Today is all about the tree - that was Shimelle's prompt. I love my tree. Love it. My tree is covered with ornaments that I gather when I travel, along with ornaments that were gifts (lots from my sister's traveling) and others that have memories associated with them. The only theme to my tree is exotic eclectic! But I love it. Decorating every year is like visiting old friends as I pull out each ornament and think of when and where I bought it or who gave it to me or what it represents. I really need to just do an entire album of my ornaments - maybe I'll photograph them as I undecorate in January. But anyway, for me the tree is all about memories, family, and love. I love to just sit and look at it with no other lights on as I listen to Christmas music and sip cocoa and think of the memories that surface as I look at it. It's lovely.
But the fun part of today? I was all set to just use photos I took when I put up the tree, but then I read Shimelle's In Focus prompt for photography tips and ideas to go with today's journaling prompt. It was on getting photos of your tree lights and had instructions on using the manual mode on my camera. I admit... I didn't even know which setting on my camera was the one she said to use. So I Googled a tutorial on the buttons and settings on my camera. (It's so sad that I've never been out of the pre-set modes, but I'm lazy. Did I mention I worked in a photo lab for 6 years during high school and college breaks? Yeah.) So one I figured it out, I ran down the stairs to play.
This. was. life-changing. Seriously. Who knew? I was taking pictures with no other lights than my Christmas lights and the shutter was just zipping right along. The pictures were IN FOCUS. Blew my mind.
How did I never figure this out before? And why couldn't I have learned about the glory of the aperture control mode and adjusting my ISO and f-stops BEFORE going to Temple Square and Candlelight Christmas? Sigh. Next year, right?
I'm still playing around with the right f-stop setting to be able to see the lights and get the right focus, but not have the exposure too dark. I did a lot of experimenting while I was taking pictures of today's entry. I'm so excited to play with this while taking pictures of the kids in front of the tree when I go home. Fun!
Here are a few of the pictures I took tonight - no other lights on, no flash.
(the goal was to have the lights turn into little glowy circles. It's not too bad for a first try!)
I guess this is why everyone says you need to get into the manual modes on the camera, huh? I may have to dig out the manual and do some more reading.
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