Back to School - My Turn

This has nothing to do with the post, however I want to say how thankful I am that my family and friends seem to be safe from the horrible tornadoes that passed through Kentucky on Saturday.  The destruction that happened so close to where I lived is scary enough.  Although we are praising God for His protection of those close enough, we are also praying for peace and relief to the many that are hurting.

So, what to do with all this new found time on my hands?  Well, nothing too exciting - cleaning the house, having coffee with friends, helping with reading groups at school, helping with childcare for a parenting class at church... OK, things have been filling up quickly.  I'm not certain how that happens!

One of the fun things I'm doing is taking a photography course.  I've wanted to know how to "really" use my not-so-new DSLR since I bought it.  Unfortunately, classes have never worked out with my schedule and I've been using my automatic settings.  Boring, and not why I actually wanted the camera.  So when the local community college offered a course, I decided to take it.

I had my first class last Wednesday and took to the beach Sunday evening to practice the small amount of new knowledge I have.  I feel like I've taken good pictures previous to this, however these are much more intentional, in terms of composition and lighting.  I took a ton of pictures.  Many of them were the same, just with different shutter speeds and/or ISO settings.  It's incredible the difference just a few hundredths of a second can make! 

Here are a few of my favorites at the moment:

Stockton Dunes at Birubi Point

This one is a tad on the light side, but I love the dunes with the blue sky and the patches of green beneath it.

 This is the same general place.  The curves are what makes this picture for me.

Birubi Point

One Mile Beach

The sun was beginning to set at this point.  Unfortunately, the sunset was behind this beach.  However, we were getting nice muted shades over the beach.  This one I like because the foam really did appear to be a pale pink.

One Mile Beach had a beautiful curve to it.  I was up on several rocks trying to get the whole beach.

This is a little on the dark side,  but I think the colors are pretty.  Also, the moon!

Those were most of the landscapes.  The rest of these pictures have Wills in them.  I feel terrible that Nath isn't in any, but he hates the bigger waves and wouldn't come down to the water.

Birubi Point



This is a transition picture.  Will was interested in the man fishing out in the middle of the water.  I was very pleased with this picture.

This may be my very favorite picture.  I was pretty sure I was going to be happy when I took it.  I knew I had captured the dirty knees, reflection, and shadow.  What pushed it over the top for me was the little curled toes.  I'm not entirely certain why this picture is so appealing to me, I just know that it is.

I'm calling this my dumb luck photo.  I know it's a bit overexposed, but I actually like Wills and the dog being dark.  The dog just wandered up and they looked at each other for a split second - I saw it happening and was hoping I caught it decently.  The truly dumb luck part was the symmetry of the feet up.

So my plan is to try to several pictures a day and hopefully get some good shots to upload.  I would love feedback on the pictures - especially why you like or dislike a picture.  I'm curious about the gut reaction - what makes a picture appeal to people.  I know about the rule of thirds, golden mean, etc., but sometimes it seems like you can't label it.

Thanks for letting me know what you think!