Thursday, November 24, 2011

Big Sky Country...

I have always heard the term "Big Sky Country" and believed it was tied to specific state.    So I did a quick google search and sure enough our good friend Wikipedia tells us:  

"Montana has several nicknames, none official,[4] including: "Big Sky Country" and "The Treasure State", and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains" and more recently, "The Last Best Place"

I am not sure Mr. Wikipedia has ever been to Alaska, just saying.....

Homer Spit, Alaska
Seward, Alaska


Bear Lake, Alaska

Seward, Alaska

Monday, November 14, 2011

Like Trying to Hit A Moving Object, In This Case It Was...


Your sitting in the backyard taking photos of your children when all of sudden a magical moment appears, that cute little smile you love, you push the camera shutter button with great excitement, thinking: "yes I got it", until you see the camera's LCD, draaaats, out of focus..... again.  

A blurry picture can be caused by a variety of reasons such as shaky hands or a moving object,  One of the quick ways to combat this problem is to increase your shutter speed as this will help freeze the action.   Many cameras have an automatic high shutter speed mode, this is the one that has the symbol of the runner on the dial.  


Another trick is to ensure your camera has locked into a focus point at the same depth of field as your subject.  This works really well in extreme movement situations where you can anticipate where your subject will be.  


For example, earlier this spring at one of Noah's track meets I hung at the high jump and practiced this approach.  Basically I turned the lens autofocus off and then determined where the subject was going to be.  Using the lens manual focus ring I focused to where I expected my subject to be.  It takes a little bit of practice but is worth the effort as it can pay big dividends when shoot a moving object. 




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