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Matt looks like you are having fun. Nothing like kids to inspire you to shoot and capture the moments of life 1/60th of a second at a time. They change so fast, I love to wonder back through the photos of the past 4 years and relive the moments. Ethan even asks to see pictures he remembers of thinks we have done. I hope more of you are ready to share your pictures. Matt and I have been having a great time but I need to know if the rest of you are getting left behind and need some hints or further explanation of thing we have covered so far. I know some of you must have some questions that have come up when you couldn’t get the results you were looking for. Let us see some pictures you have taken and tell us how they are not the results you were looking for maybe we can bounce some ideas around for you. Better yet lets see some of the shots you are really happy with. They don’t have to relate to an activity.

Then next activity I would like to talk a little about is exposure compensation. It is probably the first step in drifting away from full auto mode when the otherwise excellent metering of our cameras is getting confused or not giving the effect you want. It is my intention to slowly work into some real world examples you will come across while using full auto but not getting the results you want. Keep going back to the activity on composition because I think this is the best place to keep practicing to get away from the snapshot look. Explore angles other than the view form where you stand. We all know what the world looks like from this vantage point. Bring instant interest to you photos with some photos shot from down low or other creative angles.

Have a look at these links too

A Tedious Explanation of the f/stop - not really that tedious. If this is new, just take it slow.

Matt's Handy Photo Guide -- The Artistic Stuff - Related to Composition, a short quick read

A few pictures I have taken recently:
I keep practicing my panning, its just so much fun.

Looks like Emma's doing about 40MPH. Check out the little tuft of hair coming out of her hat.

Notice how the snow is a nice white in the first picture and little gray in the second. I need to adjust my Exposure Compensation (the box with the +/-)because all the white snow is messing with the auto exposure meter in the camera, it doesn't think there should be so much white in a picture. We need to tell it it is OK. Stay tuned...

Reese is one month old

I took this picture last night, and although in my opinion the light is too white and intense on Reese's left side, it still liked the contrast of the shadows it creates. Ted was telling me that he got some sort of a diffuser for his flash that softens the light of his flash. I think something like that would have helped this photo. I had the external flash pointing at a reflector back at Reese, while the standard flash was on him from the front. I did have some picture's that I like even more than this one, but this exercise was about using the flash, so I'll post others later.

Matt

Window Light

I took this picture with the same intent as the one of my Dad and the dog, but since the sun wasn't out, it wasn't as bright on my cousin's left side. I still appreciate the quality of the flash pointed at the ceiling and the window light.

Matt

Christmas photo

I took this shot, and by chance it came out with a lighting effect that I really like. I have the external flash pointed at the ceiling which gave enough light on the front of my Dad, but I also had natural light streaming in from a window on his left side. I have already tried to set up other shots like this since I have seen the results of this fluke shot.

Matt