12 Weeks to Better Photography: Week SEVEN

Ok, lets just pretend that I did Week 6 of the challenge... mmmkay? On to Week 7...

For this week's 12 Weeks to Better Photography lesson - made by Two Peas in a Bucket and hosted by Meredith - we were sent outdoors with a lesson on paying attention to the direction that your light is coming from (really only an issue on a sunny day) and also to play around with taking macro shots.  I take macro-type pictures all the time with my point and shoot but have always had a hard time using our SLR because nothing would focus properly.  It turns out that point and shoots are better for taking super close-up pictures - what didn't work so well for me is that my point and shoot is on strike lately (update: covered by warranty -YEAH!) and doesn't want to take any pictures - or show anything on the display for that matter :)

So, according to the instructions in this week's lesson, I pulled out our zoom lens, stood far enough away from the subject to be able to focus clearly (I found this to be the critical step), and then zoomed my way in to get a tighter picture.  Here's what I came up with...

Another tip in the lesson this week is that if you don't have an actual macro lens or even a decent zoom lens, you can fake a macro shot by using crop.  I tried this on the above picture and I think it looks great...

Finally, just to give some perspective, without doing a crop, I got this photo...

by zooming in on this scene...

I'm really happy I've learned a way of accomplishing with an SLR what I used to find so incredibly easy with my point and shoot...

PS... has anyone found themselves making some blunders along the way?  I feel like now that I know how to adjust white balance and aperture etc... I'm doing so, but forgetting to reset when I take the camera out the next time... Below is an example of such a blunder... I forgot to reset my white balance setting back to auto when I was taking my first batch of outside photos today... oops!

Bare with me...

I didn't get to the 12 Weeks to Better Photography challenge for the week yesterday.  I won't get to it today either.  I'm hoping to get to it later in the week though.  Until then, here's a little peak at what I've been up to for the past few days...  and there is about 50 times more where that came from :)

Yep, that's data analysis in progress!  I've been sort of re-do-ing a bunch of the data analyses for my thesis.  There is something about writing the stuff up that makes me watch to check and re-check to make sure that I've done everything correctly.  I'm about 2/3s of the way through and have about another solid day of this - but then, I'd hazard to guess that my data analysis for my dissertation is about 98% done!!!  Woot! Woot!  I'm getting there... just not much extra time for blogging this week :(

My April Wish List...

Ok, first off, I hate April Fool's Day (seriously, probably my least favorite day of the year)!  I'm too gullible to be able to get through the day without being thoroughly embarrassed.

Despite that, I have had a great time today compiling a list of things that I wouldn't mind making mine this month... Check it out...

These earrings from Stella & Dot are awesome don't you think?  At $30 they are sorta expensive for jewellry (I get most of my stuff from H&M) but I still love them!!  Do you think I can pull off the yellow gold?

I'm also in love with this camera strap - maybe it will wait until next month as a reward for completing the 12 Weeks to Better Photography challenge?

These chargers from Crate and Barrel are a steal - we'd use them as plates for outdoor BBQ-ing!

Finally, if you know me, you know my little black book that I always have attached to my hip at school - this notebook cover would look awesome right??  Its from Etsy seller DailyThreads....