Quiet Saturdays

Its been quite a while, possibly over 6 weeks since we last had a quiet Saturday at home, its great having such a busy social life visiting & spending time with family & friends but the only down side is that nothing else gets done......my coursework, my blog updates, my new found writing hobby, the hoovering, the dusting, world domination, the list goes on.  So it made a nice change to wake up this morning in our own home and have no plans for the daytime.

Its now nearly 2pm and to be honest most of the list above still remains undone........BUT........I did get my head down and update this blog twice this morning (Go me!) then got out my notebook, camera and pen out & got stuck in to Unit 3 of my diploma & I'm pleased to say 3 hours later, I've completed the coursework, completed the unit test and passed with 90% (You need 70% to move to next unit) and I now have my next assignment to do!

So what did I learn in Unit 3 - Controlling light with apertures

The most important thing I've learnt today is that the aperture is the size of the opening in the lens.  A smaller aperture lets in less light & a larger aperture lets in more light!  A large aperture gives you a background which is out of focus, a small aperture will create an image with everything in shot in focus.  I've also learnt that the depth of field is influenced by how far away your subject is from the camera, the aperture & the focal length.

Other subjects covered & mastered in this unit were as follows:

Aperture settings, Diaphragms, Focal lengths, Aperture priorities, Spot meters, the sunny f/16 rule, Bracketing, Exposure bracketing, Image sensors & lighting conditions.



Next step, Unit 3 assignment.......I'll be back soon with photos

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

My unit two assignment was to capture photos in the following modes on my camera

A portrait shot in portrait mode

A landscape shot in landscape mode

 

A macro shot in macro mode

An action shot in action mode

With a weekend break to Great Yarmouth approaching with our friends Nic & Andy & their little cutie Oliver, I saw a great opportunity to tick some of these off the list & so along came my camera too. 

Our weekend was lovely, we couldn't have asked for better weather, the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, our caravan was lovely & in a beautiful location perfect for our love of walking on the beach collecting memory pebbles.  Straight away I was able to tick 'Landscape Mode' from the list.

 

 

The next day we took a trip to the Sealife centre & afterwards Oliver had a play on the beach with his first bucket & spade which became the perfect opportunity for my 'Portrait Mode' photo.

 

 

Whilst Oliver was building sandcastles with his Mummy & Daddy, Steve & I took a walk along the beach together to the structure of an old pier I'd spotted on the horizon & knew would be the perfect prop for some photos.

 

 

 

 

Next up a little play with the self timer mode.....and a lot of running to get into position haha

 

 

We rounded off the day with some beautiful photos for the Barclay-Bloyce family album

 

Back to the caravan park for a little posey shot by the men.....

 

 

Rounded off with the cutest photo of Oliver & Daddy, all together now awwwwwwww

 

If at first you dont succeed......

......get frustrated, sulk and temporarily give up. Yes, I'm afraid to say that was my attitude back in February when i just could not get my head round the settings on my camera & with no manual or instructions to help me on my American bought camera to say it drove me potty would be an understatement & I temporarily gave up, something unfortunately I do all too easily in my life when I don't master something straight away.

With my birthday round the corner & family members asking me how my course was going & not having a justifiable answer I asked my parents for the camera manual for my birthday & they done just that! (Thanks Mum & Dad) So with my new manual in one hand and my camera in the other i was ready to learn all there was to know about my confusing Rebel XT.

Ok so not all there was to know.......But enough to complete Unit two of the diploma course & then complete the end of unit test! YAY 2 down......Only 13 to go!!

So here is what I learnt throughout unit 2 - Understanding the technology of digital photography

Mega pixels, Light sensors, Active Pixel Sensors, PPI's, resolutions, RAW files & TIFFS

Scene modes - Self Portrait, Action Mode, Manual Mode, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Point & Shoot, Freezing Motion, Panning Action & Action scene Mode.

I also learnt that JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group - who knew ha ha??!!

Next step
Unit two assignment....