would've been a dreamland for me as a little girl!  They didn't have stuff like this on any of the military bases I lived on...

We love our sweet new friends, the Olsons!  Dana and I have a ton in common, including that our children are the same ages.  This makes for frequent fun play dates.  

Liam found two activities that garnered his undivided attention: 1) the conveyor belt at the grocery store and 2) the ball suction thing.  COULD NOT tear him away. 

We capped off the day at an Italian place for lunch and then headed home.  I left feeling unfulfilled regarding my S-mode practice.  

Mr. Moose says, "Practice makes perfect."  

Flying Photo School- Week 1

I got a great Groupon deal on two online photography courses from the Flying Photo School.  My first course, Digital 101, runs for four weeks. Next month will be Lighting 101.  I can watch the instructional videos anytime throughout the week (making life as a mom and pseudo-student much more mutually inclusive).  

At the end of each week, we submit one photo exemplifying what we learned in the previous week and we receive instructor feedback.  Week 1, I submitted the photo of Aiden above.  Using Program Mode, I set my camera to ISO 400 and WB Cloudy since there was lots of nice natural light coming in from the window he was facing and it was a cloudy day.  I was frustrated with the orange color tone this series seemed to take on, even though I was sure I had the correct settings.  Now I realize I should've played around more with white balance to capture more of his natural skin tone.  Oh well, live and learn.  One thing is certain, I had a dang cute subject...

The objective of the course is to move off of "auto" onto the more advanced camera modes where the user controls functions like how much light the camera takes in (ISO), white balance, shutter-speed and aperture.  I've been loving it!   

I've got a long way to go to know what I'm doing in every situation, but it is wonderful to finally know what each of the options on my camera means! 

This one below is my favorite from the week.  Aiden contracted the flu from hell and he basically remained in Wes or my arms nonstop for four days. He was listless, exhausted, achy...miserable.  It was torture to witness and only be able to provide minimal relief.  I caught this photo late one night under extremely low light conditions (one week prior and this one would've come out terribly!)  So happy my angel has recovered.