Finding my style

Ha ha now don't laugh but I don't know much about all this technical stuff which, I guess is why I get frustrated and ticked off when things don't work out the way I want them too. I am a hands on learner not a manual reader so I need to be shown and then I pick it up. My camera of frequent use is a Pentax K100, given to me for Christmas a few years back by my husband. Neither of us know anything about brands etc and I have learnt this cameras workings fairly well. It does mostly what I want, if I change lenses occasionally. The lens I use the most is a 28-90mm with

a macro setting, they probably all have one hey!!? See I don't know much about this side of things. I also have a 70-300mm zoom lens which I also got for Christmas last year. It also has a macro setting. The lens the camera came with is a 18-50mm lens which I haven't used in eons.

I used the macro setting on the 28-80mm lens to take the above shot. I love this sort of photo, so a full on macro lens is my dream of addition to my kit. I'd take shots of all sorts of interesting things, bees loaded with pollen, stamens of flowers you know all that stuff.

Lighting for me is a pain. I really need to learn more about it, in my mind I see the way I want things to look, but I'm not sure how to get that result. I like the afternoon light and the early morning light most, no artificial light for me. Sometimes I use a lamp in my studio if it is a bit shadowy, not sure that it creates the effect I want though.

I like the light in this leaf shot the darkness of the background and the intensity of the leaf, I have edited this shot to get the depth that I wanted.

Location location, yes now that is the big question, I love water shots, like at the beach etc and I live on a mountain a long way from the water, so improvise is a big word for me. I take a lot of reflection shots, in lakes, bird baths, ponds etc, water water everywhere.

This photo taken in Darwin at Mingil Beach contains two of the aspects we are looking at, lighting and location. The water and shadows, I love this. My husband on the right and our good friend on the left. A couple of shady characters I reckon. I like to take a specific time to go take shots, though am not always able to do that, so mostly it's where and when I can.

I don't like to take portrait shots other than family and then I don't like to do too much ordering around. I like the more candid shots and all our family shots end up a riot, with all the kids playing up. Which by the way I love.

These shots would never make the cut as far as technical value but it is so much like all our group shots and to be honest I love it.

I guess to sum up, my shooting style is varied, I love candid shots, they capture the memories that I want to keep forever. I like to shoot alone, I can take my time and not feel a bother to others, I like macro shots and shots that capture a moment in time. I'd love a dedicated macro lens. I need to actually take the time to learn more about exposure. At the moment I just like to shoot. My style then is pretty much me, all over the place at any given time ha ha.

Familiar Objects

Familiar objects, hmm, well lately I have taken literally thousands of shots of my baby grand daughter who recently turned 1. These aren't the sort of picture I really love to shoot though. Don't get me wrong of course I love taking these pictures of her, she is so adorable, but I love taking shots of other things as well. so my inspiration file is not filled with photos of Elle. No it has doors, and window boxes another favourite thing for me to photograph and flowers and odds and ends.

Todays lesson on photographing the one subject was interesting. I began taking shots of my new hydrangea bush, with it's pretty pink flowers and realised I wanted to actually catch the water droplets on the flowers, as much as the flower itself. I love snapping water droplets, catching the light, clinging on as hard as they can before they splash to the ground. I think it's kind of magical, like a little world caught in those tiny droplets.

I get really excited when I find things like this to shoot, raindrops after a shower, dew on flowers, that sort of thing. I love coming into my computer at the end of a shoot and looking at what I have caught, editing a little or a lot. I get really frustrated when trying to catch something and I can't get my camera to focus on it, I am too close or too far away to get the effect I want. I have a zoom lens with a macro setting on it and my everyday lens also has a macro setting, but I don't have a whizz bang macro lens so I can't always get the really up close shots I want. I was interested to realise that though I started wanting to photograph the flowers that did change, like I said to catching the water droplets. I love the bokeh too, that beautiful blur of light in the background.