Off on my holidays

What a jolly toadstool this is - I think it's a Fly Agaric. It reflects my mood with its happy colour because I'm off for two weeks' vacation. Staying in the UK so hoping the weather will be OK! But I don't know whether I'll have any internet so may not be able to post again for a couple of weeks. If I can I will though.

And I'm hoping for lots of photos!

Nothing

This post is in response to The Sunday Creative challenge. This week the prompt is 'Nothing', which caused me much thought and pondering with the help of a few glasses of my favourite red wine! Eventually I came up with this photograph which I'm going to call 'Nothing lasts forever'. The rather maudlin title probably comes from the red wine...

Decaying Rose and Exposure Experiment

I'm killing three birds with one stone today. I did say, when I posted the picture of my autumn rose a week ago that I'd record its decay.  I also said a couple of days ago that I'd posted my last pictures on my old camera and the next would be on my new 550D. And I'm currently reading Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure which I'm loving for its down-to-earth, non-technical speak.

This is my rose, looking rather brown around the edges and a little less than perky. It was taken at f/5, 1/400 sec., ISO 400. The exercise was to start at the widest aperture, adjust the shutter speed until a correct exposure was indicated and take the picture. Then reduce by one stop, adjust shutter speed and take another picture and so on through all the f stops available.

This is the final exposure at f/32, 1/13 sec., ISO400. Obviously the exercise is to show how to use the aperture setting creatively, either producing shallow or great depth of field. I didn't use a tripod which is why the position of the rose is slightly different.

The lens I'm using at the moment is the original 18-55 EF-S lens from my old EOS 300D which I sold years ago. I'm waiting for a 55-250 zoom to arrive and will then start saving my pennies for the 10-22 EF-S. Both of these are relatively cheap but have reasonably good reviews and will get me started. One day I may feel I've advanced enough to get a couple of really good lenses. May have a look at the 50mm prime lens recommended by Justine Gordon!