He wasn’t real but he caught my eye anyway.

After my first of four photography classes last week, I wanted to put into practice what I had learned.

My main goal was working with depth of field (either shallow or lots of depth) since I have struggled with this in the past. I also had this “capture the light” thing going round and round in my head. In so many instances I have previously been disappointed when trying to capture a certain mood, or light.

Of course I headed straight to Skylands for my practice session!

Here are a few I was happy with given the goals I had in mind for myself.

Light coming through leaves.

Soft light on an yet-to-bloom flower.

Even though this photo may look hazy to you, I captured the light perfectly because this is exactly the way it looked. It was very humid, hence the haze. This photo was also taken to get maximum depth of field which was also achieved as you can see the statues all the way at the end of Crabapple Lane.

I was down on the ground for this shot. I was going for the play of light on the petals.

Most of the flowers were in the shade, but there were a few that the sun was hitting. I focused on the flowers in the foreground in the light and used a shallow depth of field. Kind of a strange shot, I know, but there is something about it I like. You might not! For me it gives more depth to the shot, whereas it could have looked flat if everything was in focus.

Again, working with a shallow depth of field for interest.

I am proud to report that all photos were taken on either aperture priority or shutter priority, no programmed modes!

I apologize in advance for talking so much about photography lately. It’s just what I am into at the moment, and let’s face it, my blog features my photography more and more. I used to just take pictures. Now I want to become better. I want to make them; not take them.

I enrolled in a four-course photography class given at Unique Photo, the same place I went for my Canon Discovery class. This week was my first class: The Basics. I’ll be going every Tuesday morning and the class is two hours long.

It was pretty much the basics. Most of the things I already knew except for a few small things in regard to how my camera works (and hey, what I was doing wrong in my panning attempt!). I took the Basics course because you never know what kind of things they are going to teach, so I didn’t want any surprises by starting with the second course.

He did say one thing-—and it was huge—-that made me think differently about taking photos. He said it’s really all about capturing the light in a particular circumstance, not about the subject. It’s all about the light. Here is a quote from our instruction booklet: “Photography is the art or science of recording light. Specifically, you are capturing the light’s direction, color and intensity. A camera is a light recorder. It doesn’t matter what’s in front of your lens because the subject is always in the light. The subject is the direction, color, and intensity of the light.” I have never thought about photography in that way.

Some people in my class I think had never had a camera in their hands before. One poor girl thought that the shutter speed was determined by how long you held your finger down on the shutter button. Bless her heart, but good grief! Maybe she should start with a point-and-shoot camera! But, that’s why she’s there—to learn. Still, she is taking up valuable time for people who at least know how to use a camera. After all, this is a Basic class for people who should know at least that much “basic” stuff.

The second course is all about exposure and metering, which I really need. The third is all about white balance and composition. The fourth and final class is called The Art of Seeing and is about seeing more creatively.

The instructor is great and he certainly has a lot of patience. I’m looking forward to it!

They are offering some great workshops too, such as The Bronx Zoo. Maybe I’ll sign up for a couple of them when my classes are finished.

Hand-held long exposure (f5 at 20 seconds) of the cabana patio lights, doing a figure-8.