I Learned - My Photography Journey So Far

Portrait mode June 2010

So last week Courtney from Click it up a Notch asked us to say how long we'd been shooting in manual and to show a 'before and after'. I've only been shooting in manual for two months and it's not really a reflection of my photography journey, so I decided to address this more fully today.
We bought my current D SLR a Canon Rebel 1000D for a trip to Sweden June last year. It arrived a week before we left. Before that we had a Canon Power-Shot that I never warmed to and a Pentax film SLR that I bought in my early 20's that I loved but it had become a real pain to develop.  By the way I always shot in auto (portrait or landscape mode) with my film SLR, but I loved the depth of field I could get.
So in Sweden I shot in Portrait or Landscape mode mostly and came home with over 700 images.

It wasn't untill later in the year after a holiday at Rainbow Beach that I decided I'd had enough with auto and wanted to really use my camera. So I studied up on aperture and shutter speeds. I found lots of great information on the internet at sites like Digital Photography School. I spent hours pouring over my camera manual and the internet. In October/November I started shooting in aperture priority or shutter priority, and purchased a tripod.

Sunrise November 2010 Shutter Priority ISO 100, SS 1.6secs, camera set f/22

Around the same time I started learning how to use Photoshop Elements that had been sitting unused for several months, as I didn't know where to start. I found The CoffeeShop Blog which was so valuable in learning how to use this editing program. It was a long road though and I spent many nights trying to figure it out. It took me over an hour one night just to work out how to use the brush. Seems laughable now! My first edits were terrible and over the top but I think I've learned to tone it down and use it to compliment my photo not over power it.
So towards the end of the year I was getting really frustrated that the widest my kit lens would go was f/5 so in December I got a 50mm 1.8 lens. I loved the narrow depth of field. The first time I saw a photo with bokeh I did a little happy dance.

December 2010 Aperture priority ISO 200, f/1.8, camera set SS 1/250

I'd always wanted to do macro, but we couldn't afford a real macro lens so in March my husband bought me an extension tube. See my post here for more info.

Aperture Priority ISO 200, f/1.8, camera set SS 1/400

  Around the same time I started doing more still life and nature photography and I wanted to share these with people interested in photography. I think my friends and family on Facebook were more interested in cute photos of our family.
I asked around and couldn't find a solution. It never occurred to do a blog, to this day when I tell people I have a blog they say "What does that mean, what's a blog?"
But I found Click it up a Notch around that same time. When the May contest was on I said to my husband that I needed a blog. One weekend later I had my blog all set up, and the next Thursday I took part in my first I Learned.









So with my new blog I did a Month in Macro as my first project. I bought Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson to learn about metering and I started practicing shooting in manual on flowers, which was good because they couldn't run away.

June 2011 Manual mode ISO 400, f/5.6, SS 1/50 taken with extension tube

The Lessons I've Learned:

• Obviously all the technical aspects that goes into shooting in manual, aperture, shutter speed and metering. Plus all the stuff to do with setting up a blog.
• How much I love photography! But what I found most surprising was how rewarding I find still life and nature photography. To me it's photography for the love and sake of photography. I love challenging myself to photograph simple everyday things in an interesting way. I think that's why I've really enjoyed Ashley Sisk's Scavenger Hunts.
•  Just because my lens can open to 1.8 doesn't mean I should shoot wide open. I still love using my lens at 1.8 for the circular bokeh, but I've learnt to stop it down to at least 2.8 for portraits.
• Even though in the end it took me a long time to shoot in manual I'm glad I spent time in aperture and shutter priority as it meant I got a really good understanding of what they can do individually.
• I've learnt to use my manual focus more. I use it for my macro work but I've actually started using it for other still life work too. It means I can really see and control where my focus is falling. Auto focus gets it wrong sometimes, such as focusing just on what's closer. 
• I love playing with actions and textures to change the colours, feel or tone of a photo. I've learnt though to adjust the opacity, to turn on/off layers and to use layer masks. Also to use editing less to fix a photo and more to enhance it.
• I've really learnt to look for and at the light available. I still have to work on this but I really see how it changes the look of a shot
• I've learned that I still have so much more to learn but I'm loving the experience of learning more.

July 2011 Manual Mode ISO 400, f/3.5, SS 1/500

EDIT: I forgot to include probably the most important thing I've learned and that's why manual is better than aperture priority. So aperture priority lets you set the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed. This works fine if you are shooting an evenly toned scene, with lots of mid tones, and it has even lighting, or front lighting. The camera will often choose the wrong shutter speed though if its very light (think snow), dark, or has back lighting or dramatic lighting.
Also aperture priority won't let you do creative exposures, such as purposely overexposing, or underexposing to bring out the colours such as with reflections, unless you use exposure compensation, but I think it's much more fun to have total control over it.

Linking up with Click it up a Notch

Constructive critiques Welcome
Sorry about the long post