Photography Lesson 3: Landscape Photography

For Lizette’s third photography lesson I decided that a field trip will be the practical thing to do. I took her to Melkbos, Blaauwberg, Table View and on our way back we stopped on the Vissershok Road and at Clara Anna Fontein.

At Melkbos Lizette had to take some landscape photo’s using her tripod and  her 18-55mm lens.  She had to move around and capture the area from different spots.  She also had to play with her ISO and her Aperture Priority.  She had to make sure that the photo are in focus and also at the right exposure. To get this right she had to play with her ISO and F-Stop settings.

Here are some of my photo’s taken at Melkbos also using my Takara Tripod, My Canon EOS 7D and my Canon 18-200mm lens.

Melkbos_2048 Melkbos_2052 Melkbos_2059 Melkbos_2067Melkbos_2068 Melkbos_2074 Melkbos_2083 Melkbos_2090 Melkbos_2093Melkbos_2101 Melkbos_2111 Melkbos_2112 Melkbos_2134 Melkbos_2139 Melkbos_2145 Melkbos_2147It was freezing cold and we moved on to our next destination Blaauwberg. Here I borrowed Lizette my Sigma 70-300mm.  She was in love with the lens. The main reason I think is because she could zoom in. Again she had to use her tripod and also do some free hand shots of birds in flight.  We also had to test our patience to get some nice splashes against the rocks.

Here are a few of my photo’s taken at Blaauwberg.

Blaauwberg_2151 Blaauwberg_2156 Blaauwberg_2161 Blaauwberg_2169 Blaauwberg_2175 Blaauwberg_2183 Blaauwberg_2195 Blaauwberg_2206 Blaauwberg_2217 Blaauwberg_2231 Blaauwberg_2241 Blaauwberg_2253 Blaauwberg_2258 Blaauwberg_2265 Blaauwberg_2283 Blaauwberg_2289 Blaauwberg_2302 Blaauwberg_2316 Blaauwberg_2332 Blaauwberg_2336 Blaauwberg_2350 Blaauwberg_2360 Blaauwberg_2373 Blaauwberg_2377 Blaauwberg_2383 Blaauwberg_2385

 

After our shoot at Blaauwberg we went to Table View were we had a light lunch and the I went and took some photo’s of the ship wreck. I’ll post a series of the ship wreck over the years one of these days.

Table View_2396 Table View_2398 Table View_2402 Table View_2404We then went home via Vissershok Road.

Vissershok Road_2406 Vissershok Road_2407 Vissershok Road_2411 Vissershok Road_2412Our last stop before heading home was at the fence of Clara Anna Fontein a Private Game farm not far from us.

Lesson 3_2036Lesson 3_2040Lesson 3_2417 Lesson 3_2420 Lesson 3_2429 Lesson 3_2431

 

 

 

 

 

A Girl, A Dream and Me….

A while back my husband told about this girl/lady who really want’s to be a photographer and if I would be willing to help her make her dream come true. At first I thought how can I teach her anything then I remembered how difficult it was in the beginning. My friend gave me a quick crash course in Aperture and ISO and the rest I had to learn and master  by myself.  I do not have a degree in photography, but the knowledge and skills I do have and acquired over the past 4 years I am willing to share with her. Photography is my passion and for a long time a dream that I never thought would even come true.  Now I am living my dream and enjoying every second of it.

The first day that met Lizette was in early May I explained to her that you do not become a photographer over night. It is hard work and in the beginning the exercises seems silly and don’t really make sense but later when you are doing your first birthday party or even a wedding you will remember these silly shoots.  I told her that there are different types of photography and it takes time to master the different techniques. We had our first official lesson on 29 May 2013 since then we have a lesson every Wednesday scheduled from 9:00 till 12:30.

In our first two lessons I’ve covered the basics with her like ISO, Aperture, Depth of field, Shutter speed and exposure. What is very important to me and my goal is to help her to get to know her camera and to master ISO and Aperture combinations. For now we will only focus on AV mode. I don’t believe in just sitting and reading the information I believe in practice and practice so after we worked through the paperwork we went outside to practice…

Last week we went on a field trip and we focused on landscape photo’s and I wanted to see if she would be creative. I will post Lesson 3 in separate post. I took  allot of photo’s and will post it then.

Today’s lesson was all about editing… She took photo’s of her niece her little boy over the weekend and I showed her how to do the basic editing of these photo’s.  When she told me about the shoot over the weekend I gave her some guidelines and told her to use a tripod.  When I worked through the first lot of photo’s I must say I was a bit disappointed she did not apply what she learned in the first two lessons. If she had remembered to increase her ISO she would have gotten some stunning photo’s. I hope she learned from her mistake. Something that really took me by surprise was when she said all the photo’s blur when she uses a tripod.

The next few weeks we will be focusing on portrait photography, composition and how to use a tripod.

Here is two collages of photo’s I took with our first two lessons.  Love this getting back to basics. I can’t believe all the stuff I had forgotten good to refresh my brain again.

Lesson 1: Depth of field. Playing around with Aperture settings
Lesson 1: Depth of field. Playing around with Aperture settings
Lesson 2: Depth of field.  Experimenting with Aperture and ISO settings. Also some creativity.
Lesson 2: Depth of field. Experimenting with Aperture and ISO settings. Also some creativity.

 

 

Project 365 Photo a day: 365/54

Tonight I went with hubby to their League Badminton game against Edgemead. I tried out new settings but still need some practice. Taking action photo’s with an ISO of 2000 and 3200 is not easy. Next time I think I must take along my mono-pod for some support. Not only do one get allot of blur’s the photo’s are grainy and the lighting on the court is not very nice. But I will get there one way or the other. All I need to do is practice at some different setting.

Here are two shots I picked for tonight. As soon as I go through all 312 photo’s I believe I will get some photo’s that will have the seal of my approval but till then I am not going to beat myself up. I am still learning Action photography  at a high ISO and I know in due course I will master it…

The glare on the court drove me crazy… ISO 2000  F4 (Aperture Priority)
Badminton Action. Black & White. ISO 3200, F3 (Aperture Priority)
Badminton Action. ISO 3200 F3 (Aperture Priority)