Photography Practice: Aperture Priority

I have become increasingly frustrated lately with my photos not coming out how I've imagined and I know it's user error. Shame on me! I've taken photo classes before but have slowly forgotten a lot of what I know so I decided to dig out my manual (genius, right?) and give myself daily lessons.

Today's lesson was on the Aperture Priority setting on my camera. My lovely friend, the manual, sums it up to being "You pick the aperture you want and the camera will adjust the shutter speed to let in the appropriate amount of light." GENIUS. Lately, I've been missing a ton of shots because I'm too busy fiddling with my shutter speed and aperture and getting a lot of over exposed and under exposed images. Boo. I'm usually a snob about doing everything in manual, but I need to cool my jets and start from the beginning. That and realize that it's the content that matters, not how I got there.

We have a lavender bush out back so I went outside in the searing heat (poor wimpy Seattleite...) and waiting to catch some bees in action. What do you know...because I wasn't constantly adjusting my shutter speed, I was able to focus on my, well, focusing. It's also helped that I've figured out ISO again, too, but that's for the next post!

Here's what I got! (They're all unedited, so I can mark my progress as I learn.)

I adore (ADORE) low apertures (these were taken at 3.5 and 4.5) because it allows for a narrow depth of field (only a small part of the photo is in focus and the background is generally blurry). They evoke a peaceful feeling in me when I look at them, like I'm rewarded with a secret world when I set aside the time to look for it.

It helps me to solidify what I've learned when I'm forced to explain it to someone else, which is the main purpose behind me writing these posts. I'm excited to learn more!

Rachel